The War of the Worlds

[Rixx]

The Big Short’s Rafe Spall and Poldark’s Eleanor Tomlinson are to lead the cast of BBC One’s adaptation The War of the Worlds alongside Trainspotting’s Robert Carlyle and Sherlock’s Rupert Graves.

The War of the Worlds will be directed by Craig Viveiros (And Then There Were None, Rillington Place) and produced by Betsan Morris Evans (The City & The City).

The series is the first adaptation set in Edwardian England, rather than America, and follows George, played by Spall, and his partner Amy, played by Tomlinson as they attempt to defy society and start a life together against the escalating terror of an alien invasion. Graves plays George’s older brother Frederick, while Carlyle stars as Ogilvy, an astronomer and scientist

https://deadline.com/2018/04/rafe-sp...ds-1202359327/

[sandman slim]

Saw this on the main page, thought it was the classic film finally. Dammit.

[Todd Tomorrow]

Hugely excited that they are finally doing an adaptation which is faithful to the period of the novel.

[TheWildWhelk]

Originally Posted by Todd Tomorrow

Hugely excited that they are finally doing an adaptation which is faithful to the period of the novel.

Absolutely! Correct me if i'm wrong, but i'm fairly sure that a 100% faithful, period-set adaptation of the book has never made it to either film or television screen? Any feature made of the book has set itself in it's 'Present Day' setting or simply used the template of the book as an outline (like the Cruise/Spielberg film)...

Seriously looking forward to this, as done well it really should be first class.

[Rixx]

Trailer for The War of the Worlds, to be broadcast in autumn.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-yas0yPbLU

[darthtater]

Originally Posted by sandman slim

Saw this on the main page, thought it was the classic film finally. Dammit.

Me too, but still excited for this adaptation!

[thisis2]

..i wonder if there will be a blu-ray edition of this...so far there's only a dvd listed on amazon.co.uk..

[kevin87]

Originally Posted by thisis2

..i wonder if there will be a blu-ray edition of this...so far there's only a dvd listed on amazon.co.uk..

Sometimes the UK doesn't get BD of their shows but the US does, so it could happen. No way of knowing until it actually gets announced though.

[SeeMoreDigital]

For anyone who's interested....

According to this Wikipedia page, "ITV Studios Global Entertainment is responsible for the international distribution of The War of the Worlds miniseries"...

[thisis2]

..sadly this miniseries is getting terrible reviews on IMDb..looks like the 1953 classic and the Spielberg 2005 version are superior..

[CouncilSpectre]

Originally Posted by thisis2

..sadly this miniseries is getting terrible reviews..looks like the 1953 classic and the Spielberg 2005 version are superior..

That’s the Fox/StudioCanal version. The BBC series hasn’t even aired yet.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_...2019_TV_series)

[Aclea]

This was originally supposed to be on last Christmas, then New Year and then BBC went into a complete publicity lockdown on the show (even now they still haven't announced when it'll be on in the UK), which gave off the distinct smell of lemons (the Beeb were similarly tight-lipped about their disastrous Troy: Fall of a City). Spending so long on the shelf was hardly a vote of confidence, and from friends who've seen both this (it's already played in Canada) and the StudioCanal modern day series, both upcoming adaptations are turkeys.

On the plus side, neither is as bad as Timbo Hines' infamous, ahem, $44m version (that's $44m imaginary dollars) that came out at the same time as the 2005 Spielberg film and which spawned literally hundreds of fake rave reviews from war widows and art connoisseurs on the IMDB and Amazon, not to mention some spectacular internet tantrums from the director:

https://www.metatube.com/en/videos/1...ASSIC-VERSION/

For those interested, it exists in three separate cuts, with Hines claiming that the third and shortest cut was an 'Academy Award contender.' There is a fourth, shorter cut, however, that was not authorised by Hines...

Black Moon Dub, The War Of The Worlds - YouTube

[Aclea]

Originally Posted by CouncilSpectre

That’s the Fox/StudioCanal version. The BBC series hasn’t even aired yet.

No, it's the BBC one: it's aired on Canada and was online as well, and apparently it's a dog. But then the chances of anyone getting this right were a million to one...

[CouncilSpectre]

Originally Posted by Aclea

No, it's the BBC one: it's aired on Canada and was online as well, and apparently it's a dog. But then the chances of anyone getting this right were a million to one...

Oh FFS, oh well I stand corrected...and incredibly disappointed

[Wernski]

And it ain't faithful either.

(Although it's both closer and better than the one with Gabriel Byrne, which is basically The Walking Dead with robot dogs)

[chip75]

Just watched the first episode, it was okay, felt a bit padded with the "living in sin" subplot, which I can't see anyone caring about.

Not sure why it's after His Dark Materials*, I guess the Beeb are trying to get follow on audience if early reviews are poor.

*I don't think I've watched more than half a dozen shows on the BBC this year, they have so little content that interests me.

[thisis2]

..for anyone interested there is a blu-ray edition of this on amazon australia..release date December 4th....and also a German release on January 31st 2020..

[Dragon Ranger]

Originally Posted by chip75

Just watched the first episode, it was okay, felt a bit padded with the "living in sin" subplot, which I can't see anyone caring about.

Not sure why it's after His Dark Materials*, I guess the Beeb are trying to get follow on audience if early reviews are poor.

*I don't think I've watched more than half a dozen shows on the BBC this year, they have so little content that interests me.

Watched it last night; underwhelming would be the best way to describe it. Costumes and locations were probably the best thing but the action lacked any sort of impact and the repeated fading out of the sound everytime something attack related happened to one of the leads was repeated far too often. Agreed about the relationship subplot; it added nothing.

I'll watch part 2 to see if it has any kind of impact either visually or emotionally but I can't say I'm that excited for the next episode. A shame as its one of my favourite novels and I had been wanting a period adaptatiob for years.

As for the BBC and their shows in general I find as a channel they are mostly unwatchable due to the constant use of handheld camera work (which this didn't suffer from thankfully); use of the same dull filters and drama after drama about miserable people being horrible to each other to be a real turn off. I think Doctor Who is the only thing I really tune in for anymore.

[Dragon Ranger]

I'll go back to Orson Welles and Jeff Wayne for the best adaptations.

[TheWildWhelk]

Watched the first episode of this last night and rather enjoyed it. It must have been damn hard to put an original spin on one of the most famous science fiction novels of all time, and the first alien invasion story, but the team come up with a couple of nice visual moments. One thing that irked me was i didn't get the 'side story' that seemed to show a

[Show spoiler]Post-Martian world with the destroyed buildings and everything covered in sand and dust.

Clarification on that i'm sure is coming. Solid work then from the BBC...