War of the Worlds Remake Already Shot Overseas

AlphaJoe writes "In regards to remaking War of the Worlds, Steven Spielberg has apparently been beaten to the punch by an English rival, director Timothy Hines, as being reported by SF Crowsnest. Principal photography has already been completed, and a Spring 2005 release date is anticipated. The English version is staying true to the original story, which was set in the late 1800's, where as Spielburg's version will be drastically modified to a more modern version. Hines feels there will be room for both films to exist, as they will be drastically different in story and scope."

Comments

Hollywood is truly out of ideas

[Anonymous Coward]

The original WotW was a classic film, beloved by many (including me). Why remake it? Why remake 2 versions? They're out of ideas, folks. This is why we get craptacular stuff. They must not have an original bone/idea left.

Yay authenticity!

[meganthom]

I think it's a huge relief that Hines is beating Spielburg to the punch. I don't understand why we even bother making movies from books if we are going to change the stories completely. There is a reason many of these books have become classics. I guess that movies "inspired" by books rather than adapted by them are good for reading (you see the movie; you like it; you read the book, and it's better), but I think it hurts our culture in general. Maybe with Hines's movie out first, people will be less likely to think Spielburg's interpretation is Oscar-worthy.

Independence Day

[selfsealingstembolt]

... where as Spielburg's version will be drastically modified to a more modern version ...

Hasn't that been done by Emmerich already? If you take a look at the plot of ID4:
- Aliens attack earth
- Their weapons are far superior
- Our weapons cannot hurt them really
- A virus kills them

It has a very close resemblence to the book War of the Worlds, the difference is that it is set in modern times.

The backstory to this would be a good 1984

[Afty0r]

In 2002 they had finished filming, and moved the release date from 2005 to 2004:
http://www.pendragonpictures.com/CRMtrlr1.h tml

Now, apparently, today in 2004, they are announcing a release date of 2005.

Chrome - back then finished and ready to hit cinemas in 2003 still has not emerged yet - here in 2004.

Apparently they searched high and wide for acting talent (wantint to cast unknowns) and auditioned over a thousand people, only to decide to carry on with a lead actor from Chrome.

Is this some sort of joke? Anyone got an inside scoop?

Re:What? Just like...

[Scrameustache]

Deep Impact and Armageddon?
Volcano and Dante's Peak?
You know the battle is lost when multiple movie makers are RE-making the same movie at the same time.

Look into it deeper, and you will find that every year the same basic plot is made into at least 3 major studio movies.

There was the year of comets, the year of volcanos, the year of alien invasions (Independance Day, Mars Attacks), the year of virtual realities (Matrix, 13th Floor, Existanz), this year was Superheroes I believe, a couple years ago it was haunted houses.
Its a definate pattern that has been repeating yearly for as long as I remember.

Its as though one studio starts making a film, and the others rush into production with a basic description "comets will destroy the earth, a team with spaceships try to stop it", "haunted house", "alien invasion", "airplane crashes", "superhero", etc.

Re:Possible because WOTWorlds is in the public dom

[cei]

Actually, I've mentioned this before in a few places, but in 2002 the Manhattan Supreme Court upheld a contract that gave Paramount exclusive rights (even though the work was in the public domain...)

From Yahoo! News:

Paramount Wins The War of the World Rights
Fri Apr 19, 7:41 PM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The grandchildren of author H.G. Wells lost their bid to control The War of the Worlds when Paramount Pictures was granted exclusive television rights to the science fiction novel in a ruling made public on Friday.

Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Ira Gammerman, in a six-page decision, said the Wells grandchildren, who filed a suit against Paramount nearly 18 months ago, are unable to sell the right to produce and distribute a television motion picture/miniseries based on the novel to Hallmark Cards Entertainment Productions LLC.

The novel earned a place in pop culture after actor Orson Welles set off a nationwide panic with his famed radio broadcast of War of the Worlds in 1938.

When H.G. Wells died in 1946, he left all his rights and interests in the novel to his son, Frank. After his death, Frank Wells children, Martin and Robin Wells as trustees of their fathers estate, began negotiations with Hallmark to produce and distribute a TV miniseries based on the novel.

When Paramount learned of the negotiations in 1988, it asserted exclusive ownership of the television rights, based on a 1951 contract signed by Frank Wells.

The grandchildren and Hallmark as plaintiffs in the action had argued that while the 1951 contract gave Paramount extensive motion picture rights this was not television rights.

But the judge ruled that any motion pictures that Paramount has the right to produce, it also has the right to televise.

The grandchildren in their suit had attempted to draw a distinction between motion pictures and television miniseries.

Such a distinction is untenable, the judge wrote.

I emailed that to Lessig, and he was at a loss to explain it at the time.

Re:Possible because WOTWorlds is in the public dom

[cei]

Indeed. IANAL, but I wasn't aware that contract law could trump copyright law. If someone sold a company the film rights in 1951, how long is that contract actually valid for? Perpetuity? I realize now days film rights are done with "options" that can expire, be resold, etc., but I'm guessing that the system wasn't that sophisticated (read, people weren't looking for loopholes so much) back in the 50's...

Re:But will they do the radio broadcast again?

