BBC to bring a Victorian War Of The Worlds to the TV screen (at last!)
Peter Harness of Doctor Who-fame is making the first British television adaptation of H. G. Wells’ classic science fiction novel The War Of The Worlds for a big-time screening on BBC One next year.
It’s to be based on the original Victorian story – no present-day updatings, thank the gods.
Horsell Common in Surrey is struck by a huge meteor, and the inhabitants of Earth slowly fall victim to a vicious invasion. The three-part drama follows one man’s attempt to escape the ruthless Martians – but they are determined to destroy all human life as they attempt to conquer the earth.
Writer, Peter Harness told SFcrowsnest, “I’m feeling phenomenally lucky to be writing The War Of The Worlds, and blowing up gigantic swathes of the Home Counties at the dawn of the twentieth century. Wells’s book is ground zero for all modern science fiction, and like all the best sci-fi, manages to sneak in some pretty astonishing comments on what it is to be a human being too. I’m hoping to follow in the great man’s footsteps by making a terrifying, Martian-packed series which manages to be emotional, characterful, and – deep breath, dare I say it – even political at the same time.”
Damien Timmer, managing director over at Mammoth Screen, added, “It’s a great honour to bring H.G. Wells’s masterpiece to BBC One. This huge title – the original alien invasion story – has been loosely adapted and riffed on countless times, but no one has ever attempted to follow Wells and locate the story in Woking at the turn of the last century. We hope Peter’s adaptation will be the definitive adaptation of one of the great classic novels – and a visceral, thought provoking thrill ride!”
The War Of The Worlds has been commissioned by Piers Wenger and Charlotte Moore, written by Peter Harness (Doctor Who, Jonathan Strange And Mr Norrell, Wallander) and will be produced by Mammoth Screen (Poldark, The City And The City, The Witness For The Prosecution, NW) for BBC One.
Filming will begin early 2018.
