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."
Now that would be something to see!
I agree. Spielberg (politics aside) is one of the greatest directors EVER. What's with all the Spielberg bashing? Yes, he's a liberal and a FOB, but I don't think that's ever affected his movies. Look at Saving Private Ryan--the left washed their hands of that movie when they saw that Spielberg depicted the American soldier not as brainless killing machines, as they would've preferred, but as brave and courageous and noble.
I'm looking forward to WOTW.
I even thought Saving Private Ryan was poor. A lot of PC in it too.
Now that I think about it tho, I did like Young Sherlock Holmes and the TV series about the young Indianna Jones.
Bloody Sam Roberts: I'd like to see Ender's Game The Uplift War picked up, too.
I'm hoping for the best, but I kind of lost faith in Spielberg after A.I. Blech!
I just noticed you beat me to it
But "AI" wasn't Spielberg's movie really. He filmed it as a final favor for Stanley Kubrick, who had completed most of the prep work and was about to start production when he died.
I'm still around.
It's Spielberg, as well. Rober Duvall took him to task for his love of Castro.
The invasion will be Bush's fault. And how will they change the end? They obviously cannot use the original movie ending of people in church singing AMEN........not PC, sorry.
Nay. Michael Moore will save the world by eating all the aliens.
burp..."for the children"
One of my favorite albums was Jeff Wayne's musical version of War of the Worlds. Anyone ever heard of this one? Sort of a rock-version of the story.
Three words about Spielberg and Wells: "The Time machine".
Scary picture. Looks like a picture of everyday life in America if Hillary was ever given the presidency.
The movie trailer looks like it has the potential of being a winner.
Thanks for posting this.
Robbins in it, huh?
I'll wait until I can tape it for free.
And hope his character turns out to be brief.
The '53 movie version scared the hell out of me when I was a kid. Loved it. I really want to be scared again; hope they don't screw it up.
Ender's Game is allegedly in production right now and is scheduled for an 06 release. (But it's been in production before without it panning out.)
At home, I have a link to a website that is maintained by...or at least involves Larry Niven. The movie "Ringworld" was about to go into production last year when something happened and the whole thing was kyboshed. Probably a money thing.
That's the bad news. Here's the good news.
The Sci-Fi Channel announced that they will be airing a Ringworld Mini-Series:
RINGWORLD: Based on Larry Niven's RINGWORLD series of novels, a four-hour mini-series is in development. In the future four explorers crash on an artificial structure in deep space, a mammoth ring that circles a distant star. Exploring this strange place, the humans discover that there is life here and secrets that could change the universe forever.
Pardon me while I go into the corner to drool. I can't wait. I hope it's better than the treatment they gave "Dune".
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