Want a definition of “Oh Crap”? Imagine for a moment that you decide to make a movie… and you’re pretty excited about it. Let’s say you’re making… oh I don’t know… a film version of the old Sci-Fi TV Show Automan. You’ve been waiting for someone to do a more modern adaptation of the story and take the bull by the horns and get it going yourself. The script is done, you cast a solid group of basically unknown actors, start shooting the film and then maybe even get to the post-production stages. Yes, the world seems good. And then someone tells you that that they just heard that Martin Scorsese has decided to direct another version of Automan and has cast Brad Pitt and Johnny Depp in the lead roles. Oh yeah, he also has a $200 million dollar budget and the backing of a major studio. That my friends, is a crappy day.
I as many of you know, Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg are developing a film called War of the Worlds. What i didn’t realize was that a much smaller group has had a War of the Worlds film in the makings for quite some time. The good folks at CHUD.com give us this:
You might recall reading a few years ago about a new adaptation of H.G. Wells’ classic story War of the Worlds from a company called Pendragon Pictures. It was to be a contemporary version of the story, and had made it to the casting phase (Michael Caine was attached) before the events of 9/11 made a film about a city under siege seem like an idea that’s not so great.
And that was the last we heard of their War of the Worlds movie. Until now. As it turns out, Pendragon has been quietly reworking the project into a faithful adaptation of Wells’ novel. They’ve set the story at the turn of the 20th century, assembled a cast of relative unknowns… and already shot the damn thing in England and the Pacific Northwest. The film, directed by Timothy Hines (who has led the charge from the project’s beginnings), will now enter post-production where CGI and miniatures join the full-scale models and mechanical effects already filmed. The plan is to release the film in Spring 2005.
Of course, you may have heard that Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg are reuniting on a project called… War of the Worlds. The filmmakers at Pendragon are unconcerned. “Now that they have announced that they are doing a modern version, I think there’s room for both our productions to exist,” says Hines. “From what I understand, they are changing the story dramatically, whereas we have point-by-point recreated the book for the screen. Our production of War of the Worlds is set at the turn-of-the-century. We’re almost a back story to their version, sort of like a prequel.”
Hines is putting on a brave face and being very diplomatic here… but I don’t care how calm he sounds, you’ve gotta be a little ticked off or panicked when you find out that Steven Spielberg is heading a project by the same name. No one can be that apathetic or unrealistic. Who knows… maybe I’m just shallow, but man I’d be pissed. You can read the whole CHUD article here.
