From time to time I get to read a story that just makes me shake in bewilderment. The following is such a story. The Jeff Wayne musical adaptation of THE WAR OF THE WORLDS... and a serious based on the original material WAR OF THE WORLDS need not be exclusive. Mr Wayne is simply not seeing the amazing opportunity that is in front of him. A great feature film based on Peter Briggs' script would feed interest in his own musical adaptation. Not kill it. He'd be getting money off of the film version as well as selling more soundtracks... getting the play active again... and possibly set up as an animated (computer/traditional/stop-motion style) or live action film. By allowing the property to languish, he's doing the story a disservice. As for the following scoop... it came from Patrick Sauriol at (COMING ATTRACTIONS, who felt that it needed to get out as quickly as possible. Projects like this do not need to be dead, WAR OF THE WORLDS done right (ala Briggs' treatment) are rare birds. Hopefully we won't have to wait 21 years! Here's Peter Briggs with the story...
I keep hearing confused rumours about my name in connection with a Hallmark "War Of The Worlds" project, so I thought I might take the opportunity to set the whole matter straight.
I wrote a faithful "period" adaptation of "H.G. Wells' War Of The
Worlds" on spec back in 1995. (When will I ever learn? My then-agent at William Morris turned the screenplay in to Paramount
who flipped. By one of those incredible
coincidences that afflict me, Brian Blessed and Kenneth Branagh had
simultaneously approached Paramount, wanting to develop WOTW as a
project for themselves. Paramount handed over my screenplay to them,
and I was informed that their enthusiastic feedback was "we couldn't
do better ourselves." A deal was attempted to be struck.
Unfortunately we hit a
snag. European Copyright Law had literally *just* changed, from 50
years after an author's death, to 75!! The book was JUST about to be
public domain in England, but bounced back out of reach.
Like Han Solo said, "Here's where the fun begins"...
When Jeff Wayne did his musical album version of "War Of The Worlds"
back in the mid '70s, he purchased the non-cinematic European rights
from the Wells Estate, then kept renewing them. Paramount couldn't
make a movie deal with Branagh & Blessed and myself without him
onboard, so we physically got Wayne into a room and tried to make it
happen. With, absolutely no success. He was adamant that he wanted
to make any potential movie a *musical*. ("Tap dancing Martians??!"
I boggled incredulously to my agent at the time.) He wouldn't budge,
so the whole project fizzled out. (I gather his late wife wrote the
"Book" adaption for his album, so it's possible he may have
sentimental feelings for the material.)
It doesn't end there. Last year, an executive at Cruise-Wagner
contacted me, enthusiastically wanting to secure the script as a
vehicle for Cruise at Paramount. Again, we had to tell him the Jeff
Wayne debacle. He was mortified.
Once more, a few months ago, Hallmark approached my English agents
(A.P. Watt, who by another odd coincidence represent the Wells
Estate) about making "War Of The Worlds" happen as one of their
typically lavish T.V. miniseries. We again had to relate the Jeff
Wayne story to them. (Apparently, somehow, this leak seems to be
the source of this current rumour.)
Unless Jeff Wayne recants, we're probably going to have to wait
another 21 years for a faithful version of Wells' piledriver. It's
kind of aggravating, because although the world seems to associate me
with "Alien vs Predator", *this* is the script that gets consistent
raves from execs when it's sent out as a sample. Oh, well. Maybe
I'll get to direct it when I'm 55...
