The Lost World (2001 film)

Last updated

The Lost World
The Lost World (2001 film).jpg
Based on The Lost World
by Arthur Conan Doyle
Screenplay byTony Mulholland
Adrian Hodges
Directed byStuart Orme
Starring
ComposerRobert Lane
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
Production
Executive producers Kate Harwood, Jane Tranter
Producer Christopher Hall
CinematographyDavid Odd
EditorDavid Yardley
Running time75 minutes per episode
145 minutes total
Production companies BBC, A&E Network, RTL
Original release
Network BBC One
Release25 December (2001-12-25) 
26 December 2001 (2001-12-26)

The Lost World is a 2001 British made-for-television film adaptation of the 1912 novel of the same name by Arthur Conan Doyle, directed by Stuart Orme and adapted by Tony Mulholland and Adrian Hodges. It was filmed at various locations on the West Coast of New Zealand. The 145-minute film was divided into two 75-minute episodes when broadcast on BBC One on 25 and 26 December 2001, receiving 8.68 million and 6.98 million viewers respectively. [1] Bob Hoskins played Professor Challenger and was supported by James Fox, Peter Falk, Matthew Rhys, Tom Ward and Elaine Cassidy.

Contents

Plot

Part 1

While in the Amazon rainforest, Professor George Challenger shoots an animal he believes to be a pterosaur. Returning to England, Challenger crashes a lecture at the Natural History Museum held by his rival, Professor Leo Summerlee. Challenger proposes an expedition to discover the home of the pterosaur, but is dismissed by the science community. However, hunter Lord John Roxton, and Daily Gazette columnist Edward Malone both volunteer to join and finance the expedition. A skeptical Summerlee also joins.

On the voyage to South America, Challenger reveals a map created by a Portuguese man named Father Luis Mendoz leading to a remote Brazilian plateau where he encountered dinosaurs during a previous expedition. They travel to a Christian mission in the Amazon, meeting Agnes Clooney and her uncle Reverend Theo Kerr, who condemns Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. Roxton immediately takes a liking to Agnes' unladylike behaviour and flirts with her. Agnes volunteers to join the expedition as a translator. However, in the jungle, the expedition's porters flee out of superstition, but Kerr arrives, repeatedly trying to convince the bull-headed Challenger to turn back.

They reach the edge of the plateau and find a cave concealing a pathway to the plateau but discover a blockage. They later find a gorge leading straight to the plateau, using a tree as a substitute bridge. However, when all but Kerr make it across, he suddenly knocks the tree into the gorge and leaves Challenger and the others stranded. Venturing in the plateau's jungle, they find several species of dinosaur, a flock of pterosaurs, and a strange species of aggressive, carnivorous ape men. Malone finds a lake which he names after his fiancé Gladys. Malone and Agnes are chased by an Allosaurus, but evade it when it falls into a manmade trap.

Part 2

Escaping the trap, Edward and Agnes find Roxton at the lake, learning the apes kidnapped Challenger and Summerlee. Warriors from an indigenous tribe appear, aiding them in rescuing the professors, along with Achille, the son of their own chieftain. The ape-men are taken captive by the tribe.

Arriving at the village, the tribe are revealed to be surviving members of Mendoz's expedition and mistake Challenger for Mendoz, who taught them Christianity. The chief shows the other end of the cave and reveals it was blocked by a man who visited the tribe, trapping them within the plateau. Roxton falls in love with the chief's daughter Maree, a woman who is quite similar to him, and they eventually marry.

Later, after having buried one of their children, the ape-men howl and attract two Allosaurus who attack the village. In the chaos, the chief is killed, along with several other tribesmen before Roxton and Malone manage to kill the dinosaurs. At the same time, Summerlee reopens the cave using explosives, allowing the explorers to flee the village when Achille condemns them. Roxton is stabbed by one of the ape-men, but buys time for the others to leave. Roxton seemingly succumbs to his wounds and is mourned by the villagers.

Challenger, Summerlee, Malone, and Agnes return to the Amazon but encounter a crazed Kerr and realise he sealed the cave to prevent anyone from finding it, believing it to be forged by Satan because of the ape-men. When Kerr produces a revolver, Summerlee wrestles him for it, only for Kerr to be shot and killed by accident. The expedition porters later find the survivors. Returning to London, Malone discovers Gladys has become engaged to another man, however he is glad, as he realises that he has developed feelings for Agnes. At Challenger's press event, he unveils a juvenile Pteranodon he picked up as an egg. However, the excited crowd scare the Pteranodon out of a window. Malone and Summerlee convince Challenger to pretend the whole expedition was a lie to protect the plateau's inhabitants from destruction, sacrificing his reputation and success for the safety of the Dinosaurs and the villagers. Summerlee stays with his family, Challenger sets off to find Atlantis, while Malone and Agnes admit their love for each other, and Malone decides to pursue a career as a novelist. In a final scene, Roxton is revealed to be alive and living with Maree and the villagers in peace.

