There are supposedly two versions of this movie available on digital retailers: one is the original version, and one is a supposedly "unrated and uncensored" version. But the truth is both versions are the same movie. There is nothing different in either version of the digital movie.
Christopher Atkins, who plays Mr. Christiansen, played Richard Lestrange in the 1980 version alongside Brooke Shields.
Production began in California with Eric Bross as director and Denis Lenoir as director of photography. When filming moved to the island of Maui in Hawaii, they were replaced by director Mikael Salomon and director of photography Roy H. Wagner.
During filming of the scenes in the lagoon, Brenton Thwaites and Indiana Evans were so cold that they could not talk properly, necessitating that automated dialogue replacement be applied to these scenes.
This television movie completely ignores the book which was published in 1908.