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Well, I guess Spielburger has proved that some things shouldn't be messed with.

Pendragon Pictures (UK) have produced a version of WOTW which is *shock* *horror* based closely on the original book
http://www.pendragonpictures.com/WOTWKEY.html
It was released on film and DVD over a month ago and I've yet to hear of it showing :(

Cripes. Fantastic Four and Elektra coming out this year, probably another Batman and who knows what else.

Yet it seems the most successful super hero pic was the Incredibles, which wasn't preceded by a comic.

At least March 30th is coming along...

For anyone who suspects Spielberg's WotW will feature adorable kids as the main characters or that he'll defeat the aliens using the power of the love, it's not the only War of the Worlds movie coming soon...

Aside from the films others have mentioned, War of the Worlds (the period adaptation, not the Spielberg/Cruise version) is currently due to open on 30 March 2005. I hope it will be good enough to cause a ruckus!

• War of the Worlds, 1953.
• Independence Day, 1996.
• Mars Attacks!, 1996.
• War of the Worlds, 2003.
• Proposed Speilberg version.

Four versions in the last ten years is probably overexposure.

while you are at it check the other movies made by Timothy Hines.

They are almost all low-budget sci-fi movies, so don't get to mutch hopes about this film. Altougth a low budget/home made could turn out to be some great cult movies (Peter Jackson) this film doesn't give much hope on that happening.

So I think that Spielberg can handle the competition, and by he way his film was already rumored for a name change so it's probable that is version his very different from the book.

while you are at it check the other movies made by Timothy Hines.

They are almost all low-budget sci-fi movies, so don't get to mutch hopes about this film. Altougth a low budget/home made could turn out to be some great cult movies (Peter Jackson) this film doesn't give much hope on that happening.

So I think that Spielberg can handle the competition, and by he way his film was already rumored for a name change so it's probable that is version his very different from the book.

There are some stills. But only of the actors. Nothing on how the war machines look yet. Or the thunderchild.

Should check out the Chrome trailer, pretty interesting.

There are some stills. But only of the actors. Nothing on how the war machines look yet. Or the thunderchild.

Should check out the Chrome trailer, pretty interesting.

Pendragon Pictures is also planning a War Of the Worlds movie. Their concept art looks quite cool.

They claim that their originally planned "modernized" version had too many similarities to the World Trade Center attack so they pushed it back to rework the script, this time making it an accurate adaptation of the Wells classic story placed in its original 1898 setting.

I wonder if the 800 lb gorilla (Spielberg/Cruise) might cause them to change their plans again.

Hines is a Tacoma-based low-budget film director who has been talking this up for several years, but never had anything remotely resembling a real "deal" with either the Wells estate, Universal, Paramount, Dreamworks, or anyone else for that matter. At one point in time he was bragging that he was "negotiating" with Michael Caine, Charlize Theron & Mathew McConaughey to be in his version, but according to sources inside the industry, all he'd ever done was make some phone calls to their agents asking if they'd be interested in reading a script. I'd be surprised if they bothered to return his calls. One indication of the type of film this was going to be -- despite touting a purported "$42 mm budget", the only casting that was ever confirmed was a cameo appearance by Harry Knowles! In addition, he was sued a couple of years ago by Jon Sorensen, a UK-based miniature effects designer who did some pre-production work, but then was never paid. Never heard how that turned out, but you can see some of Mr. Hine's "work" here. Also, here's a copy of his self-promoting PR trying to ride the coattails of the initial Tom Cruise package announcement. Whatever else you say about him, you have to admit, the kid's got moxie!

This not to be confused with the other War of the Worlds remake for a 2006 release. That version was going to take place in modern times, but after September 2001 and seeing shots they wanted to make being acted out in reality, the project went into a rewrite to set it in 1898 and make it a much closer adaption of the original book. This caused them to miss their intended release date of Halloween 2003, 50 years after the last movie and the date of the radio broadcast. (I even suggested to them to pull the date back to October 30th, the actual date of the Orson Welles broadcast, or hold a special sneak premiere on that date.)

I've had my hopes on that production more than this Spielburg-Cruise production, both before and after their decision to change the setting. I have no idea when the setting is for this one.