Thursday, December 16, 2004

Steven Spielberg teaser poster out

The teaser poster to the movie can be viewed here.

Wednesday, December 15, 2004

Poster for Pendragon War Of The Worlds movie. Is that a leg I see?

Pendragon pictures have released the first poster for their WOTW's movie. Looks like our first very small glimpse of a Martian war machine, well, a leg of one.

Clouds on Mars

Nasa scientists report some striking new discoveries from their Mars rovers, including more evidence of past water and some clouds that look strikingly Earthlike.
http://edition.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/12/14/mars.rock/index.html

Tuesday, December 14, 2004

Life imitating art on Mars

In a move reminiscent of the battles waged in the Mars novels of Kim Stanley Robinson, it has been proposed that areas of Mars should be protected from human encroachment.
http://edition.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/12/10/mars.parks/index.html

Sunday, December 12, 2004

War Of The Worlds trailer out now!

The teaser trailer for the spielberg/cruise version of The War Of The Worlds is out. Teasers generally give little away, but this is worth the download. No sign of the Martians, but an impressive scene as people emerge from their homes to watch the fireworks kick off over a line of hills. Trailer is at http://www.waroftheworlds.com
Most interesting is the voice over. Very Orson Welles, though the standard Voice Over man has always sounded a little like Welles, so it may just be wishful thinking by me.

Friday, December 03, 2004

Life on Mars

NASA scientists say "data from Nasa's Mars rover Opportunity shows its unique landing site is a prime spot for a return mission to look for life" More here http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4063181.stm

Pendragon bites back

Its so interesting to see these two competing versions of the War Of The Worlds come together.
Pendragon just unleashed some more material online including a second trailer. Its looking a bit more exciting than the first and we get our first look here at some artillery lined up against the Martians. My money is on this being the most interesting of the two films. Its a shame that special effects will likely make or break it and course with $100 million dollars in the war chest of the oposing camp, its a bit of a one sided battle, but here is hoping that interlect and passion for the material at least hold their own. There is room for these two versions to each succeed on their own merits. Bring em on.

http://stuffo.howstuffworks.com/wotw-hinesthree.htm - interview with the director.
http://stuffo.howstuffworks.com/wotw-roundup.htm - roundup of all the material on the site.
http://stuffo.howstuffworks.com/wotw-videos.htm - new footage. The inteviews with the cast are interspaced with a new trailer.

Like this in particular from the director in regard to the Martians and their war machnes. Sounds very intriguing.

"... it's as if the medievalists, they had these giant overscaled catapults that they would use to sling these huge bales of fire the size of a wagon at each other. And so we sort of applied the idea that what if the medievalists had somehow stumbled on computer technology. How frightening would these massive overscaled iron and copper age kind of energies be, applied to computer use. And that's about as much as I can say ..."

Here's one to bookmark

The official site for the Cruise version of the WOTW's (its going to get difficult distinguishing between this and the Pendragon version in these posts) is up and running, though for now its just a single page of promotional art. Rather nice, but bears an uncanny resembalance to the logo for the seldom remembered (and I think much underated) TV series of many a year ago. See what you think here. http://www.waroftheworlds.com/

Thursday, November 25, 2004

Pendragon director speaks

The mailing list of the H G Wells society was privy to the following fasinating missive from the director of the forthcoming War Of The Worlds movie.

H. G. WELLS' THE WAR OF THE WORLDS will have a major world theatrical release on 30 March 2005. There is no winner or loser concerning Pendragon and Paramount. The winner/loser scenario might be true if both films were coming out at the same time. Whereas Pendragon's version will be released a full three-months in advance of Paramount's version, there is no direct toe-to-toe competition. Indeed, the release of Pendragon's version supports the release of Paramount's version.

Our distribution is a consortium of distributors of which more are signing on every week. The date posted on our website, 30 March 2005, is the worldwide release date. Some minor adjustments may be made country to country, based on a variety of factors relating to individual distribution contracts within each region.

The post-production of H. G. WELLS' THE WAR OF THE WORLDS is an exciting, amazing and challenging experience. Each day, as scenes are cut together, another piece of Wells story comes to life. At present, we are cutting together and placing effects in the Shepperton shoreline sequence. Retakes and miniature photography will conclude in December on schedule.

