The War of the Worlds

Steven Spielberg is making a new War of the Worlds movie. No, it’s not a remake. Remember, the rage these days is to make new movies based on old source material by ignoring other previous adaptation. Spielberg isn’t trying to one up Byron Haskin, only marginalize him. So be it.

The real disappointment for me is that he’s setting it in modern times, instead of the Victorian era outlined in the original novel. An alien invasion movie set in Victorian era England… now that would be a unique movie idea. Instead we’re getting an alien invasion set in New Jersey, something I thought we’d covered quite adequately with Independence Day. Clearly Mr. Spielberg disagrees.

I’ve decided to forgive him, after being wowed by the film’s first teaser trailer. It features Mr. Voice reading word for word the first passages from H.G. Wells original novel, and lacks only the resurrection of Orson Welles to provide narration to make it truly brilliant. Spielberg’s take looks to be in keeping with the spirit of the novel the way no other attempt at this ever has been, even though it may not be true to the time period. It suggests something on par with a mix between the personal drama of Signs and the more large scale attacks of ID4.

Spielberg is reaching out to the internet community to promote and share this thing with us all right from the start. Count me excited.

The War of the Worlds information keeps coming in at trickle, and today they trickled out a little more. Released are two more photos; one with the dirty muppet and a pic of Tom Cruise pointing and potentially wetting himself. Still absent are aliens, which is sort of the point of this whole thing.

But, there is some alien hope. There will be a special thirty second TV spot for War of the Worlds during the Superbowl.

It’s supposed to feature the first actual footage from the film… which makes me wonder what that little snippet of footage is they’re showing in the current trailer. Granted, it’s just a shot of a neighborhood getting fried, but it’s still footage, isn’t it? Yes, I think so.

Maybe they mean they’ll show us some tentacles. Tentacles are good… unless used as a nemesis for Hellboy. Then they cause boredom.

Scroll down for the latest two War of the Worlds pics, as well as a newly released version of the official poster. They insist this is a corrected version, though what they corrected I couldn’t tell you. More tiny words.

Check the Photos