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It's barely a week until the release of the Spielberg version of H.G. Wells' classic novel and original (and best) alien invasion story. There are several films in the works or finished now, namely the Pendragon one that is true to the book, but I hear sucks. An ID4 clone that is about as similar to WOTW as, well, ID4 was. And, amazingly, a British CGI animated movie of Jeff Wayne's musical.

They also re-released said classic musical on remastered CD and SACD. I was tempted to get the new version, until one day in HMV I saw this.

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I forked out for the collector's edition off Amazon (cheaper, naturlich) and I can only express delight in having such a definitive piece, my favourite musical. If you liked it half as much as me, you'd fork out that fifty quid or so for this set rather than the basic version. It's in Dolby 5.1 and has an 80 page full colour book about the saga and discs with all the remixes, uncut Burton narration and a DVD with a 90 minute making of documentary with a sneak peak at the CGI movie due 2007.

I usually hate it when people show things off, but I felt inclined on advertising this set since it won't be everywhere like the basic version and we all love sci-fi musicals, no?

ULLA!

And, amazingly, a British CGI animated movie of Jeff Wayne's musical.

WAHOO!!!

The chances of anything coming from Mars,
Are a million to one he said...

I hope they don't fuck it up. But I'd kill to see this on the screen.

Are the original voice actors still around?

Eh, you'll have a time using Richard Burton given he died many a year ago, but I can't see why they can't use the recordings already there and have some others imitate the voices if need be. I haven't tried all the discs yet (only got the thing this morning and I've been away), but there's a whole load of cut stuff Burton voiced, practically the whole book it seems.

As for the animation, it's basic, but the TV ads here for the CD re-release show some good stuff that may be in the films. It's the same art style, obviously, just CGI, likely the same as the PC game years ago.

But it was only commissioned in autumn 2004, so it's basic yet.

I'm looking forward to this as well (not as much as my sister, however). I found a page with information on the CGI film in production, but nothing on a release date. That should be interesting to see indeed, provided it's written and edited better than what I hear the Pendragon version turned out to be.

Gandalf wrote:

And, amazingly, a British CGI animated movie of Jeff Wayne's musical.

WAHOO!!!

The chances of anything coming from Mars,
Are a million to one he said...

I hope they don't fuck it up. But I'd kill to see this on the screen.

Are the original voice actors still around?

I'd definitely pay to see that one ... one of my eeriest music-listening moments was during a coast-to-coast marathon drive from Philly back to the West Coast in college, 2 of us in a little Subaru taking turns driving, stopping only for gas & food ....

With my buddy napping in the passenger seat, I was driving across the endless flat monotony of Nebraska into a blood-red sunset while Red Weed was playing .... made the hairs on my neck go WAY up!

Alas, Richard Burton is no longer with us, nor is Phil Lynott ... Justin Hayward of the Moody Blues is still kicking.

Like I say, for the film they could get others to do the voices of actors when not singing. They do this for most movies, Disney for instance has many voice actors replaced with proper singers when it comes to the musical numbers. So long as the story and original music is still there, the rest should fall in place. I'll check the DVD documentary later and see if it mentions anything on how they intend to do the animated version.

Think I'll pass on the 50 quid copy unless my parents are feeling generous after my degree results, but I'm going to get a new copy of the musical, as our tapes are screwed and the LP is lost in the loft somewhere. Was actually singing Brave New World in the shower today...

I've played the Jeff Wayne based WoW videogame but I've never listened to the musical. I think I may spring for the basic copy out of curiousity but $116 for a box set of a musical I never heard of is a bit much.

Stravo wrote:I've played the Jeff Wayne based WoW videogame but I've never listened to the musical. I think I may spring for the basic copy out of curiousity but $116 for a box set of a musical I never heard of is a bit much.

If you liked the music on the videogame, you'll love the musical. Almost all of the songs are permanently engrained on my brain from early childhood, had to resist the temptation to order the new cd right now, I'm that desperate to hear it again. It scared the shit out of me when I was a kid, as I was convinced the martians were coming to get me, but the artwork that came with the LP is the sort of stuff I'd stick on my wall.

In fact... hmmm... when I get home, I think it's time to raid the loft for that elusive LP.

I thought the money was a lot too, but then I suddenly thought "What the hell" and got it anyway. It's more than just the music in SACD format anyway. The booklet format is very schway.