Thursday, December 16, 2004

Steven Spielberg teaser poster out

The teaser poster to the movie can be viewed here.

Wednesday, December 15, 2004

Poster for Pendragon War Of The Worlds movie. Is that a leg I see?

Pendragon pictures have released the first poster for their WOTW's movie. Looks like our first very small glimpse of a Martian war machine, well, a leg of one.

Clouds on Mars

Nasa scientists report some striking new discoveries from their Mars rovers, including more evidence of past water and some clouds that look strikingly Earthlike.
http://edition.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/12/14/mars.rock/index.html

Tuesday, December 14, 2004

Life imitating art on Mars

In a move reminiscent of the battles waged in the Mars novels of Kim Stanley Robinson, it has been proposed that areas of Mars should be protected from human encroachment.
http://edition.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/12/10/mars.parks/index.html

Sunday, December 12, 2004

War Of The Worlds trailer out now!

The teaser trailer for the spielberg/cruise version of The War Of The Worlds is out. Teasers generally give little away, but this is worth the download. No sign of the Martians, but an impressive scene as people emerge from their homes to watch the fireworks kick off over a line of hills. Trailer is at http://www.waroftheworlds.com
Most interesting is the voice over. Very Orson Welles, though the standard Voice Over man has always sounded a little like Welles, so it may just be wishful thinking by me.

Friday, December 03, 2004

Life on Mars

NASA scientists say "data from Nasa's Mars rover Opportunity shows its unique landing site is a prime spot for a return mission to look for life" More here http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4063181.stm

Pendragon bites back

Its so interesting to see these two competing versions of the War Of The Worlds come together.
Pendragon just unleashed some more material online including a second trailer. Its looking a bit more exciting than the first and we get our first look here at some artillery lined up against the Martians. My money is on this being the most interesting of the two films. Its a shame that special effects will likely make or break it and course with $100 million dollars in the war chest of the oposing camp, its a bit of a one sided battle, but here is hoping that interlect and passion for the material at least hold their own. There is room for these two versions to each succeed on their own merits. Bring em on.

http://stuffo.howstuffworks.com/wotw-hinesthree.htm - interview with the director.
http://stuffo.howstuffworks.com/wotw-roundup.htm - roundup of all the material on the site.
http://stuffo.howstuffworks.com/wotw-videos.htm - new footage. The inteviews with the cast are interspaced with a new trailer.

Like this in particular from the director in regard to the Martians and their war machnes. Sounds very intriguing.

"... it's as if the medievalists, they had these giant overscaled catapults that they would use to sling these huge bales of fire the size of a wagon at each other. And so we sort of applied the idea that what if the medievalists had somehow stumbled on computer technology. How frightening would these massive overscaled iron and copper age kind of energies be, applied to computer use. And that's about as much as I can say ..."

Here's one to bookmark

The official site for the Cruise version of the WOTW's (its going to get difficult distinguishing between this and the Pendragon version in these posts) is up and running, though for now its just a single page of promotional art. Rather nice, but bears an uncanny resembalance to the logo for the seldom remembered (and I think much underated) TV series of many a year ago. See what you think here. http://www.waroftheworlds.com/