Maggie Grace sees a pattern emerging in her young career.

For most of the year, her home base is Honolulu, the location for ABC's hit series "Lost," in which she plays rich, snobby plane-crash survivor Shannon. But even before Grace completed the series' first season, she was commuting to yet another island — this one off the coast of Vancouver, Canada — for a role in the remake of the 1980 John Carpenter horror classic "The Fog."

"Originally, when I signed on to the movie, 'Lost' was supposed to wrap way before it ever started," says Grace, 21, on a rare morning off from the series. "Then ABC decided on the big, huge finale, so we went over (schedule) and I ended up doing both at the same time. I was flying from one island to the other!"

The remake, which opened Oct. 14, was a box-office winner last weekend. It shares the same basic premise as the original: A small island community is engulfed in fog 100 years after a boat sank under mysterious circumstances. "We don't fix what isn't broke," Grace says, "but I think the original leaves a lot of questions, which I think they do try to address in the new script."

Grace plays Elizabeth, the role Jamie Lee Curtis essayed in the 1980 version. But instead of being a hitchhiker who arrives in town on that fateful night, Grace's Elizabeth is an island native who has had a long relationship with the hero (Tom Welling). "There's a very nice strength with her," Grace says.

Grace has come a long way since leaving her home in Columbus, Ohio, five years ago. "I kind of had an idyllic Ohio childhood, and I was ready to move (to Hollywood)," says Grace, who began acting in school plays and community theater as a child. "I started studying acting and was lucky enough to support myself," she says. "I was certainly broke a lot, but I have had some extremely lucky breaks."

As USA Today pointed out this week, Grace is in the unique position of starring in both the hit movie and TV series of the moment.