I guess no one learned anything from The Hobbit.
After seeing the poor results that can occur by stretching out the story of a well-known book way past what the author intended, the producers behind the new series, War of The Worlds, still thought it was a good idea to turn the novel by H.G. Wells into a weekly show.
When astronomers detect a transmission from another galaxy, it is definitive proof of intelligent extra-terrestrial life. Earth’s population waits for further contact with bated breath, but does not have to wait long. Within days, mankind is all but wiped out, with just pockets of humanity are left in an eerily deserted world. As alien ships appear in the sky, the survivors ask a burning question — who are these attackers and why are they hell-bent on our destruction?
War of The Worlds stars Gabriel Byrne and Elizabeth McGovern and is actually a European production that is being brought to this country after debuting in Europe this past fall.
This is of course just the latest attempt to turn to book into live-action.
There have been a number of film versions, starting with the well regarded 1953 film directed by Byron Haskin, and of course the most recently version being the 2005 blockbuster directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Tom Cruise.
Orson Welles’ legendary radio broadcast of the story in 1938 made him a hot name in Hollywood and helped the future director land the contract that resulted in Citizen Kane.
They are calling this a “modern interpretation” of the 1898 book, which is a pretty good idea. As technology improves and our understanding of how the world works gets better and better, science fiction tends to age pretty poorly and looks worse and worse.
War of The Worlds debuts on February 16 on Epix.