In answer to your question put forth by some of the fans as to how we are recreating Woking, most of the structures from the correct time period in Woking were leveled in the 1960's in massive revitalization projects. Sadly, buildings dating back as far as the 1600's were leveled to make way for modern developments. Some period buildings were rebuilt as replicas with modern materials. Many turn-of-the-century houses and inns remain and were usable. However, much of turn-of-the-century Woking had to be recreated through CGI and miniatures. We used many reference source materials, archived photos and history books about Woking, some of which are only available in Woking and its nearby regions.

I must return to the editing suite at this time.

Best regards,

Timothy HinesDirector, H.G. WELLS' THE WAR OF THE WORLDS

Thursday, November 11, 2004

Extra Extra (well, actually a 1000 extra)

The news just keeps flooding in from the location work on the Cruise version of WOTW.
The saratogian reports that upwards of 1000 extras are to be recruited for scenes to be filmed soon. Athens deputy mayor Andrea Smallwood had this to say. 'They're bringing in a 168-foot ferry,' Smallwood said. 'People will run down Second Street onto the boat.'
Is this to be the movies take on the Thunder Child chapter of the book, in which terrified refugees take to waves and are defended from the Martians by a warship? It's the sea in the book and a river at Athens, so either this is an example of the "re-imagining" of the book, or some CGI magic will be at work in post production.

War Of The Worlds teaser trailer is up

Pendragon Films have issued a teaser trailer for their version of The War Of The Worlds. The trailer is high on melodrama and low (well, totally absent) on Martians. Kudos to them though for what looks to be a picture perfect retelling of the book. Should be very interesting to see it go head to head with the Cruise version.Trailer can be found here.
http://stuffo.howstuffworks.com/wotw-hinestwo.htm

Wednesday, November 10, 2004

First picture of Cruise filming WOTWs

The New York times has snagged a shot of Cruise filming for the new movie. No sign of Martians yet and who are these guys he is with. Local resistance fighters perhaps?

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Signs of war !!

This from "northjersey.com" on the filming thus far in the Ironbound section along a portion of Ferry Street.

"The street scenes have reflected the havoc of an all-out invasion, with rubble scattered about, a crater in the ground and windows being blasted out of prefabricated houses, according to production sources and witnesses lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time. Cruise and many extras have been spied running for their lives before the rolling cameras since filming commenced Sunday."

War Of The Worlds filming

Thanks to an informant I learn things are well under way for the new movie.
"I LIVE IN NEWARK, NJ. AND JUST THREE BLOCKS AWAY FROM MY HOUSE STEVEN SPIELBERG AND TOM CRUISE AMONG OTHERS ARE FILMING WHAT IS GOING TO BE A NEW VERSION OF WAR OF THE WORLDS. I CAN'T WAIT FOR IT TO CAME OUT. JUST WANTED TO MAKE SURE THAT YOU KNEW ABOUT THIS. THEY ARE ALSO SHOOTING IN BAYONNE, NJ."

Thursday, October 21, 2004

Location set for War Of The Worlds movie

This just in from the Putnam County News Recorder - Cold Spring,NY,USA
Cold Spring Board Approves "War of the Worlds".
Coming soon to a waterfront near you: an alien invasion of truly epic proportions, starring Tom Cruise and a cast up to 1,000 locals. Despite some initial uncertainty, the Cold Spring Village Board gave the green light for Paramount Pictures to film a scene from their big-budget remake of "War of the Worlds" on the lower half of Main Street at their October 12 monthly meeting.
The full article has more but you need to subscribe, so I'm not 100% keen to spend $30.00 to find out more.

Thursday, October 14, 2004

Two War Of The Worlds movies

Tom Cruise has been pipped to the post by Pendragan Pictures, who have come up with their own movie version of the War Of The Worlds, and rather than set it in modern times, this is the real deal, set in Victorian England. Principle photography has wrapped after 3 months of secret shooting in England and the Pacific North West.

Wednesday, October 13, 2004

Mars in the news

This is the first of hopefully many posts on this blog. The blog is affiliated to my web site, The War Of The Worlds Invasion, a one stop site for all things about the planet Mars, but especially the impact of science fiction on the planet and even more specifically, the 1938 panic broadcast by Orson Welles.
Of course Mars is in the news a lot at the moment. A number of probes including two NASA rovers are doing amazing work on the surface of the red planet, and Tom Cruise and Steven Speilberg are hard at work on a movie of The War Of The Worlds.