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The War Of The Worlds
Pendragon Pictures (2005)

Directed by Timothy Hines

John Gallo .... Co-Producer
Susan Goforth .... Producer

THEATRICAL RELEASE DATE: Late April 2005

WEBSITES

For the Official Pendragon Pictures website, please click here
Click here for the War Of The Worlds Movie News site

CAST

Jack Clay .... Ogilvy
Susan Goforth
John Kaufmann .... The Curate
James Lathrop .... The Artilleryman
Anthony Piana
Jamie Lynn Sease

PRESS RELEASE

Click here for the Press Release from Pendragon

TEASER TRAILER

Teaser trailer and interviews with cast are available
from stuffo.howstuffworks.com,
click here to go to their site.

POSTERS

Pendragon Pictures - War Of The Worlds - Posters
Click on the images for a larger versions. Thanks to Pendragon

MAGAZINES

SFX Magazine - Jan 05 Issue
has a full page article on the Pendragon movie, click on the above for a larger version.  Thanks to Dave at SFX.

WHAT WILL THE ALIENS BE LIKE?

The Director wouldn't reveal much, but Hines did provide a brief glimpse at what his aliens and their technology would be like, "... it's as if the medievalists, they had these giant overscaled catapults that they would use to sling these huge bales of fire the size of a wagon at each other. And so we sort of applied the idea that what if the medievalists had somehow stumbled on computer technology. How frightening would these massive overscaled iron and copper age kind of energies be, applied to computer use. And that's about as much as I can say ..."

LEGAL COPYRIGHT STATUS TO MAKE MOVIES FROM BOOK?

"It's one of the most complicated copyright issue problems out there. I can only say it like this. Parts of it are in the public domain, parts of it have really strange rights optioned in very strange ways to people for various different concerns. It's available in some territories and not available in other territories for some people and that possibly is why Tom Cruise was so stalled out. It was just a daunting experience. When we set out to make it we spent easily right at the very beginning $12,000 in just copyright research alone. Just to find out what all of the different various aspects of the copyright concerns were. So what I can say to you is that it boiled down to essentially a head to head between us and Paramount and ultimately they wrote us a letter conceding that we had a right to do a version of 'The War of the Worlds.'"

Full Interview can be found here

FILM IMAGES - 01/02/05

The above images are direct from Pendragon Pictures.  Click on the images for larger version.

The above images are from eveofthewar.com.  Click here to view larger versions.  Thanks to Anthony.

Theatrical Trailer - Now Online

Click here to view the trailer

The above screenshots are from the trailer

According to the official website, the Pendragon movie will be
"The First Authentic Movie Adaptation Of The
1898 H.G. Wells Classic Novel".

Pendragon Pictures have completed principal photography on their take of H.G. Wells' The War Of The Worlds. Set in Wells' intended turn-of-the-century English locale, the movie is the world's first authentic adaptation of the H.G. Wells classic 1898 novel.

The live-action production, lensed in complete security under the cover title The Great Boer War, taking ten weeks to complete on location in England and the Pacific Northwest. The picture wrapped almost three years to the date when Pendragon's original updated version of War Of The Worlds was shut down due to the events of September 11th.

QUESTION & ANSWERS FROM TIM HINES (the Director)

Q. What motivated you to make a new War of the Worlds movie?

A. I first attempted to make a version at age ten, when I caught my bedroom on fire filming a burning miniature set. I've always deeply related to the protagonist in THE WAR OF THE WORLDS. In a lot of ways it is the ultimate survivalist story. Anyone who has had to face challenges or difficulties can relate to the writer's experiences, and understand the choices he makes. But the most amazing thing is how Wells wove these experiences of his protagonist seamlessly into the sociological themes he wished to progress. I've drawn plans in some form or another to make WAR OF THE WORLDS continuously over the last several decades. You might say it's been my life's work to make this movie.

Q. Have you had to deviate in anyway from the original book or is a close retelling?

A. No. We have had to deviate in no way whatsoever. Everyone involved worked tirelessly on every level to bring Wells' novel to the screen with every detail intact. Nor were any of Wells' meanings or subtext lost. The screenplay adaptation was carefully constructed, breaking down and translating the original text point-by-point, thought-by-thought, line-by-line.

Q. Do we get to see the martians in any detail? Have you stuck to the original novels description?

A. Yes, and yes. The fans won't be disappointed in any way, but there will be serious surprises that we found through careful examination of the text. In a heartbeat, the fans will say that these wonderful discoveries are correct.

Q. All in all do you feel that you have made a successful retelling?

A. Yes, this is the closest adaptation to the book ever done. As close an adaptation as any novel has ever been done.

Thanks to Waroftheworldsonline for the use of this text. 
To see the full interview click here

CAST DIARIES

The Curate... We were filming a scene where The Writer and I find an abandoned house. Inside, we find some food and hide from the Martians. Just as we’re eating our first real food in days, the house begins to shake and the roof suddenly caves in on us. To get the effect, there were complicated and elaborate mechanical effects on set. These would be combined with CGI and miniature enhancements. Amongst the variety of set special effects, were devices that were designed to dump mountains of debris into the scene.  Naturally, this made me a little nervous. Tim had everything set up, and they had practiced where the debris would fall. It was one of those scenes you wanted to get right. “You’re sure they won’t hit us?” I asked Tim. “You might get hit with a stray piece, but it won’t hurt,” he promised. “I don’t want to get hit with any rocks,” I said. “They’re not rocks!” CLICK HERE FOR MORE

CREATIVE WRITING ARTICLE

"This is the first time The War of the Worlds will be brought to the screen in it's original context and setting. As far as I know, this is the first time any Wells novel has been adapted with such accuracy. People who have never read Wells will find out for the first time why the passion for his novels has lasted over a hundred years." - Timothy Hines for 'Creative Writing'.  FOR A LONGER ARTICLE CLICK HERE