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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."
http://www.transparencynow.com/welles.htm is a good article talking about the broadcast that... upset a few people.
War of the War of the Worlds.
But does it really matter, as long as *one* of them has the Americans crapping in their pants again thinking it's real, just like the radio series (with Orson Wells) did way-back-when...
:o)
--#voxlator
The human race meets the Aliens in space and all shoot at the same time.
-- i am jack's amusing sig file
... 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.
Keep open minded - but not that open your brain falls out...
In comparison, H.G. Wells died in 1946. If Wells had lived under current US copyright law (life+70), WotW would not be public domain until 2016.
But will it have JarJar?
Ok people, repeat after me:
Spielberg != Lucas
Spielberg != Lucas
Spielberg != Lucas
ET phone home jokes are probably called for, but JarJar? WTF? We're supposed to be geeks, sticklers for trivial facts. I mean, Lucas and Spielberg don't even look alike.
[insert relevant joke] Maybe the martians will be velocoraptors with Unix computers [insert relevant joke]
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
Sometimes I wish I was a plumber, then I'd know how to deal with other people's shit.