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"War of the Worlds" Remake -- good news, bad news
dowse_com | 1/13/05

Posted on 01/13/2005 1:41:37 PM PST by pabianice

OK, movie fans. First, there was the Wells novel, written in 1898 and astonishingly ahead of its time. Then, there was the first movie in 1953 -- also ahead of its time and very watchable for its effects, although Gene Barry was arguably not the best guy for the lead role. Now, we have the Speilberg remake, due out this summer.

The good news is that the film appears to try and recreate as much of the novel as possible, updating it from 1898 to 2005. The trailer looks like fun. And of course, CGI now lets a producer create visual effects undreamed of 50 years ago.

The bad news is varied. First, we have Speilberg, one of the great visual movie makers around but crippled with a political correctness that has turned most of his recent movies into dinner theater for the DNC. Tom Cruise takes the lead again, but he, too, is hot and cold and often seems unclear about a character's motivation. The, there is the tortured history of this remake, apparently set to have begun filming in 2001 but since re-re-re-written and had cast and crew changes. Such a history is, in Hollywood, usually a predictor of a really bad final product. Usually.

As noted in another thread, the recent remake of "Flight of the Phoenix" is notable only because it crashed and burned at the box office, returning just under $ 20 million on a $ 70 million+ investment to date.

We'll have to see what happens with "War."

Production sketch from remake of "WOTW."


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: moviereview
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To: pabianice

I just noticed the comment about Gene Barry. I thought he was pretty good.


101 posted on 01/13/2005 7:02:27 PM PST by yarddog
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To: wishuponastarr
I've always tended more toward "Protecter" for an sci-fi action adventure Hollywood treatment

I think that the Sci Fi Channel should buy up Niven's entire catalog. Think of the wealth of stories available by creating a whole series based on "Tales of The Known Universe".

Think of all the characters and races and planets in Known Space...Louis Wu, Pril, The Kzin, The Puppeteers, the Jinxians...heck, you could do a nifty two hour movie out of "A Gift From Earth". I'd love to see a one hour episode done from the story "Relic of The Empire".
Any one of the stories from "Neutron Star" would be a great one hour episode of an anthology series like the one that was done with Ray Bradbury's stories. Some of those were great.

They would have material and guaranteed high ratings for a decade.

102 posted on 01/13/2005 7:55:46 PM PST by Bloody Sam Roberts (All I ask from livin' is to have no chains on me. All I ask from dyin' is to go naturally.)
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To: HuntsvilleTxVeteran
The only science fiction movie better then the writing is "Planet of the Apes".

I don't know if it qualifies as sci-fi but the movie version of J.H. Rosny's "Quest for Fire" was much better than the book. The book was a skinny little thing that could have been much better.

103 posted on 01/13/2005 7:58:52 PM PST by Bloody Sam Roberts (All I ask from livin' is to have no chains on me. All I ask from dyin' is to go naturally.)
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To: HuntsvilleTxVeteran
The above URL is a great source of all types of books that are out of copyright.

Check this one out. It is HUGE.

The Classic Reader Library

Just about everything under the sun that is in the public domain.

104 posted on 01/13/2005 8:02:07 PM PST by Bloody Sam Roberts (All I ask from livin' is to have no chains on me. All I ask from dyin' is to go naturally.)
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To: aruanan
I remember this movie.

Remember it? Heck, I've got it on DVD and can recite dialogue from it verbatim. And I often do...to the eternal dismay of my cohorts and associates!

105 posted on 01/13/2005 8:06:27 PM PST by Bloody Sam Roberts (All I ask from livin' is to have no chains on me. All I ask from dyin' is to go naturally.)
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To: brazzaville
How about Jerry Pournelle and Nivens's 'Lucifer's Hammer'

I would love to see "Lucifer's Hammer" done justice on the big screen. I was surprised that it didn't get a look with the relative success of "Apocalypse" and "Deep Impact".

"Footfall" would be another great book to see on screen from the Niven/Pournelle alliance.

106 posted on 01/13/2005 8:11:02 PM PST by Bloody Sam Roberts (All I ask from livin' is to have no chains on me. All I ask from dyin' is to go naturally.)
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To: weenie
Independence Day was a remake of the 1953 version of War Of The Worlds. Some of the remade scenes are obviously made in homage to the original. Example: in the 1953 version, The US tries to stop the Martian advance with a nuke. The nuke was delivered by a Northrop YB-49 Flying Wing, a plane that never entered service in the USAF, but looked really cool. In Independence day, when a decision to drop a nuke was made, it was delivered by a B2 - the Northrop designed all wing bomber that is the direct decendent of the YB-49.

On the other hand, political correctness and modernism was on display as well. In the 1953 WOTW, the Martians are defeated as they are in the HG Wells story, by viruses "which God, in His wisdom, had created" (quote from the novel and the movie). In ID, the aliens are defeated by a human created computer virus - no need for God when you have a hacker, don't you see. Moreover, in the book and the 1953 WOTW, Martians were looking to conquer Earth to live on it (Mars was dying) and to use Human Beings as food. In ID, the alienes simply moved from planet to planet stripping them of their resources - their real crime was that they were the ultimate environmentalist nightmare, sort of like interstellar strip miners and polluters.

107 posted on 01/13/2005 8:29:45 PM PST by jscd3
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To: jscd3; weenie

I took a different perspective on ID. I viewed the Rand Quaid character as the hero, and his courageous self-sacrifice as the decisive factor. The hacking would have been to no avail without a human to fly the plane and deliver the death blow.


