There is a British company who just completed War of the World where it takes place in 1889 (just like the novel). I think the name of the company is Pendrageon. It was suppose to come out in 2005 but Hollywood killed that prospect this summer. I heard that the British version stuck to the novel, and was interesting because mankind did not have the modern weapons to confront the Martian tripods. I think it will come out in Britain and DVD. I always hoped Masterpiece Theater would do War of the World. I think the future for good films will come when film making is low cost and decentralized. I think when animation becomes life like, a group of artists can come out with a human like animated actor/actress that will never age and will not demand huge salaries from studios. I think it is concievable within 10 years to use 3-D animation to produce life like films (all subjects, eras, genre) for less than $ 25M. I think this is possible, just look at the 3-D graphics on video games and how it is driving software, computer graphics, memory and speed. There are software for creating still 3-D human figures with skin texture, lifelike eyes and hair for $ 300. Using reference point photography, it can reproduce a 3-D image of your face and you can add it to the lifelike human figure created. Add another $5000 animated software program and $ 10 000 computer workstation, you can animate the figure where the clothes swirl naturally and the hair waves naturally. I would say if you spend less than 10 seconds glancing at the animation, you will think that was a live person on tape. Give it another ten years, and the actors of today will be looking for another line of work.
The Pendragon film came out on DVD about a month ago. I was really looking forward to it because it was (according to a knowledgable friend of mine) very true to the original HG Wells story. It takes place in London, the dialogue and narration are often verbatim from the original book. The plot follows the book.
However, the production standards are bad. You really have to watch it as though you are seeing a stage play on the screen. The special effects are very unconvincing. It costs about $9 at Walmart. I wish I could recommend it because I was interested in seeing the original story on the screen. But it is too amateurish to recommend.
And count one the anime-porn industry to drive sales and innovation here