Pendragon's WAR OF THE WORLDS film may not actually exist... (1 Viewer)

[Jeffrey Nelson]

Author Bill Warren ("Keep Watching The Skies!") left a most disconcerting post at the Mobius Home Video Forum in which he says that Starlog editor Dave McDonnell told him that he learned that the film "doesn't really exist beyond a reel or two shot to try to lure enough investors to complete the movie." This is the version shot near Seattle, set during the 1890s. I'll be extremely sad if this is true. Pendragon's recent press release indicated that the film was mostly complete, and had already screened in front of enthusiastic test audiences, that it would play theatrically at the end of April, and that the DVD distribution was already locked in:



Pendragon's WAR OF THE WORLDS

WAR OF THE WORLDS news links

 

[David Forbes]

The theatrical trailer looks like ass. This looks like direct-to-video dreck. It also seemed a lot of the trailer was stock footage.

 

[Todd Phillips]

This looks to have the budget of a 1970's Dr. Who episode. There is no way to do this story properly with the home computer CGI effects the trailer has. I wouldn't put any hope into this being a decent film. The website lacks any professionalism and the "news" releases are full of cheesy hype that spend to much time talking about how they will beat Spielberg's film.

 

[Colton]

Man, this is awful news. :frowning:

- Colton

 

[todd s]

What exactly is this? Also, I doubt Lucas is pissed at Spielberg. He had Spielberg do some of the work on Ep.3 and just streamed him the final version. Not something you do if you are pissed at him.

 

[Jim Barg]

Here's a link to a thread over at CHUD about Tim Hines, Pendragon and WOTW. How truthful it is, I have no idea, but it does make for interesting reading. While it doesn't say explicitly, there's a strong implication that Mr. McDonnell is correct.

 

[Colton]

Pendragon's THE WAR OF THE WORLDS has been released. On sale tomorrow (6/7/05) at Wal-Mart.

- Colton

 

[Greg_S_H]

It's getting crucified by reviewers at Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...v=glance&s=dvd

 

[Michael Martin]

Agreed. Looks like fodder for MST3K parties, to me.

 

[Aaron Reynolds]

From one of the planted Amazon reviews. I have tears in my eyes from laughing so hard.

They should put that quote on the front cover of the DVD.

 

[hanson mat]

You could tell from the trailer that it was low-budget. Not much of a film compared to Spielberg's vision.

 

[Kevin M]

Here's the Trailer, looks like Trey Parker's War Of The Worlds if you ask me...hell that might have been worth seeing!
Still, I'll rent this to give it a fair shake....but it ain't looking good if the trailer is any indication.

 

[ThomasC]

What else could be expected from a no-name production company?

 

[Aaron Reynolds]

Plenty of good films have come from "no-name" production companies, so I suppose that you could expect a good film from a no-name production company.

Do you believe that the good films out there only come from the major studios?

 

[ThomasC]

I don't believe that good films only come from major studios, but people are ragging on the effects. You can only do so much with what you've got.

 

[Kevin M]

Whether or not it has good FX (not a prerequisite for a good film BTW), it just looks low rent, schlocky and highly amateurish, not having actually seen it I can't say whether or not this is the case & I will give it a look....my hopes are not high I have to admit.

 

[Kyle_D]

What do you want to bet someone comes along in 20 years and makes a Ed Wood-style movie out of the making of this War of the Worlds with a standing-in-the-shadow-of-Spielberg angle?

 

[Mark Philp]

I was not aware of this version of "War of the Worlds" until yesterday when I saw it and bought it at Wal-Mart for about eight bucks. It caught my attention because it claims to follow the original book which has always been a favorite of mine. I watched the first hour and it certainly has primative special effects and was obviously made on a shoestring budget, but I've seen a lot worse. When I finish watching it, I'll pass it around to some friends who are also big fans of Wells. If nothing else it will give us something to talk about.

 

[TonyD]

180 minutes long.

i wonder if netflix has this.

 

[Joe:C]

I had never heard of this and now I see Amazon has had to take down fake reviews for the film. You guys should check out the imdb boards for this movie. It's absolutely insane. There are a couple of people on there telling everyone how great this movie is and if you don't like it your an idiot. One guy even claims the movie has already sold 1.2 million copies.