Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise have a "War of the Worlds" on the way, but Pendragon Pictures is releasing one too. Pendragon's was supposed to be released way sooner, but was derailed after September 11, 2001. Come see pictures of "H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds" and read what the production company has to say about the Cruise/Spielberg version.From the Pendragon Pictures press release:
As it is, theirs will be released a lot closer to the Cruise/Spielberg film, but Pendragon's appears to be more true to the vision that H.G. Wells had when he wrote the novel in 1898. Concerning the announced Spielberg/Cruise production, Timothy Hines is philosophical, "We communicated with the principals at Paramount before 9/11. They acknowledged in writing through their attorneys that we can make our picture. At that time an Executive producer on Dreamworks' THE TIME MACHINE invited us to his home in Las Vegas, where he informed us that Tom Cruise had aspirations to make the picture. They essentially all told us to go away. Since then, many friends and allies of Tom Cruise have communicated to us the same sentiment. Now that they have announced that they are doing a modern version, I think there's room for both our productions to exist. What they are doing sounds interesting. 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 THE 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."
"H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds" is directed by Timothy Hines ("Chrome") and stars Jack Clay. The film is due out in 2005.