Eve Of The War
http://www.focusgaming.co.uk/eveofthewar/

Strange Invaders...
http://www.focusgaming.co.uk/eveofthewar/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=196
Page 1 of 2

Author:  eveofthewar [ Wed Mar 02, 2005 9:45 am ]
Post subject: 

FROM : <a href='http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/2005_02_04_arch.php' target='_blank'>http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/</a><br /><br />There’s no telling how good or even credible Timothy Hines' screen adaptation of H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds will be, but it’s hard not to sympathize with any David facing a Goliath...especially when the kid with the slingshot got rolling on his project first.<br /><br />Hines' film cost $12 million and apparently has no formal distributor, but will open, it is being claimed, seven and a half weeks from now -- on Wednesday, March 30 -- in five major cities on a four-wall basis...or so I've been told. (Hines is claiming he has a distributor, although he won't identify it.)<br /><br />Paramount Pictures War of the Worlds (6.29), which is costing at least $150 million to produce, boasts the talents of director Steven Spielberg, star Tom Cruise and screenwriter David Koepp. Nonetheless, it will open about three months after the indie upstart. <br /><br />Image<br /><br />And yet there are issues about the Hines project that are giving me concern. <br /><br />For one thing, the 44 year-old Hines (House of the Rising, A Midsummer Night's Dream) won’t tell me who his financial backers are, except to describe them as "computer industry people, and I’m not talking about Paul Allen or Bill Gates." He said one of the individuals behind the project is "one of the largest venture capitalists in the world."<br /><br />Then there's the issue of Hines declining to tell me who his distributor is. I was told Friday morning that he doesn't actually have one -- he and his partners are going to self-distribute (i.e., "four wall") by booking screens outright, paying for their own advertising, etc. Hines has since declared this is "not true," although he wouldn't cough up specifics.<br /><br />Image<br /><br />The one-sheet for Hines' film looks half-classy, half-exploitation...passable but a little bit cheesy-looking. It's not the sort of movie poster, I would think, that a savvy, hard-core distribution marketer would necessarily use to sell a movie with. Is this reflective in some way of the film itself?<br /><br />Hines, the head of a Seattle-based company called Pendragon Pictures, has been doing a fairly skillful job of promoting his film on at least two websites aimed at sci-fi geeks, but it bothers me that the trailer won’t play, and is viewable only via Windows Media.<br /><br />(Hines wrote me after this article posted on Friday and insisted "the trailers on howstuffworks.com are perfectly downloadable and have been downloaded by millions." Good to hear...but I couldn't download them, and a screenwriter friend who lives in New York had the same experience.)<br /><br />Hines' feature, an apparently faithful adaptation of Wells novel that’s set in 1900 England, cost a reported $20 million, although $8 million of this was sunk into an earlier version that was going to be set in the present day, but was abandoned after the 9.11 tragedy. (It was decided that a modern-day film about invading destructive Martians would seem exploitive.) <br /><br />H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds, the official title of Hines' project, may turn out to be a half-decent low-budgeter, a surprisingly inventive film or a grade-Z stinker, but come hell or high water it is apparently set to open in Atlanta, New York, Chicago, Seattle and San Francisco on 3.30. <br /><br />A follow-up DVD release is set for 6.15 -- two weeks before the Spielberg-Cruise flick hits screens.