A remake to remember

When Race to Witch Mountain director Andy Fickman wanted to track down Kim Richards, the former child star who appeared in the original 1975 version, Escape to Witch Mountain, he sought a seemingly unlikely ally: Paris Hilton.

As it turns out, Hilton is the niece of Richards, who had all but disappeared from the Hollywood scene 20 years earlier.

“My first crush was on Kim Richards. She had long blond hair,'' the director reminisced.

And as he geared up to make his own version of the mythology — which stars Dwayne Johnson and opened recently in the US — he also wanted to find Iake Eissinmann, who played Richards's character's brother, Tony, in the first film and in Return from Witch Mountain, the 1978 sequel.

“No one was cooler than Iake.''

So with Hilton's aid, Fickman called up Richards — now a single mum living in Malibu with a brood of four — and started babbling his adoration of her.

He tossed out ideas of how she and Eissinmann, whom he tracked down in Florida, could be wound into the new story line.

Richards and Eissinmann have small roles in the film — he as the sheriff of the sleepy town of Stony Creek and she as a waitress; both wittingly and unwittingly help the two alien children as they try to escape from the evil government operatives on their tail.

At 44, Richards, once a ubiquitous TV and film star, remains perky and high-energy. Eissinmann (who in his childhood spelled his name as Ike Eisenmann) is far more laconic.

The two said they first met when they screen-tested for the original Witch Mountain. Richards was already a screen veteran and Eissinmann said he was cynical, despite being 12.

He had been acting professionally since he was 9 and had failed repeatedly to land a Disney movie, one of his ambitions.

He didn't believe he was going to land the job.

Richards remembered fondly the experience of making the first movie, whether it was the hotel in Monterey where all the cast and crew stayed or the glorious kid-fantasy bedrooms in a mansion that served as home to the evil industrialist menacing the children.

She was told never to go downstairs at that set because there was a pet gorilla in the basement. “I don't really know if they were lying,'' Richards said.

“Of course, there was. It was a pet gorilla,'' insisted Eissinmann.

Richards said she loved their co-star Bruno, a brown bear that followed their characters through the woods. “I bathed him on weekends,'' she said.

“He was huge,'' Eissinmann said. “Very docile, very sweet, but he stunk horribly.''

Even back then, Richards and Eissinmann were as different as they appear today. She spent her time on set, hamming around, playing cards with the crew and tricks on the director.

“This one,'' she said, pointing to Eissinmann, “played Frisbee, alone. He did. I'd be like, ‘Ike, you want to play?' He'd be, ‘I'm OK.' Then he'd draw these animated troll characters for hours.''

“I was a little bit of a loner in those days,'' concurred Eissinmann, 46, although he said he liked learning about the special effects. In this pre-Star Wars sci-fi flick, the gimmicks were pretty basic.

The objects that were telekinetically transported on screen were actually simply hanging from a fishing line.

Occasionally, Eissinmann himself was the one suspended midair. He learnt to play the harmonica, as his character controlled his telekinetic powers via music.

“Little did I know they were going to put in their own harmonica sound.''

Richards remembered that the premiere of the old Witch Mountain was her first real encounter with crowd madness.

“People were pounding on the limousine door'' when she and her mother drove up to the theatre, Richards said.

“‘I think they want to get my coat,''' Richards recalled herself saying. “I didn't realise it was me.''

For the past two decades, Richards devoted herself to full-time mothering. She recently began acting again and had a small role in Craig Brewer's 2006 film Black Snake Moan.

Eissinmann went on to work as a painter, making large-scale photo-realistic drawings and also as a voiceover artiste.

Several years ago, he left Los Angeles for Orlando, Florida, where he opened a digital animation studio.

Richards said she was still recognised on an almost daily basis. She also occasionally catches herself on TV.

“I will be flipping through the dial, and then it's, `Oh my gosh, look how little I was. I was so cute. What happened?'''