In 1983, a young director stepped behind the camera for the first time and began to shoot a film which he thought might be both his first and his last. An ardent fan of “B” cinema, Jim Wynorski decided to cram this film with everything he loved. “I got my first break doing The Lost Empire for Plitt Theatres,” says Jim Wynorski. “The late owner, Henry Plitt (a decorated war hero), wanted to make a low budget sci-fi action picture as a tax loss. I never knew that when I made the show, so I put my heart and soul into the project. When it finally got completed, Plitt actually liked it enough to give it a wide theatrical release – where it actually made some money,” comments Wynorski.

The film had a limited theatrical release followed by an initial release on VHS. As a result of a series of corporate changes at Plitt, “The Lost Empire” was set aside and lost to generations of genre movie fans. Wynorski’s career took off and resulted in an immense body of work. “It was always a deep regret of mine that my first film was caught in this limbo,” says Wynorski “For years I did all kinds of detective work trying to get my film seen.”