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BBC Filming War Of The Worlds in UK


noelsmith

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Ready for Christmas viewing the BBC are filming War of the Worlds, true to the book based in Edwardian England. What a refreshing change from all the Americanized versions made for Cinema and TV down the years!

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The last one - Tom Cruise movie - had some decent effects; the ferry scene in particular was great.  But the never-ending, shrill screaming by the girl was really grating.  At about 1/4 way in, I was ready to let the aliens have her.  Both of the kids were really, really unlikeable.

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The Tom Cruse movie was visually good and enjoyable enough but unfortunately bore no resemblance whatsoever to to H.G Wells book. Wrong period!  Wrong country!  Spielberg missed a great opportunity to do the story justice when making this film if he had made it 'in period' in the Edwardian era.    Hopefully the BBC will at long last do the story justice on screen with this 3 parter!

Rusty, you can bet on it being available in the States in 2019. My guess is that it will be shown on one of your prime network stations. Most likely it will be released on DVD shortly after. Probably that will be the best way to view it not being constantly interrupted by ads.

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 6/20/2018 at 12:03 PM, noelsmith said:

The Tom Cruse movie was visually good and enjoyable enough but unfortunately bore no resemblance whatsoever to to H.G Wells book. Wrong period!  Wrong country!  Spielberg missed a great opportunity to do the story justice when making this film if he had made it 'in period' in the Edwardian era.    Hopefully the BBC will at long last do the story justice on screen with this 3 parter!

Rusty, you can bet on it being available in the States in 2019. My guess is that it will be shown on one of your prime network stations. Most likely it will be released on DVD shortly after. Probably that will be the best way to view it not being constantly interrupted by ads.

Nice. I'll be watching for this version.

Parts of the Tom Cruise movie was filmed not terribly far from where I am. As a matter of fact the local paper called for people to come down to be extras. The local hiway was jammed and they didn't realize that the jam was just what was looked for. LOL Cruise and kids just drove up and down the same little stretch of hiway, and the bridge destroyed was the bridge from Staten Island, NY to Bayonne, NJ. But as you said would like to see a period piece.

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  • 5 months later...

Update...............The BBC has not been advertising WOTW lately on UK TV.  Looks like we will be seeing it sometime in 2019.

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  • 1 month later...

BBC ran some drama trailer titbits and in amongst them was a few seconds of footage showing a tripod machine. No indication of release yet though.

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  • 3 months later...

The Beeb advertising clips for this drama seems to have gone very quiet of late. Perhaps it will be out for this Christmas instead of last as I thought or possibly in the Autumn / Fall.

Maybe the production company have some technical issues and taking a bit longer than anticipated with the CGI or something in post production. Who knows?

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  • 4 months later...

It is imminent! The BBC are running trailers, so it will be aired this Autumn (Fall) of near Christmas.

Someone has put the trailer up on the Britmodeller forum in the Science Fiction  area of anyone wants to get a glimpse of what to expect.

At last of will be shown in keeping to the period and location in HGWells original novel. Spielberg I think  missed a trick with his modernised version. It would have been interesting if he had made it ' in period'' and perhaps the BBC may not have considered it for production it he had done so.

Edited by noelsmith
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  • 3 weeks later...

The BBC have still not given a firm date for airing war of the worlds just yet. My guess around Christmas.

Incidentally, they are running a series based on Philip Pullman's Dark Materials trilogy. It is going to air on Nov 3rd in the UK. Do not know what is planned for US tv. But the BBC has an internet 1 week catchup named IPlayer, so you guys may be able to use broadband to either watch on a smart tv or a pc and either stream of download each of them within the week they sit in the UK.

Edited by noelsmith
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  • 2 weeks later...

The BBC have recently been running a slightly longer trailer for WOTW. Still no firm aiingr date given, so still guessing this Christmas perhaps,

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I read the original version as a free Kindle book. It would be awesome to see a movie of it in its period correct era. Also the 1950s version with the America tanks and the brief glimpse of the flying wing bomber is also a classic.

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  • 2 weeks later...

If you are a fan of the original WOTW by H.G. Wells, there is a recent novel by Stephen Baxter called The Massacre of Mankind.  In this authorized sequel to the original story, the Martians come back for a second go at us fourteen years later...with improved equipment and tactics.  We, however, have learned nothing and are woefully unprepared in 1907.  Most of the original characters are followed, though aged appropriately.  It's a great read

Ed

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WOTW (3 part drama) will be airing at 9PM UK time this Sunday 17th November (immediately after His Dark Materials which is two weeks in and fantastic.)

BBC has a catchup service named I player on the web that should be available to the USA. Bear in mind this catchup service only holds a programme for a week after airing. No ads on the beeb so good for a weekly download to make up the series.

I will have to look up Stephen Baxter's book that ewahl recommended.......sounds good.

Edited by noelsmith
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  • 3 weeks later...

Well it finally got aired! I was so looking forward to the story being done in period. Unfortunately it nowhere came up to my expectations. Besides running out of steam half way through, it was too much about a love story to me with the invasion theme being of secondary importance, plus the flash forwards made the whole thing a bit disjointed for me. It failed to show the Martians being wiped out by microbes. The three parter looked promising to start off, but when the sphere started to levitate, and giant machine, far bigger then the sphere started to come out of the ground (as in the Spielberg modern setting movie) the original novel plot was completely lost!

If we want to see a proper version made, I reckon Peter Jackson who made Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, Mortal Engines ad King Kong could do the novel justice. As he is the owner of Wingnut Wings maybe he could be lobbied through his company to get a suggestion through.

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  • 1 year later...

I read the follow on novel to War of the Worlds ...Namely......Massacre of Mankind.

It was a good read for about 90 percent of the book but the end disappointed as the Martians suddenly retreated into caverns in the Far North having been diplomatically pressurised into doing so by the Jovians.

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