Cast

Animals

The prehistoric animals were realised using computer-generated imagery, a process the BBC had used in the Walking with... series. The Ape Men were performed by actors in costumes.

Prehistoric animals

Dinosaurs

  • Allosaurus − A well-known theropod from the late Jurassic Morrison Formation 150 million years ago. In the film, a different model is used from the Walking with Dinosaurs series but the same design eventually returned in Walking with Monsters . The CGI model used in The Ballad of Big Al can be seen briefly eating from a carcass, likely depicting another species of Allosaurus.
  • Brachiosaurus − A 30 to 43 foot tall sauropod from the late Jurassic Morrison Formation 150 million years ago. It uses the same CG model from the Walking with Dinosaurs series including the Big Al special.
  • Diplodocus − A huge 67 to 75 foot long sauropod from the late Jurassic Morrison Formation 150 million years ago. It uses the same CG Apatosaurus and Diplodocus models (adult and baby) from the Walking with Dinosaurs series including the Big Al special.
  • Hypsilophodon − A small herbivorous ornithopod from the early Cretaceous of Europe including the Isle of Wight 130 million years ago. This is the first prehistoric creature which is found by Challenger's team in the plateau.
  • Iguanodon − A giant herbivore from the Cretaceous of Europe including the Isle of Wight. Professor Summerlee thought these creatures were built as kangaroos on two legs and their tail kept on the ground, but this idea is debunked when he sees the quadrupedal animals. The film uses the same colour pattern as in Walking with Dinosaurs.

Reptiles

According to Christopher Hall and Stuart Orme on the DVD audio commentary, Tim Haines requested that there be a scene in the lake where prehistoric sea reptiles appeared, but this was ultimately cut due to difficulty of underwater filming and actress Elaine Cassidy not being a good swimmer.

Mammals

  • PithecanthropusPithecanthropus erectus is the outdated scientific name of the Java Man, an individual Homo erectus fossil in Indonesia. It was an early hominid from Asia during the early Pleistocene epoch 2 million years ago. This creature is described in the film as the missing link between primates and humans. In the film, an undiscovered species appears, and Challenger names it "Pithecanthropus challengeris". However, the design most likely represents Australopithecus with its ape-like build, and the name was used as it was in the novel (since Australopithecus wasn't described until 1925). Pithecanthropus literally means "ape-man". Note that the feet of the ape-man suits are very inaccurate, portraying ape-like feet with the thumb on the side. Instead, both Australopithecus and Homo erectus had human-like feet.
  • Entelodon − A strange, pig-like, rhino-sized, omnivorous cousin of hippos and whales from the Oligocene and Miocene of Asia. This is the only prehistoric mammal in the film besides Pithecanthropus. One was hunted by Roxton and the natives. It uses the same CG model from the Walking with Beasts series.

Modern day animals

Home media

The Lost World was released on home video as a single 145-minute instalment. [2] The series was released on VHS and DVD in the United Kingdom on 3 June 2002; [3] The DVD version contains a 5.1 soundtrack, audio commentary with Stuart Orme and Christopher Hall and the 29-minute documentary Inside The Lost World. [4] An American DVD release followed on 29 October 2002, presented in 4:3 pan and scan format with a stereo soundtrack. This release also contained the 90-minute History Channel documentary Dinosaur Secrets Revealed and a 21-minute documentary on the making of the series. [5]

Reception

John Leonard TV critic for New York magazine praised the special effects for the time, saying "New Zealand looks like Brazil, and the beasts are the best ever on a small screen." [6] Writing for DVD Talk, Holly E Ordway described the series as "a straightforward and entertaining adventure story", praising the modernised changes made to the book's storyline but calling the characters "caricatures". [5]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Professor Challenger</span> Fictional character by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

George Edward Challenger is a fictional character in a series of fantasy and science fiction stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Unlike Doyle's self-controlled, analytical character, Sherlock Holmes, Professor Challenger is an aggressive, hot-tempered, dominating figure.

