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Coffee House => Coffee House Boards => CH / Entertainment => Topic started by: PMC on July 13, 2004, 10:05:39 PM
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Probably old news now, but it appears that Spielberg and Tom Cruise are working on a new movie adaptation of War of the Worlds.
Thankfully, the scriptwriters appear to have set the film in victorian England, as per the original book (published 1898).
http://movies.go.com/movies/W/waroftheworlds_2005/index.html
One of my favorite novels of my childhood (read it aged nine), WOTW has suffered the indignity of a 1953 feature film plus a truly awful TV series in the 80s. HG Wells created an intrigueing insight into victorian society and almost prophetic predictions of the horrors of the First World War, twenty years into the future (poison gas, armoured fighting vehicles, global conflict).
With sympathetic direction, scripting and hopefully a restraint from technobabble WOTW would make a fine example of "retro sci-fi".
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the name "Spielberg" lets you know it will be a piece of whiny, tear-jerking, more special effects than needed cr.ap
:pissed:
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:lol:
I'd be quite interested to see what Tim Burton would make of it?
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heh, tis for sure the Republican equivalent of "The Day After Tomorrow"
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I loved HGWells' WOTW. The mans imagination was superb.
They better make a decent job of the movie.
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PMC wrote:
I'd be quite interested to see what Tim Burton would make of it?
Now that would be worth watching :-D
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I just read that I,Robot is directed by the Alex Proyas. The same guy who directed Dark City and The Crow. Perhaps I, Robot isn't going to be as crap as I first thought it would be when I learned that Will friggin Smith was to play the main role.
BTW; any Americans already seen it? It's supposed to be in the theat(r)e(r)s there now. Release in NL is supposed to 4/8.
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PMC wrote:
:lol:
I'd be quite interested to see what Tim Burton would make of it?
I was just about to suggest him :-)
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Spielberg and Tom Cruise are working on a new movie adaptation of War of the Worlds.
ARRRRRRRRRRGH
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It might just work, if Spielberg keeps the atmosphere of hopelessness and powerlessness that pervades the book. The adventure apect of WOTW has already been explored, and is limited. I mean, Wells made these aliens eat human flesh and drink blood, so they're not nice things. They're intelligent, ruthless, and totally alien.
All of the emotional aspects of the book should be put on screen - the fear and suspense of the alien's arrival, and the utter hopelessness when mankind is swept aside easily by the alien war machines, and the dispair when they know their world is gone. Spielberg can portray these things, and well - but will he? Or will he make a lame special effects driven travesty like the Matrix 2 and 3?
Things he IMO must avoid:
- American accents. Nothing ruins a period drama than an accent out of place or someone trying to do a fake one. Keanu Reeve's accent in Bram Stoker's Dracula makes me shiver more than Oldman's excellent performance as Dracula. The idea of Cruise playing anyone but an American in the story makes me shudder even more.
- Making an adventure or action film out of it. Jackson did this with LOTR and trampled most of the book's subtleties under his big New Zealander boots.
- Too much CGI. It's still not at the point where it looks believable. And wide cinematic shots over the landscape to show off would just make the film look like a computer game.
- Hollywood cliches. That means all of them. Wells knew what he was doing, follow him and not the cliche route.
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Spielberg is incapable of subtly
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Hum,
let's hope the american hero doesn't save the world,
and the Martians win this time round,...
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@Kenny
Actually, the funniest thing in the story, from my point of view at least, is the total lack of fear at the aliens arrival. All the people going about their buisness as normal aside from the onlookers camped around Horsell Common. Even as the cylinder begins to open, people remain transfixed. It isn't until the martians actually open fire that people flee in terror.
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OooooooooooooLaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
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cecilia wrote:
Spielberg is incapable of subtly
Great for Indiana Jones, that's about it.
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@The_Editor
< comic store guy from simpsons >
In the original story, the desription of the first encounter with the fighting machine has it roaring "Aloo! Aloo!"...
Seen nearer, the Thing was incredibly strange, for it
was no mere insensate machine driving on its way.
Machine it was, with a ringing metallic pace, and long,
flexible, glittering tentacles (one of which gripped a
young pine tree) swinging and rattling about its strange
body. It picked its road as it went striding along, and the
brazen hood that surmounted it moved to and fro with the
inevitable suggestion of a head looking about. Behind the
main body was a huge mass of white metal like a gigantic fisherman’s basket, and puffs of green smoke squirted out
from the joints of the limbs as the monster swept by me.
And in an instant it was gone.