108 posted on 01/13/2005 8:40:29 PM PST by shibumi (Sum Ergo Flatulo)
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To: Bloody Sam Roberts
Remember it? Heck, I've got it on DVD and can recite dialogue from it verbatim. And I often do...to the eternal dismay of my cohorts and associates!

So this is to you what the BBC Radiophonic Workshop's production of The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy was to me.
109 posted on 01/14/2005 5:56:25 AM PST by aruanan
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To: Lurking Libertarian; killjoy; aruanan
DR. LIZARDO: Black Lectroids are on this planet! HERE! In-a New Jersey! Coming to destroy us! We must act! ESCAPE, or die! We must-a work _faster_, to-a finish the Great Vehicle Itself, so that we can-a enter the 8th dimension, and FREE our trapped comrades, so we can return home, and seize power once again! WHAT IS THE GREATEST JOY?

RED LECTROIDS: The joy of duty.

DR. LIZARDO: LOUDER!

RED LECTROIDS: THE JOY OF DUTY!

DR. LIZARDO: History is-a made at night! Character is what you are in the dark! We must WORK, while the clock, she's-a ticking!

RED LECTROID: Death to the Black Lectroids!

DR. LIZARDO: WHERE ARE WE GOING?

RED LECTROIDS: Planet Ten!

DR. LIZARDO: WHEN?

RED LECTROIDS: Real Soon!

110 posted on 01/14/2005 7:21:46 AM PST by theFIRMbss
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To: theFIRMbss
RED LECTROIDS: Real Soon!

I still use the 'real soon' line a lot in everyday conversation. Nobody ever gets the reference. I have often wondered if I was the only person to ever see this movie. Thanks to FR, I now know there is at least 5 of us. Laugh.

Mission Control: Buckaroo, The White House wants to know is everything ok with the alien space craft from Planet 10 or should we just go ahead and destroy Russia?
Buckaroo Banzai: Tell him yes on one and no on two.
Mission Control: Which one was yes, go ahead and destroy Russia... or number 2?

111 posted on 01/14/2005 7:43:02 AM PST by killjoy (War is not the answer, simply part of the solution)
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To: killjoy
>I have often wondered if I was the only person to ever see this movie. Thanks to FR, I now know there is at least 5 of us

ACROSS THE EIGHTH DIMENSION: REMEMBERING THE FIRST ADVENTURE OF BUCKAROO BANZAI

112 posted on 01/14/2005 7:46:50 AM PST by theFIRMbss
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To: theFIRMbss
I remember reading once that they were thinking about a sequel to it. Do you know anything about it?
113 posted on 01/14/2005 7:51:41 AM PST by killjoy (War is not the answer, simply part of the solution)
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To: killjoy
>I remember reading once that they were thinking about a sequel to it. Do you know anything about it?

What is the status of the proposed BB TV show?

Earl Mac Rauch and W.D. Richter, in collaboration with Reno Nevada, have written a pilot script for Buckaroo Banzai: Ancient Secrets and New Mysteries, a proposed TV series for Fox TV. A short promotional trailer (with a computer-generated Jet Car) was even made for the project by the visual effects wizards at Foundation Imaging. Unfortunately, the pilot was shelved by a network management change, although another outlet has reportedly expressed some preliminary interest. In the meantime, you can see the amazing Jet Car trailer on the DVD edition of The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai. ...

When is Buckaroo Banzai Against the World Crime League going to be made?

Real soon.

BB FAQ

114 posted on 01/14/2005 7:59:10 AM PST by theFIRMbss
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To: HuntsvilleTxVeteran

Huntsville, was your post intended for me? I made a comment about The Planet of the Apes and you answered with Harriet Beecher Stowe. I don't get the connection.


115 posted on 01/14/2005 8:41:32 AM PST by redheadtoo
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To: redheadtoo
Sorry I didn't complete my thought.
The book Planet of the apes came out about 10 years after the short story.
I was searching the web for the date of the book and was surprised that this author had written other books.
It is not too unusual for an Author to publish a short story and later expand it into a book.
116 posted on 01/14/2005 8:48:45 AM PST by HuntsvilleTxVeteran (So I talk to myself, at least I am talking to a mind that is my equal)
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To: tfecw

Timmy Robbins...does he play one of the Martians? AS for Cruise...he is so over.


117 posted on 01/14/2005 8:55:10 AM PST by eleni121 (Four more years and four more again after that...)
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To: redheadtoo

The short story had a space ship finding a capsule and reading the about humans crash landing on the earth and finding Apes in control and mute humans.
The kicker at the end was the people in the spacecraft that found the capsule laughing about this funny and impossible scene as they swung around the spacecraft using their tails.
Was the book close to this?


118 posted on 01/14/2005 8:55:42 AM PST by HuntsvilleTxVeteran (So I talk to myself, at least I am talking to a mind that is my equal)
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To: ozzymandus
I don't understand why they keep making remakes of movies everybody has seen a dozen times already.

Creative and intellectual bankruptcy.

119 posted on 01/14/2005 8:57:23 AM PST by mewzilla (Has CBS retracted the story yet?)
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To: tfecw

*sigh* I love the book. I'd kill for this to be made as a period piece set in 1890's Woking and surrounding area.


120 posted on 01/14/2005 8:58:50 AM PST by null and void (I refuse to live my life as if someone, somewhere will be offended if I laugh...)
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