Interesting question, isn’t it? There are two strong possibilities, one wild card, and one probably-not. Although any one of the four has promise.
- The most obvious to go with, of course, is the 1950s George Pal War of the Worlds. It’s almost certainly what MTV expects their audience to recognize without too much prodding. Problem there, of course, is by now that look is thoroughly retro.
- Then again, so is the other obvious possibility, which is to go back to the source material and start from scratch. I like that idea, if only because it’s so rare that people don’t try to update the story for the modern age. Just go with it. Do a period piece. Throw the real League of Extraordinary Gentlemen into it, if you want something even more explicitly steampunk*. Heck, that’s pretty much what Allan Moore did, right?
- The wild card? The Spielberg version. Which, you know, I liked, in spite of itself. But I don’t think that that might be the take that MTV is really looking for here.
- And the probably-not is also a real dang shame: they could redo the TV show. Which I ALSO liked, in spite of itself. I even liked the bit where suddenly they went into low-grade dystopia-land in the second season, just because.
And, before you ask: MTV has long since gotten over the shame of no longer being a channel that plays music videos. At this point, trying to shame them for it merely indicates that you are old. So, you know… power on through, or something.
Moe Lane
*I… think that I could maybe trust MTV to do an insane-in-the-membrane League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. If only because they might not realize what they were paying for until it was far, far too late.
Y’know .. I *would* pay Netflix to watch an MTV insane-in-the-brain LXG ..
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I may *watch* a 1950s-pastiche period-piece ..
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I would skip almost everything else.
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Mew
Speaking of which, we know Amazon gives you a money .. do you know if Netflix has a similar referral program and/or a way to purchase individual shows/movies?
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Mew
There’s also what I think is essentially an audio book with music. Still kinda cool, though:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nq5vZ1I0HAU
You liked that Spielberg version? *a sudden sadness comes over Gator as he slowly shuffles out the post*
I enjoyed watching a major Hollywood motion picture venerate American soldiers for a change. It was a bad time, back then.
Fair enough point, but that doesn’t make up for the rest of that horrible movie.
Hence the ‘in spite of itself.’ 🙂
Skipped it in the theaters, of course.
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Being very familiar with the plot, when it showed up on cable, making fun of Tom Cruz was amusing .. not nearly as easy as “Rock of Ages” (where half the fun is making a game to see who can shout the original artist of each song first .. bonus points for covers) …
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It’s no “Jack Reacher”, but it’s not *awful*.
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Mew
I will note for the record that the 90s TV show was technically a sequel to the Pal movie. The old style Martians and vehicles did show up in a few episodes in the first season.