<br /><br />Image<br /><br />Whatever else it may turn out to be, the Spielberg-Cruise War of the Worlds is expected to be an all-out, go-for-broke CG extravaganza. It’s a modern-day spin on Wells' allegorical tale of alien invaders (i.e., it was meant as a metaphor for British colonialism, and was actually a kind of protest about the Boer War), and will be set largely in and around Hoboken, New Jersey, with Cruise apparently playing a longshoreman.<br /><br />It wouldn't be totally out of line in a present-day context to call the Spielberg-Cruise flick a metaphor about U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq -- just think of U.S. forces as the Martians and the Iraqis as Hoboken natives.<br /><br />I called around yesterday (i.e., Thursday) and found it hard to find anyone in the indie distribution community who’s seen Hines' film, or has spoken to anyone who’s seen it.<br /><br />Hines told me a story about the film’s release strategy and financial backing was expected to break in Forbes on 2.11, but I checked about this on Friday morning and it appears that the story may be delayed. <br /><br />I asked Hines why his pre-release strategy didn't involve a trade story or two in Variety or The Hollywood Reporter. He didn’t have much of a response other than to air a suspicion that trade magazine reporters are too caught up in catering to powerful Hollywood distributor-advertisers to deliver an unbiased report about a small-time producer going up against the big guys.<br /><br />I asked Hines two or three times about when the film would be shown to critics, and each time he gave what sounded to me like an evasive answer. He later told me he'll let me have an exclusive peek sometime in early March. <br /><br />Here's some verbatim excerpts from what Hines told me. I’m just running the quotes undoctored, not having time to double-check everything before my scheduled return to Santa Barbara early this afternoon:<br /><br />“I’ve been wanting to make War of the Worlds since I was ten years old. We were going to make a present-day version but we had to abandon our plan after 9/11."<br /><br />[Note: I don't know for a fact that Hines began his film in '98, but he took out a trade ad announcing his project in the 5.7.01 issue of Daily Variety, timed for appearance during the Cannes Film Festival.]<br /><br />"I’m a small independent coming out of nowhere. We’re clearly not part of the Hollywood machine. Obviously, Steven Spielberg doesn’t want to be seen as trailing in our footsteps. This is the first time ever in history in which a major studio, big-budget film will be following a smaller indie version of the same thing into the marketplace.<br /><br />“We’re expecting to be trashed by critics, but my film is gorgeous. I cry every day at how well it’s coming together. <br /><br />“We’re following the Wells book very closely, which partly involves using an old-fashioned idea know as story tension. The book begins with the initial landings, but the Martians don’t really show their hand until one third of the way in...but you know all the while that they're going to emerge and start attacking, and that’s where the tension lies."<br /><br />Image<br /><br />"I didn’t make it as an analogy to the Iraqi War, although, yes, it’s about occupiers and hubris. All through history invaders and conquerors have fallen prey to their own hubris. You see it again and again and again. Wells was protesting the Boer War with his book. He was saying Britain is going to fall one day, and it did...it was beaten by a little brown man wearing a loincloth.<br /><br />"Paramount is trying to get people to compare our film with theirs on the basis of budget and special effects alone, but a satisfying film is about more than just that. <br /><br />"That said, our effects are going to look as good as if not better than what you see on Star Trek, for instance. Our film, at its best, comes off as visually assured as The Matrix."