So much I saw then, all vaguely for the flickering of
the lightning, in blinding highlights and dense black
shadows.
As it passed it set up an exultant deafening howl that
drowned the thunder—‘Aloo! Aloo!’—and in another
minute it was with its companion, half a mile away,
stooping over something in the field.
Which instantly made me think of Rene Atois :lol:
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@Karlos
The_Editor is meaning the famous cry from Jeff Wayne's musical version of WOTW:
"Ullah!!"
Quite a nice album, though a little aged and cheesy now in places. But still with more atmosphere than I think Spielberg will put in his version...
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@Kenny
I know what he meant, I was listening to the first album when I wrote that post ;-)
I was just in nitpick mode when I pointed out HG Wells used "Aloo!" :-D
I wonder what Spielberg will use?
-edit-
I think The_Editor must have the Norfolk locale version judging from the way he writes it :-)
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"Raargh"
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Followed by "All your hedgerows are belong to us, Earthlings..."
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mikeymike wrote:
cecilia wrote:
Spielberg is incapable of subtly
Great for Indiana Jones, that's about it.
yeah, even tho Indiana Jones (the various episodes) generally have HUGE holes in the plots, at least they are fun to watch. well, the actors are fun to watch!
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@ Karlos ..
Norfolk Locale
Bwhahahahahaaa
Brilliant !!
Have yer ever had a roid, ever had a roid
ever had a roid ona trakter ?
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KennyR wrote:
It might just work, if Spielberg keeps the atmosphere of hopelessness and powerlessness that pervades the book. The adventure apect of WOTW has already been explored, and is limited. I mean, Wells made these aliens eat human flesh and drink blood, so they're not nice things. They're intelligent, ruthless, and totally alien.
All of the emotional aspects of the book should be put on screen - the fear and suspense of the alien's arrival, and the utter hopelessness when mankind is swept aside easily by the alien war machines, and the dispair when they know their world is gone.
WOTW just wouldn't work in a modern context as there have been much more fearful aliens in cinema than Wells's martians.
This is why it must reflect the times in which it was written; there was a pervading sense of arrogance in society at the time that Wells tapped into, not to mention building paranoia about the rising tensions in Europe at the time that would ultimately lead to World War One.
Wells wasn't shy to show the darker side to humanity in WOTW either. The artilleryman and curate both represent powerful forces (the military and church) that become impotent and ultimately self destructive in the face of the martian invasion.
Wells also wrote "Things To Come" in the 30s which foretold of an apocalyptic war in the 1940s, where bacterial warefare and blitzkreig played a huge part. It also describes a "United Nations" type organisation bringing peace once more after decades of conflict.
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cecelia wrote:
Spielberg is incapable of subtly
No, he can do it. Sometimes. Empire of the Sun is a great example.
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KennyR wrote:
cecelia wrote:
Spielberg is incapable of subtly
No, he can do it. Sometimes. Empire of the Sun is a great example.
Don't forget Jaws and ET!!!
[Edit] Sorry, I'm in one of those moods :-D
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KennyR wrote:
cecelia wrote:
Spielberg is incapable of subtly
No, he can do it. Sometimes. Empire of the Sun is a great example.
Have you watched it recently though? It used to be very high in my opinion but now it's "not how I remembered it to be" :-)
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Mikeymike wrote:
Have you watched it (Empire of the Sun) recently though? It used to be very high in my opinion but now it's "not how I remembered it to be"
Sure, it was on last night or the night before on BBC. It's just as confusing and depressing as I remember it. :)
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Speelgoedmannetje wrote:
heh, tis for sure the Republican equivalent of "The Day After Tomorrow"
Spielberg isnt a Republican, what on earth would give you that idea??
-Tig
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KennyR wrote:
cecelia wrote:
Spielberg is incapable of subtly
No, he can do it. Sometimes. Empire of the Sun is a great example.
there's only ONE good thing about that film and that's Christian Bale, who as a 13 year old was so talented he blew everyone off the screen. and is riviting to watch.
the direction, however, su'cks. it's the same, smarmy, sickly, weepy garbage spielbug always wallows in.
Brunner's story, of course, is good (altho the original has to be more powerful), but the direction is still annoying.
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bloodline wrote:
KennyR wrote:
cecelia wrote:
Spielberg is incapable of subtly
No, he can do it. Sometimes. Empire of the Sun is a great example.
Don't forget Jaws and ET!!!
[Edit] Sorry, I'm in one of those moods :-D
And let's not forget Transformers. Oh wait, he hasn't made that one yet. (http://www.hollywoodnorthreport.com/article.php?Article=190)