Zathura: A Space Adventure

Walter and Danny Budwing are two brothers who do not get along with each other or with their cantankerous older sister, Lisa. While their divorced father is away at work and Lisa, whom he left in charge, is napping, Danny discovers an old science fiction-themed board game called Zathura in the basement. When he starts playing, the game produces a card that summons a meteor shower inside the living room. Walter and Danny realize playing the game affects reality.

The boys discover their father's house is now 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 return everything to normal is to win the game. As they continue to play, Walter and Danny overcome the dangers presented by the game cards, including the appearance of a defective robot, passing too close to a star, and an attack on the house by a race of reptilian aliens called Zorgons. One of Danny's turns produces an astronaut, who methodically eliminates the house's heat sources, as Zorgons are attracted to heat. He tells Walter to blow out the pilot light on the furnace, but Walter does not blow it out, out of fear of getting attacked by the robot. The astronaut lures the Zorgons' ship away by ejecting the boys' father's couch after setting it on fire.

Walter demands the astronaut to leave, but Danny chooses to let him stay. Growing increasingly agitated, Walter accuses Danny of cheating by supposedly moving his piece prematurely; when Walter tries to move the piece back and takes his next turn, the game reacts as if Walter was cheating and ejects him from the house, but the astronaut rescues him. On Walter's next turn, he receives a card that brings a shooting star that allows him to make a wish resulting in another falling out between the boys. Fearing the worst, the astronaut is relieved to discover that Walter wished merely for an autographed football. He explains his origins, saying that he and his brother had played the game fifteen years before, and after an escalating fight, he wished his brother was never born, resulting in him being unable to finish the game without the now nonexistent 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, but realize that they left the game behind. Danny finds the game aboard one of the Zorgon ships, but is spotted. Walter uses a "Reprogram" card he drew earlier to fix the robot, who attacks the Zorgons instead, causing them to retreat.

Walter receives another wish card; he uses it to bring back the astronaut's brother in gratitude of his help and support, causing a doppelgänger of Danny to appear. The astronaut reveals he is actually an older version of Walter from an alternate universe, and commends his younger self for making a better choice than he did in his timeline, and the astronaut and the alternate Danny merge with their counterparts as the future changes.

The Zorgons return to the house with a large fleet, intent on destroying it. When Danny makes the winning move, it is revealed that Zathura is a black hole, which proceeds to suck up the Zorgons' 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, they promise to each other and to Lisa to not tell anyone about the game and their adventure. After they leave with their mother, Danny's bicycle, which had been orbiting their house, falls from the sky.

• Josh Hutcherson as Walter
• Jonah Bobo as Danny
• Dax Shepard as Astronaut
• Kristen Stewart as Lisa
• Tim Robbins as Dad
• Frank Oz as the voice of Robot
• Derek Mears as Lead Zorgon
• An uncredited Bill Fagerbakke as the voice of Patrick Star (archive footage)

Additionally, John Alexander performed as the Robot, and Douglas Tait, Jeff Wolfe, Adam Wills portray individual Zorgons.

Director Jon Favreau acknowledged the influence of other films saying Zathura had some bits like Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Battle Beyond the Stars, and Superman.[3] Favreau was aware of Dax Shepard from the TV series Punk'd but was convinced to cast him because Mike Judge put him in Idiocracy and because of his background in improvisation with The Groundlings that Will Ferrell had also come out of.[3]

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][5] Dax Shepard, who plays the astronaut, said he would not have been interested in doing the film if the effects had been CGI-based.[6] 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 "[t]he only green screen I was ever involved with was for getting sucked out into the black hole."[7]

Miniature models were used to create the spaceships; Favreau enjoyed using techniques used in many earlier films, such as the original Star Wars trilogy.[8] 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.[9] CGI was 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.[10] A full life size frozen model of Kristen Stewart was also made by Stan Winston Studios, she described the process of modeling and being scanned to make it as arduous, it included details down to the freckles on her arm, and called the result an incredible experience, comparing it to having a twin.[8][11] According to visual effects supervisor Pete Travers, from Sony Pictures Imageworks, it "was a very important aspect of the effects" to retain the stylized "1950s sci-fi look" from Van Allsburg's book, and was inspired by the Pointillism style artwork.[9][12]

Favreau says the most complicated shot in the film was when the house was caught by the gravity of Tsouris 3. The stage was mounted on top of a gimbal 30 to 40 feet (9.1 to 12.2 m) off the ground, and the gimbal allowed the set to be tilted close to 40 degrees. All the cast and crew had to be safely secured with cables and harnesses. Favreau called it "an overwhelming experience".[13]

Favreau discouraged the notion that the film is a sequel to the 1995 film Jumanji, having not particularly liked the 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.[14] The film was marketed by the studio as taking place within the same fictional universe, and series actor Jack Black considers it the second installment of the Jumanji franchise.[15][16] Author Chris Van Allsburg attributed the lack of box office success to marketing and timing.[17]

The studio marketed the release of the film in an attempt to generate word of mouth with tie-ins, including an episode of The Apprentice. Favreau appeared as a guest judge, the show's two teams were assigned the task of designing and building a float to publicize the film.[18] Favreau attended Comic Con for the first time to promote the film.[19]

The film was released on VHS and DVD in 2006,[20] and a Bluray 10th Anniversary edition was released in 2015.[21]

The film is based on the illustrated children's book Zathura by Chris Van Allsburg and to tie-in with the film several other books were released including a novelization Zathura: The Movie – Junior Novel[42] as well as several other activity and play books.[43]

A board game that sought to mimic the film's eponymous game was released by Pressman Toy Corporation. Titled Zathura: Adventure is Waiting, the game incorporated a spring-driven, clockwork card delivery mechanism, an astronaut, the Zorgons, the haywire robot and the disintegrating house in various ways.[44]

A video-game tie-in was released on November 3, 2005, developed by High Voltage Software and published by 2K Games for PlayStation 2 and Xbox.[45] The games received "generally unfavorable reviews".[46][47]

• Zathura: A Space Adventure at IMDb
• Zathura: A Space Adventure at Box Office Mojo