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Getting Lost
March 8, 2007

A miniseries about a mysterious motel room that is actually some sort of gateway to a parallel dimension, Lionsgate’s The Lost Room (street: April 3, $19.95 srp) premiered on the Sci-Fi Channel in December. We recently spoke with the production’s co-writer and co-executive producer Christopher Leone, who actually got his start in the business in the effects and film recording post-production departments.

“It was really useful for me to start in post—I liked that world, a lot, actually,” said Leone, who worked on the post-production of such films as The Cable Guy, The Edge, Great Expectations and The Crow: Salvation. “It’s nice and helpful to understand how that world works.”

He and his writing partner Laura Harkcom (who also co-wrote and co-executive produced The Lost Room) had previously sold two original unproduced screenplays back prior to the Sci-Fi Channel showed interest in their Lost Room pilot script. As remembered by Leone, the script was sold to the Sci-Fi Channel in 2004, it was greenlit in January, 2006, production commenced in July and the finished product was broadcast in December of that same year. The miniseries received positive reviews, with many outlets proclaiming it was one of the better Sci-Fi Channels original presentations.

“I like weird ideas, which usually end up being sci-fi--the Sci-Fi Channel is perfect for them,” says Leone who names the original Star Wars films and, even more specifically, Raiders of the Lost Ark, as his prime influences.

“For me, Lost Room has that kind of Raiders excitement thing in it,” he said. “I always wanted it to be a weird kind of adventure where big things were at stake.”

Posted by Laurence Lerman on March 8, 2007 | Comments (0)