War of the Worlds?

Asked already here: The Official New TV Show Thread

 

There's another War of the Worlds mini being co-produced by Fox (not the TV network; the production company currently owned by Disney) and Canal+. This one is set in the present. It airs in Belgium beginning October 29, and across the world in the months to come..although I haven't seen any indication of where and when it will air in the US.

 

And yet, still no answer.

 

Advertisements

The only release date info is currently:

The War of the Worlds (TV Mini-Series 2019– ) - Release Info - IMDb

 

ITV Studios Global Entertainment announces pre-sales of The War of the Worlds to multiple territories

The drama is a Mammoth Screen production for the BBC co-produced with Creasun Media in association with Red Square, and has pre-sold across Europe, including France, Spain and Russia, as well as in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and across Africa.

Adapted by Peter Harness (Wallander, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell), The War of the Worlds will air in Europe on TF1 (France), Movistar+ (Spain), LaF via Sky Italy, Channel 1 (Russia) RUV (Iceland), YLE (Finland) and on Epic Drama, in key territories across CEE.

It has also been picked up by Foxtel in Australia, TVNZ in New Zealand and Blue Ant Media in Canada, while a deal in Africa with M-Net, means the show will be available in over 50 countries across the continent.

 

True enough, but @tomhorsley might have missed it if it did get answered there and he was unaware of the thread since it isn't obvious from the thread title, which was my point.

 

The first episode is now available by wizardry.

 

As it's just a 3 episode "series" I'll certainly finish it, but by the end of the first episode I was a lot less than impressed. A lot.

 

The trailer showed so much promise.

 

Well, episode 2... aka Yes, it really can get worse.

Capital-A capital-W capital-F capital-U capital-L.

H.G. Wells probably will return from the grave just to slap the folks who created this and abused his name by labeling it as based upon his story.

 

I saw the 10 episode series with Gabriel Byrne. It was slow and confusing. The entire destruction of the human race takes 5 minutes and we have to just wonder what happened. Certain humans can communicate with the aliens. Why or how is left unsaid. Lots of mini plots that I didn't care about. Aliens are mechanical dogs. I stuck with it though. Kept waiting for a payoff that did not come.

 

So sad to read this--it looked so promising.

 

The series with Gabriel Byrne and Elizabeth McGovern is Belgian and was only 8 episodes, not 10. I've already seen the first two episodes of the UK production, which is interesting considering the 2nd episode isn't supposed to air until Nov 24th with the 3rd episode airing Dec 1st. I haven't had a chance to see the Belgian version yet, but it appears that both of them are concentrating mostly on the aftermath of the invasion and defeat of the Martians and how the human race recovers from it.

 

The entire UK series aired a few weeks ago in New Zealand and Canada, which is why it’s available via other means before the BBC airings.

 

I don't remember the Belgian series ever saying where the aliens came from.

 

The U.S.? (Sorry.)

 

So I picked this up from the UK as a German import BD and I'm going to disagree with the awful rating given above.
I'm a WOTW fan in general so I watched the French coproduction a few months ago that's set in the current day and it was pretty strong but clearly ends on a cliffhanger that suggests they want a second season.

This BBC production is period based and IMNSHO has far more of the literal DNA from the book than the French production that had the emotional DNA, the BBC production also has some Jeff Wayne DNA in it that was fun. That being said I thought it was a competent production that hit its marks a lot of the time and tells the self contained H.G.Wells story fairly well. So if you take away the previous non-period movies as reference, this one is a decent adaptation of the novel, you can't really compare it to the non-period presentations since they stand on their own in a very different ways.

The presentation has some weird color balance issues at time and there are some obvious flipped shots since the female lead has a mole that tends to swap sides. I blame myself for intially missing the split between the 2 time periods initially thinking it was 2 different stories at the same time since they changed the look of the lead actress.
Plot pacing was slow and methodical, I can see people complaining about it, but I enjoyed the slow burn.

What's really interesting in this "battle of the WOTW releases" in 2020 is that in 2005 we had the same thing.
From Pendragon, a 3 hour period piece War of the Worlds with no actors anyone would recognize, this had long been in development.
From The Asylum, a current day (for then) schlock fest starring C. Thomas Howell and Jake Busey meant to piggyback on the Tom Cruise release;
and of course the Tom Cruise version set in current day.

Me? I'm anxiously awaiting this summers release of the 1953 film in a Criterion release.

 

I don't disagree with that so much as just wanted to add that I recently watched Starship Troopers again for the umpteen-zillionth time, and forgot all about having wasted my time in the recent WOTW releases, at least until this thread popped up again.