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War of the Worlds Remake
subtropolis writes "The Guardian has an article about a remake of the classic. Spielberg directing, T. Cruise acting. The guy who did Jurassic Park I & II did the screenplay. Anyone else think Bruce Sterling would've been a good choice for that? Quoth the article: 'While HG Wells was an enthusiastic supporter of many of the film adaptations of his work, the likely attitude that Orson Welles might have had to another director taking one of the works with which he became most closely associated, can only be a matter of conjecture.'"
In 2002, radio host Glenn Beck did a War of the Worlds radio broadcast on Halloween. I only heard exerpts, but it was pretty cool. At one time, you could listen to the two hour show online from the web site.
Computational Chemistry products and services.
Welles never directed a film of War of the Worlds.
Welles directed and starred in the War of the Worlds radio adaption for CBS in October of 1938.
He didn't make his first film, Citizen Kane for RKO, until 1941.
The old War of the Worlds film was produced by George Pal and directed by Byron Haskin.
Welles never did a 'War of the Worlds' movie.. he did the fun radio address that scared people. Here is the first movie done after the radio address.
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I have to agree with you on Spielberg. He seems to be hit and miss. On the one hand, I think of all the groundbreaking films he has produced (Jurassic Park, Saving Private Ryan, E. T., etc.). However, I also cringe when I remember the hours wasted watching A.I. and the not-as-terrible-at-least-until-they-got-to-the-mai nland sequel to Jurassic Park.
As far as Tom Cruise goes, though, I have to disagree. I think Cruise has a good chance at doing justice to this movie. Look at his excellent performance in The Last Samuri. If he can pull that off again, we may be in for a treat.
I think we will just have to wait and see on this one.
I'm afraid the same with happen to Enders Game once it reaches the screen. But like you said, hopefully some will go read the excellent book.
:)
I don't know how many know this, but Ender's Game is on the Marine Commandant's List of Recommended Reading. After reading it, I see why.
Josh
IIRC, the premise of the series was there was an actual invation from Mars, but the HG Wells story that it was a radio broadcast, not a news broadcast, was the cover up for the actual invasion. The news broadcast was real. Like the 'weather balloon' cover story for Roswell.
"History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme." Mark Twain
You might want to check your geography. Surrey is actually south of London.
Anyway, have you ever read a Michael Creighton book? Now you know where he got all of his endings.
The premise of the TV series was that the 1953 invasion occurred, as did a 1938 invasion and the corresponding radio broadcast.
The first season suggested that the reason why most people didn't remember the 1953 invasion was a combination of traumatic memory suppression and that the aliens had their own way to make humans forget, coupled with the governments of the world collecting all evidence of the invasion and suppressing the knowledge themselves. Which seems rather fantastic unless you also accept that the scope of the invasion wasn't as widespread as depicted in the movie (i.e. perhaps it was only Los Angeles County that suffered greatly in the US).
The second season though revisualized the series as Earth society being in a bad way, perhaps when the invasion was not forgotten and society being more broken. Where drugs were legal and taxed, supplies were harder to come by, pollution was a serious problem, and the government was corrupt and senators were on trial. And the aliens were replaced with ones that didn't eat roses and actually liked that humanity was polluting the Earth into an environment more suited to them.
And they weren't from Mars in the series. The movie laid down a premise that they were, but there was no hard evidence. The series first said they were from Mor-tax, then second series changed it to Morthrai.
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
You may be ashamed, but I put up a web site for it and every other version of the story I could find.
Which reminds me, I really need to take some time to make some updates.
I had that on LP when I was a kid, then had it on tape during my college years, and now I've got it on CD. It is a really neat way of enjoying the story. Because there isn't any exciting visuals (obviously) you have to focus on what the music is telling you. The music shifts back and forth with the mood of the people and the narrator. From the confident assertion of Ogilve the astronomer ("The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one!"), to the inspirationaly yet ultimately depressing horror of watching the fighting machines effortlessly destroy the battleship ThunderChild, to the desperation of people as they watch the Red Weed take root and a parson loose his mind and blame the attacks on Satan, to the excitement as the narrator attempts to commit suicide in front of the martians only to realize that the martians are no longer a threat. The music compliments the changing emotions of the story beautifully and it is indeed a great story (except for the stupid "epilogue" which attempts to fast-forward the story to the modern day). I've actually heard a radio station play the entire album from start to finish, commercial free.
I would definitely recommend it. The music is unconventional and the album has won several awards for its novel take on a tired old story.
GMD
watch this
You mean the Orson Welles radio play. In the episode that dealt with that, an actual invasion of Grover's Mill, NJ took place (lead scouting mission before the main invasion 15 years later), but the radio play was commissioned by the government to cover up the incident after the fact. That the panic occurred reflected that the play was too real.
Though they did make mistakes in the timeline. The witnesses say it occurred on Halloween, but the radio play actually aired the night before, October 30th. (Like television now, weekly radio shows would have holiday-related programming that didn't necessarily fall on the holiday itself but rather on the week before and after.) Though some of that could be explained by witness confusion.
Those witnesses that had firm memories claimed the radio play was nothing like what actually happened.
And this was how the series tied in the 1938 broadcast in the 1988 show in their late-October episode.
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
I'm sure somebody else already pointed this out, but be nice to me. I'm "tired." Orson Welles directed the "Mercury Theatre" radio adaptation of War of the Worlds but he had nothing to do with the 1953 film version. Byron Haskin was the director of that.
Born on the Fourth of July - Tom is the bestest... ???
I think that movie, and to a lesser extent, Rain Man, show that the guy can act. But I won't be seeing this movie, as I refuse to support someone who is descended from aliens.
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
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!
"Courage is the price that life exact for granting peace. The soul that knows it not knows no escape from little thin
This discussion brings to mind this really good docudrama about the making of the radio play and the way people responded to it. There are thoughts on the way mass media was emerging as an influence on what people believed, with appropriate references to emerging political media stars like Hitler and Roosevelt. And some amusing scenes, as the sound effects folks try to get just the right kind of sound, utilizing a microphone, a mason jar, and a toilet bowel!
While much attention has been drawn to David Koepp's work on the first two Jurassic Park films, not much has been mentioned of his other work. Among his other credits are the likes of Carlito's Way and Panic Room, which demonstrate he can take things a bit darker when required and Spider-Man shows he can tell a story true to the spirit of it's source material.
One other observation I would make is that Paramount has a history (and indeed, policy) of making films with comparatively low budgets that go on to do reasonable, if not spectacular, box office.
Last week, Sumner Redstone announced that he thought Paramount would have to start taking bigger risks by producing more big budget fare. It would be interesting to see what side of that statement this film falls on...