<i>Meganthropus</i> Hominin fossil

Meganthropus is an extinct genus of non-hominin hominid ape, known from the Pleistocene of Indonesia. It is known from a series of large jaw and skull fragments found at the Sangiran site near Surakarta in Central Java, Indonesia, alongside several isolated teeth. The genus has a long and convoluted taxonomic history. The original fossils were ascribed to a new species, Meganthropus palaeojavanicus, and for a long time was considered invalid, with the genus name being used as an informal name for the fossils.

<i>Homo</i> Genus of hominins that includes humans and their closest extinct relatives

Homo is a genus of great ape that emerged from the genus Australopithecus and encompasses only a single extant species, Homo sapiens, along with a number of extinct species classified as either ancestral or closely related to modern humans; these include Homo erectus and Homo neanderthalensis. The oldest member of the genus is Homo habilis, with records of just over 2 million years ago. Homo, together with the genus Paranthropus, is probably most closely related to the species Australopithecus africanus within Australopithecus. The closest living relatives of Homo are of the genus Pan, with the ancestors of Pan and Homo estimated to have diverged around 5.7-11 million years ago during the Late Miocene.

<i>One Million Years B.C.</i> 1966 film by Don Chaffey, Ray Harryhausen

One Million Years B.C. is a 1966 British adventure fantasy film directed by Don Chaffey. The film was produced by Hammer Film Productions and Seven Arts, and is a remake of the 1940 American fantasy film One Million B.C.. The film stars Raquel Welch and John Richardson, set in a fictional age of cavemen and dinosaurs coexisting together. Location scenes were filmed on the Canary Islands in the middle of winter, in late 1965. The UK release prints of this film were printed in dye transfer Technicolor. The U.S. version released by 20th Century Fox was cut by nine minutes, printed in DeLuxe Color, and released in 1967.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Java Man</span> Subspecies of Homo erectus (fossil) discovered on the island of Java in 1891

Java Man is an early human fossil discovered in 1891 and 1892 on the island of Java (Indonesia). Estimated to be between 700,000 and 1,490,000 years old, it was, at the time of its discovery, the oldest hominid fossil ever found, and it remains the type specimen for Homo erectus.

<i>The Lost World</i> (Doyle novel) 1912 novel by Arthur Conan Doyle

The Lost World is a science fiction novel by British writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, published by Hodder & Stoughton in 1912, concerning an expedition to a plateau in the Amazon basin of South America where prehistoric animals still survive. It was originally published serially in the Strand Magazine and illustrated by New-Zealand-born artist Harry Rountree during the months of April–November 1912. The character of Professor Challenger was introduced in this book. The novel also describes a war between indigenous people and a vicious tribe of ape-like creatures.

<i>The Valley of Gwangi</i> 1969 American fantasy western film

The Valley of Gwangi is a 1969 American fantasy Western film produced by Charles H. Schneer and Ray Harryhausen, directed by Jim O'Connolly, written by William Bast, and starring James Franciscus, Richard Carlson, and Gila Golan.

<i>The Lost World</i> (1925 film) 1925 silent film by Harry O. Hoyt

The Lost World is a 1925 American silent fantasy giant monster adventure film, directed by Harry O. Hoyt and written by Marion Fairfax, adapted from Arthur Conan Doyle's 1912 novel of the same name.

<i>The Lost World</i> (TV series) American action/adventure television series

The Lost World is a syndicated television series loosely based on the 1912 novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World. The show premiered in the United States in the fall of 1999. It ran for three seasons, the final two of which aired in syndication in the United States, before it was cancelled in 2002 after funding for a fourth season fell through. The final episode ended with an unresolved cliffhanger. All three seasons were released in DVD box sets in 2004.

<i>The Land of Mist</i> 1926 novel by Arthur Conan Doyle

The Land of Mist is a novel by British writer Arthur Conan Doyle, published in 1926.

<i>The Lost World</i> (1960 film) American film directed by Irwin Allen

The Lost World is a 1960 American fantasy adventure film directed by Irwin Allen, loosely based on the 1912 novel of the same name by Arthur Conan Doyle. Shot in De Luxe Color and CinemaScope, the film's plot revolves around the exploration of a plateau in Venezuela inhabited by cannibals, dinosaurs, carnivorous plants, and giant spiders. The cast includes Claude Rains, David Hedison, Fernando Lamas, Jill St. John, and Michael Rennie.

Lord John Roxton is a supporting character in the Professor Challenger series of stories by Arthur Conan Doyle. He makes his initial appearance in the first entry of this series, The Lost World (1912), wherein he is a member of the expedition to the titular land, and is a prominent character in some of the subsequent stories as well, specifically The Poison Belt and The Land of Mist.