Author:  Loz [ Wed Mar 02, 2005 11:01 am ]
Post subject: 

The plot thickens.

Author:  gavv8 [ Wed Mar 02, 2005 7:16 pm ]
Post subject: 

So it will be released in the u.s first and still no uk release date.

Author:  rodnumber6 [ Wed Mar 02, 2005 8:14 pm ]
Post subject: 

<!--QuoteBegin-gavv8+Mar 2 2005, 07:16 PM--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(gavv8 @ Mar 2 2005, 07:16 PM)</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteEBegin-->So it will be released in the u.s first and still no uk release date.<br />[right][snapback]1651[/snapback][/right]<br />[/quote]<br /><br />This may also mean that unless it turns out to be completely brilliant and word of mouth spreads, it may not be seen theatrically anywhere beyond the five cities the article mentions. Well, at least the DVD should be pretty widely available. Probably no WOTW for any of us until June, though... :(

Author:  The Curate [ Tue Mar 15, 2005 10:49 am ]
Post subject: 

<!--QuoteBegin-rodnumber6+Mar 2 2005, 08:14 PM--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(rodnumber6 @ Mar 2 2005, 08:14 PM)</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteEBegin-->This may also mean that unless it turns out to be completely brilliant and word of mouth spreads, it may not be seen theatrically anywhere beyond the five cities the article mentions. Well, at least the DVD should be pretty widely available. Probably no WOTW for any of us until June, though... :(<br />[right][snapback]1661[/snapback][/right]<br />[/quote]<br /><br />Unfortunately :(

Author:  Leper Messiah [ Tue Mar 15, 2005 8:23 pm ]
Post subject: 

well if it gets out in any way shape or form nothing will stop me from seeing it

Author:  Loz [ Tue Mar 15, 2005 9:48 pm ]
Post subject: 

<!--QuoteBegin-Leper Messiah+Mar 15 2005, 08:23 PM--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Leper Messiah @ Mar 15 2005, 08:23 PM)</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteEBegin-->well if it gets out in any way shape or form nothing will stop me from seeing it<br />[right][snapback]2144[/snapback][/right]<br />[/quote]<br />Gazing at the sun for too long might! :shock:

Author:  Lonesome Crow [ Tue Mar 15, 2005 9:50 pm ]
Post subject: 

Yes, well he probably won't do that Loz :D

Author:  Loz [ Tue Mar 15, 2005 10:51 pm ]
Post subject: 

A blind leper messiah? Why its truely biblical. Frank Herbert couldn't have done better! <br />Bowie was the origional Leper Messiah, he had one bad eye!

Author:  Leper Messiah [ Wed Mar 16, 2005 12:18 pm ]
Post subject: 

stop assosiating Bowie with the term Leper Messiah!

Author:  Loz [ Wed Mar 16, 2005 4:12 pm ]
Post subject: 

<!--QuoteBegin-Leper Messiah+Mar 16 2005, 12:18 PM--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Leper Messiah @ Mar 16 2005, 12:18 PM)</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteEBegin-->stop assosiating Bowie with the term Leper Messiah!<br />[right][snapback]2176[/snapback][/right]<br />[/quote]<br />How can I do that? Here's the proof. Lyrics from Ziggy Stardust -<br /><br />Making love with his ego Ziggy sucked up into his mind<br />Like a leper messiah<br />When the kids had killed the man I had to break up the band.<br /><br />Oh yeah <br />Ooooooo<br />Ziggy played guitaarrrrrr <br /><br />See there it is, what yer got to say about that? :D

Author:  Leper Messiah [ Wed Mar 16, 2005 6:22 pm ]
Post subject: 

Yes im fully aware Bowie used the words in one line of a song where they have no apparent meaning, but since my screen name is from the Metallica song "Leper Messiah" and no, the term doesnt come from nor is it influenced by the Bowie lyric, stop applying it to me!! :D. Metallica gave the term an actual meaning unlike David "I Need A Filler Lyric" Bowie :D

Author:  Loz [ Wed Mar 16, 2005 8:53 pm ]
Post subject: 

that lyric is full of meaning, you just don't get it, because you're not into the writer.<br /><br />Metallica? Explains a lot. :blink:

Author:  Leper Messiah [ Thu Mar 17, 2005 4:07 am ]
Post subject: 

could you please tell me the meaning then, since Bowie lyric logic evidently escapes me.

Author:  Loz [ Thu Mar 17, 2005 8:39 am ]
Post subject: 

He's saying that Ziggy is percieved as a messiah by his fans, but at the heart of the character is rot. He is litteraly falling apart, in front of those that worship him.

