Tom Cruise Develops ‘War of the Worlds’
Tom Cruise is developing and will possibly star in a new feature version of H.G. Wells’ classic Martian invasion tale “The War of the Worlds.”
The film is scheduled for production in 2003 via the actor’s Cruise/Wagner Prods. and its Paramount home.
“‘The War of the Worlds’ is a timeless literary treasure and one of our most exciting properties,” said Sherry Lansing, chair of Paramount Pictures Motion Picture Group. “Since Paramount has enjoyed such tremendous success partnering with Cruise/Wagner, there is clearly no better team to entrust this to.”
Cruise/Wagner worked with Paramount on such high-profile projects as the billion-dollar “Mission: Impossible” franchise and the recent thriller “Vanilla Sky.”
Wells’ sci-fi novel was first published in 1898. Depicting a global, seemingly unstoppable Martian attack on Earth, the book was adapted and performed to sound like a live news broadcast by Orson Welles, whose Mercury Theater aired the now-legendary radio play the day before Halloween in 1938.Broadcast to millions of Americans, the show was so convincing, it caused a nationwide panic, quelled only after the news media reported the truth.
DreamWorks recently released a feature version of Wells’ “The Time Machine” to mixed results.
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