H.G Wells’ classic 1898 novel, The War of the Worlds, has been adapted an eye-watering number of times, with the various production achieving wide-ranging levels of success. From the legendary radio adaptation that fooled a nation, to the modern day all-action Tom Cruise movie, we’re regularly reminded that this is a timeless piece of science fiction.
Interestingly, very few of these adaptations have actually taken place during the era in which the story was first created. It’s for that reason we’re very excited about the news emerging from the BBC this week….
According to Variety, the BBC has just commissioned a whole host of new television projects, one of which is a new adaptation of Wells’ War of the Worlds story set in its original Victorian era. The report also states that the writers behind BBC’s Jonathan Strange & Doctor Norrell will pen a script for the adaptation.
The project was first announced back in 2015, but this week’s news that Mammoth Studios will be leading the project has also brought with it some new details about the production’s setting. The Northwest Evening Mail, quotes Mammoth’s Damien Timmer as saying “no one has ever attempted to follow Wells and locate the story in Dorking [the book’s original setting] at the turn of the last century.” That suggests this new TV production will aim to be painstakingly faithful to Wells’ original story, which sees a series of metallic tubes containing Martian invaders landing in Surrey, England in an attempt to conquer and enslave humanity.
This will actually be the first British TV adaptation of The War of the Worlds, and it sounds like it could be one of the most interesting yet. Production is scheduled to get underway in early 2018.