Author:  The Curate [ Thu Mar 17, 2005 10:44 am ]
Post subject: 

End of round one.....ding ding.One day my friends you will reach the goal that i have attained and become Genesis fans(early Genesis with Gabriel i might add)or maybe thats too 'arty' for you lot of middle of the road music fans.The Bible.....Genesis............in the begining and so on,everything else is just a badge! :D :D :D :D

Author:  Loz [ Thu Mar 17, 2005 1:28 pm ]
Post subject: 

I like Genesis early years. Nursery Crimes is great. Lamb Lies Down on Broadway is good.<br />But for that kind of progressive rock thing, I prefer Pink Floyd, especially the early stuff with Barrett.<br />

Author:  Horsell_Common [ Thu Mar 17, 2005 2:28 pm ]
Post subject: 

Image<br /><br />'Look into my eye's, look into my eye's. Not around my eye's, not to the side of my eye's, but into my eye's'

Author:  Loz [ Thu Mar 17, 2005 4:50 pm ]
Post subject: 

He looks like the guy in Buffy! Do yer still like Gold Blend mate?

Author:  rodnumber6 [ Fri Mar 18, 2005 12:01 am ]
Post subject: 

<!--QuoteBegin-The Curate+Mar 17 2005, 10:44 AM--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(The Curate @ Mar 17 2005, 10:44 AM)</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteEBegin-->End of round one.....ding ding.One day my friends you will reach the goal that i have attained and become Genesis fans(early Genesis with Gabriel i might add)or maybe thats too 'arty' for you lot of middle of the road music fans.The Bible.....Genesis............in the begining and so on,everything else is just a badge! :D  :D  :D  :D<br />[right][snapback]2212[/snapback][/right]<br />[/quote]<br /><br />Somewhere among my old video collection is a Genesis concert from the Trick of the Tail tour - their first tour with Phil Collins singing and Bill Bruford doing the extra drumming! Great stuff, songs like Entangled, Carpet Crawlers, Cinema Show, I Know What I Like; I would love to have seen them back then. I taped it off an old (mid 80s) USA Network show called Nite Flite. They ran it Friday nites, showed weird cartoons, short films and lots of rare concerts I remember two great ones from King Crimson & Bauhaus! Wish they would release some of those on DVD. I remember they also did some very cool video profiles of Peter Gabriel & Kate Bush among others (what the hell has Kate been doing lately anyway? She retired or something?). That was such a cool show, I was really p**sed when they cancelled it, no one's really done anything else like it since...

Author:  cadillac1949 [ Fri Mar 18, 2005 1:10 am ]
Post subject: 

:D Regarding Tim Hine's "War of the Worlds" I seriously doubt he actually received more than $100K total from his investors. $12 million please..... That is a product of his dillusional mind. So for his latest project he supposedly had $12 million dollars but shot it on video with a no name cast, go fiqure...<br />I have known Hines and of him for years and he is always claiming he has millions of dollars in backing for his crappy little projects and it is always bogus. Now granted Tim Hines is very talented at getting things done on a shoe string, But he has got to be about the worst writer and biggest blow hard on the planet.

Author:  Butters [ Fri Mar 18, 2005 1:23 am ]
Post subject: 

Now, now don't sell yourself short.<br /><br />Worst writer and biggest blow hard on the planet. 2nd to you of couse..

Author:  Jon T [ Fri Apr 01, 2005 10:48 pm ]
Post subject: 

well this sucks, a british film and it is released in america first. not fair really, oh well just aslong as i get to see it.

Author:  Leper Messiah [ Mon Apr 04, 2005 1:32 am ]
Post subject: 

<!--QuoteBegin-Jon T+Apr 1 2005, 10:48 PM--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Jon T @ Apr 1 2005, 10:48 PM)</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteEBegin-->well this sucks, a british film and it is released in america first. not fair really, oh well just aslong as i get to see it.<br />[right][snapback]2632[/snapback][/right]<br />[/quote]<br /><br />its an american film. just set in Britain.

Author:  The Improved Trog [ Mon Apr 04, 2005 1:54 pm ]
Post subject: 

Yes, like the Bond movies.<br /><br />Hines money support dont exist if he wont mention them.

Page 1 of 2 All times are UTC
Powered by phpBB © 2000, 2002, 2005, 2007 phpBB Group
http://www.phpbb.com/