<i>T-Rex: Back to the Cretaceous</i> 1998 film by Brett Leonard

T-Rex: Back to the Cretaceous is a 1998 American educational adventure film shot for the IMAX 3D format. The film is directed by Brett Leonard. Executive producer/co-writer Andrew Gellis and producers Antoine Compin and Charis Horton also make up the production team. Liz Stauber and Peter Horton star, alongside Kari Coleman, Tuck Milligan, and Laurie Murdoch. When a museum accident transports teenager Ally Hayden on an adventure back in time, she explores the terrain and territory of life-sized dinosaurs, even during a nose-to-nose encounter with a female Tyrannosaurus. The film is among the few IMAX films that are considered "pure entertainment", though it still is considered rather educational by the mainstream audience.

<i>Lost Continent</i> (1951 film) 1951 film by Sam Newfield

Lost Continent is a 1951 American black-and-white science fiction film drama from Lippert Pictures, produced by Jack Leewood, Robert L. Lippert, and Sigmund Neufeld, directed by Sam Newfield, that stars Cesar Romero, Hillary Brooke, Whit Bissell, Sid Melton, Hugh Beaumont and John Hoyt.

<i>The Lost World</i> (1992 film) 1992 Canadian film

The Lost World is a 1992 film, based on the 1912 novel The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The movie is set in Africa rather than the book's setting of South America, and the character of Lord John Roxton has been replaced with a female character played by Tamara Gorski. It was followed by a sequel the same year, Return to the Lost World, with the same director and main cast.

<i>The Lost World</i> (1998 film) 1998 film by Bob Keen

The Lost World is a 1998 adventure film, loosely based on the 1912 novel of the same name by Arthur Conan Doyle. The film includes the characters, Professor George Challenger and Lord John Roxton, who also feature in Conan Doyle's other Doctor Challenger novels. It is a mockbuster of the 1997 film The Lost World: Jurassic Park.

<i>Return to the Lost World</i> 1992 Canadian film

Return to the Lost World is a 1992 film directed by Timothy Bond and starring John Rhys-Davies, Eric McCormack, David Warner, Nathania Stanford, Darren Peter Mercer, and Tamara Gorski. It is a sequel to the film The Lost World, which was released the same year.

<i>King of the Lost World</i> 2005 American film

King of the Lost World is a 2005 American fantasy monster adventure film produced by The Asylum. The film is adapted loosely from the 1912 novel The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, but the film bears a closer resemblance to the remake of King Kong released in the same year, particularly as both stories center on a giant ape. Hence, King of the Lost World is a mockbuster of said film, a tradition that The Asylum usually undergoes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pteranodontoidea</span> Clade of ornithocheiroid pterosaurs from the Cretaceous period

Pteranodontoidea is an extinct clade of ornithocheiroid pterosaurs from the Early to Late Cretaceous of Asia, Africa, Europe, North America and South America. It was named by Alexander Wilhelm Armin Kellner in 1996. In 2003, Kellner defined the clade as a node-based taxon consisting of the last common ancestor of Anhanguera, Pteranodon and all its descendants. The clade Ornithocheiroidea is sometimes considered to be the senior synonym of Pteranodontoidea, however it depends on its definition. Brian Andres in his analyses, converts Ornithocheiroidea using the definition of Kellner (2003) to avoid this synonymy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Missing link (human evolution)</span> Non-scientific term for a transitional fossil

"Missing link" is a recently-discovered transitional fossil. It is often used in popular science and in the media for any new transitional form. The term originated to describe the intermediate form in the evolutionary series of anthropoid ancestors to anatomically modern humans (hominization). The term was influenced by the pre-Darwinian evolutionary theory of the Great Chain of Being and the now-outdated notion (orthogenesis) that simple organisms are more primitive than complex organisms.

References

  1. "Weekly top 30 programmes". Broadcasters' Audience Research Board. Retrieved 25 November 2018.
  2. Orme, Stuart; Hall, Christopher (2002). The Lost World (Audio commentary). BBC Studios. Event occurs at 1:12:15.
  3. "The Lost World [DVD][2001]". Amazon UK. Retrieved 25 November 2018.
  4. Khedun, Anil. "Review of Lost World, The (BBC series)". MyReviewer.com. Retrieved 25 November 2018.
  5. 1 2 Ordway, Holly. "The Lost World (2001)". DVD Talk. Internet Brands. Retrieved 25 November 2018.
  6. John Leonard (7 October 2002). "In Brief: Making The Misfits, and more". New York magazine.