USA Today reports that a comic big screen adaptation of the 1970’s TV show Land of the Lost starring Will Ferrell is being filmed by Universal Studios.

Land of the Lost is “going to be kind of hopefully Jurassic Park in terms of the quality,” Will Ferrell told ComingSoon.net "It's not going to be so much a spoof. It's going to be as real as possible and hopefully funny.”

He also joked that it's going to be like "The English Patient, but with horribly frightening realistic dinosaurs. In fact, we only survive for 12 minutes of the film. It's going to be more like a nature documentary."

Will Ferrell’s friend, Adam McKay, who directed two of Ferrell's biggest hits, Anchorman and Talladega Nights, won’t be directing this time round, unfortunately having to choose between Land of the Lost and the upcoming comedy Step Brothers in which Ferrell also stars. 

In the original Land of the Lost TV show, while on a rafting trip, an earthquake sends Rick Marshall, his son Will and daughter Holly, plummeting down a huge waterfall into the Land of the Lost. It’s a land of dinosaurs, ape-men, and best of all, the evil Sleestak, insect/lizard like humanoids.

Ferrell plays a disgraced palaeontologist in the remake, with an assistant (Anna Friel) and a macho tour guide (comedian Danny McBride).

Apart from the Tyrannosaurus Rex that kept chasing them, the Sleestaks were the show’s stars, their big shiny black eyes and constant hissing freaked me out as a kid, but left an indelible imprint. Not a safe place to get lost in, but a great place for lots of crazy and sometimes-psychedelic adventures.

Watch these Land of the Lost clips on YouTube to get a glimpse of the Sleestaks, the wonderful dinosaurs, and other colourful characters that made the show so unforgettable – for the right and wrong reasons.

Brad Siberling fought to keep the Sleestak’s original humanoid shape and to keep them in suits.

"There is a sense of humor that I loved from the original show,” Siberling told USA Today, “that can only come from an actor trying to negotiate the suit. If it became CG, they'd be too perfect. For the Sleestak to remain in people's memories, it tells you that it was about who was in the suit."

Land of the Lost is an “event comedy”, according to Variety, with a budget that was trimmed from US$125 million to $US100 to help convince the studio to back it. Apparently Ferrell and the two brothers who created the original series, Sid and Marty Krofft, have been trying to get the movie made for years.

This is not the first time the show has been revived though, the brothers resurrected it as a half-hour Saturday-morning children's series that aired on the ABC in the 90s.

"I think they'll cheer when they see the Sleestaks,” said Marty Krofft.

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