Zathura (2005 film)

Zathura: A Space Adventure (also known as Zathura) is a 2005 American science fiction adventure film directed by Jon Favreau and loosely based on the illustrated book Zathura by Chris Van Allsburg, author of Jumanji. The film stars Josh Hutcherson, Jonah Bobo, Dax Shepard, Kristen Stewart and Tim Robbins.

The story revolves around brothers Walter and Danny Browning (portrayed by Hutcherson and Bobo respectively), who play a mysterious board game they find in the basement of their house. The game teleports Walter, Danny, and their older sister Lisa (Stewart) into outer space where they encounter an astronaut (Shepard), who mentors the siblings on survival and finishing the game so they can return home. (In the book, the brothers' surname was Budwing.)

The film was shot in Los Angeles and Culver City, California, and was released on November 11, 2005, by Columbia Pictures.[3]  Unlike the book, the film contains no Jumanji material and mentions no Jumanji events. The film was marketed as a spiritual successor with variations of the tagline, "A new adventure from the world of Jumanji". Despite positive reviews from critics, the film was a box office flop.

Plot
Walter and his younger brother Danny do not get along with each other or their older sister, Lisa. While their divorced father is away at work and Lisa, whom he left in charge, is napping, Danny discovers an old space-themed board game called "Zathura" in the basement. He convinces Walter to play the game with him, the goal of which is to become the first player to reach the final space on the board. Each turn, a player turns a key and presses a button, causing the board to move the player's piece a random number of spaces and spit out an event card. When Danny's first turn causes a meteor shower inside the living room, Walter and Danny realize playing the game has altered reality.

The boys discover their father's house is floating in space. Lisa, unaware of the situation, wakes up and begins preparing for her date that evening, but is frozen stiff when another card turns the bathroom into a cryonic chamber. Walter concludes the only way to end the game and return everything to normal is to win the game. As they continue to play, Walter and Danny must overcome the dangers presented by the game cards, including the appearance of a defective robot and an attack on the house by a race of reptilian aliens called Zorgons. Another of Danny's turns produces an astronaut, who methodically eliminates the house's heat sources and lures the Zorgons' ship away by ejecting the boys' father's couch after setting it on fire.

Walter asks the astronaut to leave, but Danny chooses to let him stay. Growing increasingly agitated, Walter accuses Danny of cheating by moving his piece prematurely; when Walter tries to move the piece back and takes his next turn, the game accuses Walter of cheating and ejects him from the house into the vacuum of space, but the astronaut retrieves him. On Walter's next turn, he receives a card that allows him to make a wish. The astronaut warns Walter not to make a wish out of anger. Fearing the worst, he is relieved to discover that Walter wished merely for an autographed football. He explains that he and his brother had played the game fifteen years before, and he wished his brother away, causing him to be stuck in the game without a second player.

Lisa awakens from her stasis, and still oblivious to the situation, turns up the heat. This causes the Zorgons to return and anchor their ships to the house. Lisa finally discovers their predicament, and the four hide upstairs, but realize they left the game behind. The astronaut uses the house's dumbwaiter to lower Danny to retrieve the game. Danny finds the game aboard one of the Zorgon ships, but is seen by the Zorgons. Walter uses a "Reprogram" card he drew earlier to fix the malfunctioning robot, who attacks the Zorgons instead, and the aliens retreat.

Walter receives another wish card; he uses it to bring back the astronaut's brother, causing a doppelgänger of Danny to appear. The astronaut reveals he is actually Walter, and commends his younger self for making a better choice than he did 15 years ago of his timeline, and the astronaut and the alternate Danny disappear.

The Zorgons return to the house with a large fleet, intent on destroying it. Danny makes a final move, landing on Zathura, and wins, creating a black hole that sucks up the Zorgon fleet and the house. The siblings awaken in the house as it was before the brothers started the game, just as their father arrives home. Their bond renewed, and after they leave with their mother, Danny's bicycle, which had been orbiting their house, falls from the sky.

Cast

 * Josh Hutcherson as Walter Browning
 * Dax Shepard as Adult Walter / The Astronaut
 * Jonah Bobo as Danny Browning
 * Kristen Stewart as Lisa Browning
 * Tim Robbins as Mr. Browning
 * John Alexander as Rager the mouse
 * Frank Oz as the voice of Robot
 * Derek Mears as Lead Zorgon
 * Douglas Tait as Head Zorgon
 * Jeff Wolfe as Master Zorgon
 * Adam Wills as Captain Zorgon
 * Frank Welker as Zorgons

Production
Director Jon Favreau preferred to use practical effects instead of Computer generated imagery (CGI) in the film. He said, "it's so fun to actually shoot real spaceships or have a real robot running around on the set, or real Zorgons built by Stan Winston. It gives the actors, especially young actors, so much to work off of".[4]  Dax Shepard, who plays the astronaut, said he would not have been interested in doing the film if the effects had been CGI-based.[5]  Actor Kristen Stewart enjoyed the on-set effects, saying, "When we harpooned walls and ripped them out, we were really doing it. When there was a fire on set, there was really fire," and that "The only green screen I was ever involved with was for getting sucked out into the black hole."[6]

Miniature models were used to create the spaceships; Favreau enjoyed using techniques used in many earlier films, such as the original Star Wars trilogy.[7]  in some shots the Zorgon ships were computer-generated, and in many of the scenes digital effects were used to create, for example, meteors and planets, and limbs for the robot suit built by Stan Winston Studios. CGI was also used to augment the Zorgon suits (which were constructed so that the head came out of the front of the suit where the actor's chest was and the actor wore a blue screen hood over his own head), and to create an entirely computer-generated Zorgon for one scene.[8]  According to Pete Travers, Visual Effects Supervisor on the film for Sony Pictures Imageworks, retaining the stylized "1950s sci-fi look" from Van Allsburg's book "was a very important aspect of the effects".[9]

Favreau discouraged the notion that the film is a sequel to the earlier Jumanji, having not particularly liked that film. Both he and author Chris Van Allsburg—who also wrote the book of the same name upon which Jumanji is based—stated Zathura is very different from Jumanji.[10]

The soundtrack to the film is an original score by John Debney and is available on CD.[11]