H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds is an authentic adaptation of H.G. Wells' classic novel from Pendragon Pictures . Although it was originally set to be a modern retelling such as the previous film incarnation and the upcoming War of the Worlds (2005) movie, the tragic events of September 11th caused the filmmakers to rethink this strategy and they set aim to make a film based directly on the book after filming their next project, Chrome .

The status of the film seemed to be in constant question as no new information was coming out about the film until 2004, about three years since the last bit of word had rumbled through, in which it was announced that the principle photography had finished under the false title of The Great Boer War.

The film was directed by Timothy Hines and stars a cast of unknowns including Anthony Piana (as the unnamned Narrator of the story), James Lathrop (as the Artilleryman), John Kaufmann (as the Curate), Jack Clay (as Ogilvy), and Jamie Lynn Sease (as Miss Elphinstone). The film had been prepared to open March 30th, 2005, but as of late March had slipped to an undetermined date in "late April 2005"; in an eleventh hour press release, Hines described this as due entirely to production pressures. Various other explanations for the delay have been suggested: that it may be an attempt to capitalise on the release of the Steven Spielberg version, a failure to book the film into theatres, or simply the lack of any theatrical distributor at all (some note that previous Hines productions such as Bug Wars and Starship Orpheus have never received a release).

Since late 2004, Pendragon Pictures' marketing campaign has been accused of shilling on the message boards of the Internet Movie Database. Additionally, a post on the film's message board claims that certain staff members at Pendragon successfully reported posts shedding the film and its production company in a negative light for deletion by the administrators, and that a lawyer speaking on behalf of the filmmakers threatened legal action against the board's users. [1]

External links

• Official Site
• H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds at the Internet Movie Database