[Long-EZ]

I concur.

I recently bought a copy of Jeff Wayne's rock opera, War of the Worlds, on eBay (no $$$ to RIAA). I had heard it before on the radio, in bits and pieces, and always wanted to listen to it in its entirety. It's really good, and does a good job of following the original story. I wish there were more works like this, that blend a book-on-CD with a musical recording.

The Americanized movie in the sixties was good for its time. With Hollywood creativity in a slump and remakes all the rage, I figured a War of the Worlds remake was coming soon. I hoped it wouldn't be a Spielberg movie. I liked some earlier Spielberg movies, but none lately. AI was a great topic for a movie. I think it's a fascinating subject, yet I was only barely able to sit through the entire movie. It totally missed the mark.

So I'm glad there is a UK remake that stays true to the author's intent. That's the one I'll see. Unfortunately, the Schpeelberg crapola version will be the one making the money. It's the bane of engineers... marketing is much more important than the product.

Oh well, at least it can't be as bad as what Hollywood did to Starship Troopers. Can it?

Re:My first Mod Parent Up! posting

[Viceice]

A true story about the power of Radio

Around the early 90's, Malaysia had about 3 radio stations that broadcasted in English. The more predominate one was the government owned Radio 4. It is an unformatted station and the DJs basically had the freedom to do whatever they wanted, as long as they were within the tolerances of censorship law.

Radio 4's morning show (morning till about noon) was hosted by a DJ named Patrick Teoh, whose morning show usually consisted of a talk show where he would highlight social issues and current events. He brought up issues like the horrible traffic situation, dirty public toilets and as much as he could, criticism of the follies of those in power.

So, about a week before April Fools day, Patrick was called upon by a friend of his, a Creative Director at an advertising agency. The agency wanted to do a little stunt for April Fools day and a plan was hatched.

Rather a duck was hatched. It was agreed that on April Fools day, Patrick would start his show as normal, and as the topic of the day, he would highlight the (fictional) case of an advertising agency abusing ducks. The Story was that an advertising agency, in making an advertisement featuring dancing ducks, got the ducks to dance by placing them on hot plates and filming them as their feet were burned and jumped.

As expected, the radio station's switch board lit up like a Christmas tree, with callers angrily criticising the Ad agency for their cruelty towards animals and along the way, angry words were said, along with demands for more details and the identity of the company.

As was the plan, about halfway through the show, a (fictional) lady secretary form the Ad Agency was to call the station and she was to tell a (again fictional) sob story about how she felt so guilty that her company was doing this and how the Creative Director for whom she worked was a really cruel man and he was keeping teh ducks in a back room at the office. Along the way she let it slip that the Creative Director was a foreigner.

After the call, again came a new torrent of callers. This time, instead about being about the ducks, the nature of the called suddenly turned nationalistic, with things like "How dare these foreigners come to our country and do this to our ducks?" being said and people were demanding that the Creative Director be sacked and booted out of the country.

Next on the script was a call from a fictional animal rights group, it called itself GNAP, which if you said out loud sounds exactly like the word for 'duck' in a local dialect, the first clue that the whole thing was an April Fools joke. So the group voiced its objections and vowed action. (Satire on the many real life NGO's who are mainly talk and little action)

A few more calls later was the finale, where the Managing Director of the Ad Agency was to call. In his call he would make a public apology on the company's behalf, explaining that the Creative Director acted on his own and the end of the call was a dramatic firing of the Creative Director, with "... wherever you are, if you are hearing this, consider this yourself fired and come over and pack up your things"

Now, even though the Ad Agency was real, the Creative Director was indeed the person named, the story about the ducks, the secretary's admission, the animal rights group and the dramatic closing were pure fiction. It was to be announced later that the who thing was just a April Fools prank.

Now, what wasn't expected that while all this was going on, the real life SPCA was listening in and alarm bells went off. In the heat of the moment, without proper investigation, a police report was lodged against the Ad Agency for cruelty to the ducks. Just after the drama ended on radio, a team of policemen along with the SPCA raided the premises of the Ad Agency.

It was of course explained to the raiding party that the whole thing was a joke, but with all the outrage, the secretary's emotional admission and the dramatic firing of the Creati

Re:Of course it will be drastically different/mode

[Shadow Wrought]

Transferring a novel to the screen is not as easy a task as most people tend to believe. A book portrays what is going on within the character, a movie portrays the character's interactions with others. The Peter Jackson philosophy of which I am speaking is one of trying to remain true to the story. Since it is impossible to tell the exact story of the book, the idea is stay true to the overarching story, which is what he did. You obviously disagree with that, but I think he did an excellent job. When I saw the movie after having read the books I was disappointed that certain characters and events were not included, but I also remembered that this was a movie. It could not capture 100% of what I read. If it could, there would be little point to reading it, right?

What hollywood has been about in the past is taking something with a built in audience, just like LoTR, and putting out something that was crap because it already had a built in audience. Rick "f'n" Berman is a prime example of this with his Trek offerings. Instead Peter Jackson kept a reverence for the books in his movies that I truly do think came through. Because of that, more people read the books than they otherwise would have, and the legacy of Tolkien was strengthened. That is the philosophy that I support.