The first trailer for the BBC’s new adaptation of HG Wells’s The War of the Worlds has been released.
The miniseries is a 3-episode adaptation of HG Wells’ seminal 1898 sci-fi novel about a Martian invasion of England. The series stars Eleanor Tomlinson (Poldark) as Amy, Rafe Spall (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom) as George, Rupert Graves (Sherlock) as Frederick, and Robert Carlyle (The Full Monty) as Ogilvy. According to BBC’s synopsis of the series, “This is the original alien invasion story. Starring Eleanor Tomlinson, Rafe Spall and Robert Caryle, this tense and thrilling drama follows a young couple’s race for survival against escalating terror of an alien enemy beyond their comprehension.”
Spall plays George, a man who escapes his failing marriage to begin a new life with Amy (Tomlinson), despite societal disapproval. Graves plays George’s brother and Carlyle an astronomer. In the meantime, aliens arrive to conquer the Earth.
“HG Wells’ seminal novel has been adapted for the screen many times, but it’s always had a contemporary (and American) setting,” director Craig Viveiros said in a statement. “This is the first version to be set in London… during the Edwardian period.”
Writer Peter Harness added: “The version of The War of the Worlds that I wanted to make is one that’s faithful to the tone and the spirit of the book, but which also feels contemporary, surprising and full of shocks: a collision of sci-fi, period drama and horror.”
BBC’s The War of the Worlds miniseries began production in Liverpool in April 2018. The series is directed by Craig Viveiros and produced by Betsan Morris Evans (The City and the City). Damien Timmer, Preethi Mavahalli, Peter Harness and Craig Viveiros are executive producers for Mammoth Screen, which is a part of ITV Studios. Tommy Bulfin is an executive producer for the BBC. Minglu Ma is the executive producer for Creasun. Jamie Brown is the executive producer for Red Square.
ITV Studios Global Entertainment is distributing The War of the Worlds miniseries internationally which will air in France, Spain, Italy, Russia, Australia, Canada and 50 regions in Africa.
The channels so far announced carrying War of the Worlds will be TF1 in France, Movistar+ in Spain, LaF via Sky Italy, Channel 1 in Russia, Ireland’s RUV, YLE in Finland and Epic Drama in Central and Eastern Europe.
The series was also picked up by Foxtel in Australia, TVNZ in New Zealand, Blue Ant Media in Canada and with M-Net in Africa. The Mammoth Screen production for the BBC is being co-produced with Creasun Media, in association with Red Square.
There have been no details thus far on a broadcast in the United States, but it will likely be made available via streaming services if nothing else.
The production is one of two warring “War of the Worlds” TV adaptations. The other, spanning eight episodes, comes from Studiocanal-backed Urban Myth Films in partnership with Fox Networks Group Europe & Africa and AGC Television. It transposes Wells’ novel to present-day Europe and stars Gabriel Byrne (“Hereditary”), Elizabeth McGovern (“Downton Abbey”), Léa Drucker, Natasha Little, Daisy Edgar Jones, Stéphane Caillard, Adel Bencherif, and Guillaume Gouix. Gilles Coulier (“The Natives”) and Richard Clark (“Versailles”) each direct four installments.
Wells originally published War of the Worlds as a serialized novel in Pearson’s Magazine in the UK and Cosmopolitan in the United States. It was collected into a hardcover edition in 1898. It was further popularized by Orson Well’s radio drama adaptation of the story. When the drama aired on CBS Radio on Halloween in 1938, some listeners mistook it for an actual news broadcast.
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