Christopher Leone and Laura Harkcom on The Lost Room

Even though The Lost Room only took three days to air the entire run, writers Laura Harkcom and Chris Leone kicked around the original idea for years. Also serving as executive producers on the show, Laura and Chris tied items, powers, and a quaint hotel room into one concept to make one of the best SCI FI productions of 2006. With the mini-series in limbo and so many questions left unanswered, Laura and Chris talked to UGO about the origins of The Lost Room, the future of the production and their own careers after the success of the three-part mini-series.

UGO: Laura, where did the idea of The Lost Room originate for you?

LAURA HARKCOM: It was a combination of two separate ideas. One was an idea from our collaborator, Paul Workman, who we went to college with. Chris and Paul worked in the library together.

CHRIS LEONE: Paul and I used to work at the library together, and he used to come into work with these weird ideas, and one of these ideas or mental experiments was, "What would be the best superpower that you could have, that would be the smallest power with the most effect?" His idea was, "What if you were teleported to this hotel room where I would have to pay rent and I'd get room service." He could not have a job, and that would be a life-changer. I think that was the funny idea, and he also had this idea of a power where "you could have a bus ticket to Fort Wayne, Indiana, and you'd have a bus ticket back to wherever you came from." It would be annoying, but it wouldn't be devastating. They could always come home.

That was one half of the idea. Years later, Laura and I had been working as writing partners for a while and we had sold some features, and we had a feature idea about this kid who had this glass eye. There was this whole underground war happening in diners and bowling alleys and such, but it didn't really connect to anything. We were kind of stuck on that.

LAURA: We didn't know what to do with it and then, one Thanksgiving, Paul, who works in San Francisco but comes down to have Thanksgiving with Chris and his family, was sitting around with us just talking. We decided, "What if we combined Paul's ideas with our ideas for the movie?" It just kind of exploded into this thing. We had to ask Paul to stay for a few more days because we were writing furiously out ideas for five days. When we had everything assembled, we realized it was way too big to be a movie, which is what we were used to writing. So, we decided to try it out as a TV show.

UGO: As you were assigning the powers to the ideas, what item was the most fun for you to create?

CHRIS: They're all fun in different ways. I think Paul came up with the idea of the pencil that makes pennies. You know, tap it on the table and a penny falls out, which I find hilarious and so weird and so arbitrary. The comb, too, I always really liked. The funniest things are the limitations of the items, actually. One of the weird ideas, some of which are more straightforward and some of which are more surreal, but for instance, the comb; Yes, it stops time, but only for maybe ten seconds, and most people wouldn't notice because you'd be in the bathroom combing your hair anyway. Then, the world just kind of freezes, so you can't just do everything you want. Then, you're nauseous afterwards. Everything has its limitation.

LAURA: I would also add that we tried to make the powers arbitrary to the object, so there's not a pillow that makes you fall asleep. The powers are so strange and not relatable to the objects themselves... that was a lot of fun for us. Personally, my favorite was the wristwatch that hard boils eggs, just because its so crazy.

UGO: Looking back on the production, what items took on a unique life of their own separate from what you intended in the script?

CHRIS: I really liked the bus ticket. It wasn't like it was a shock, but I really liked that whole sequence. I love Peter Jacobs, and I love Wally, and as a guy who kind of wants to keep the world away, and has this bus ticket that sends people away from him, I really loved that whole story and the whole effect. Also, how when Joe comes along with the key, the key is almost like the counter-act of the bus ticket. You know, here's the one guy in the world who keeps coming back.

LAURA: I think the scissors turned out really well, just because our director was a former stuntman and he and his son, who was our stunt coordinator, choreographed some really amazing stunts for what happens when the scissors actually rotate people. That turned out really well.

UGO: SCI FI put together a really strong marketing campaign for The Lost Room. What were some of your reactions to all of the publicity?

LAURA: I loved it [laughs]. I thought it was great that they really got behind the show, because it is a departure from a lot of the other shows they are doing.

CHRIS: For me, it was just more surreal. It was just like, "Holy sh*t, that's my show!"

UGO: Since The Lost Room did so well during its run, is there enough life to turn it into a TV series?

CHRIS: There is definitely some interest to make it a regular series, and I'm sure DVD sales wouldn't hurt that. We're actually talking now with Lions Gate about seeing if we can make the series.

LAURA: There's interest from the studio and the network, which is great.

UGO: Is there an appeal to create a series as compared to writing features, as you normally do?

CHRIS: Yeah, for this show, yes. I think this is very unique, and we're never going to have an idea quite like this or anything like this, really. As well, there are more places with the mythology and more places to kind of go with it. Not that we don't have an intense interest in doing features as well.

LAURA: There are plenty of ideas that we didn't get to use in the mini-series that we would both like to keep exploring. We also really came to television, we were both avid television watchers before this, but we really came to love the process as we went through this experience.

UGO: Did you have control over what made it on to the DVD, being not only the writers but also the co-producers?

LAURA: Yes, we did. We worked with some wonderful people at Lions Gate in their DVD production department.

UGO: If you were ever to do a writers' commentary, what would you would want to share with the audience?

CHRIS: I think a part of it would be the genesis of where our ideas came from. We'd talk about what changed during production and such.

LAURA: There are great things in the show that were enhanced by the actor's performances, or the direction, or the costume designer. The production designer was amazing, Keith Neely. He envisioned... he brought the show to life in a way that's probably not appreciated by people who haven't also read the script.

CHRIS: We loved our cast, too, so we'd probably spend a bunch of time gushing about the cast.

UGO: While you wait to hear if The Lost Room will become a full TV series, what else do you have on the go?

CHRIS: A couple things. We have a movie coming up that I'm going to direct, that's called Jack Vs. Future Jack. We also have another movie that we are writing that we really can't announce yet.

LAURA: It will be announced this week. It's an adaptation of the Japanese novel that we're writing for a Japanese director.

UGO: As the items were being revealed, there was an indication that there are a phenomenal number of items that we didn't get to see. What's the most unique item you thought up that didn't make it into the mini-series?

CHRIS: Well, I know the answer to that, but I don't think I should say it.

LAURA: I think you might have to wait to watch the TV series [laughs].

CHRIS: Yeah, there's one that is really good, but I can't give everything away. I'm trying to think of one that we could say. One of Paul Workman's ideas was an object that actually disassembled things down to their component parts. We had some really good ideas for how to use that.

LAURA: We thought it might be the left shoe. If you saw the series, the right shoe was already in the collector's vault, but the left shoe is still out there.