MetaFilter posts tagged with waroftheworlds

We, The Aliens.

The Whelk — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 13:15:11 -0800

In Defense Of Spielberg's War Of The Worlds

This post is just in time for the annual spaghetti harvest.

zarq — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 10:28:43 -0800

In the late 1970s the UK's Anglia Television ran a respected weekly documentary series: Science Report. But when the show was cancelled in 1977, the producers decided to channel Orson Welles in their final episode. The result was Alternative 3. Over the course of the hour, the audience would learn that a Science Report investigation into the UK "brain drain" had uncovered shocking revelations: man-made pollution had resulted in catastrophic climate change, the Earth would soon be rendered uninhabitable, and a secret American / Soviet joint plan was in place to establish colonies on the Moon and Mars. The show ended with footage of a US/Soviet Mars landing from May 22, 1962. After Alternative 3 aired, thousands of panicked viewers phoned the production company and demanded to know how long they had left to change planets. Background * WFMU * Museum of Hoaxes * Mental Floss * Wikipedia Conspiracy Theorists Who Claim It's All True * ZetaTalk * Above Top Secret * Thule.org * Bibliotecapleyades Alternate Video Link * Google Video The Book "Alternative 3" was written and published by Leslie Watkins. Free download in multiple formats from archive.org.

No one would have believed in the middle of the 20th Century that human affairs were being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than Man's...

Artw — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 16:20:46 -0800

The making of George Pal's War of the Worlds

Bring the sledgehammer.

shakespeherian — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 09:57:57 -0800

I find your lack of faith disturbing (previously) is billed as 'another screenwriting blog,' which author Josh Friedman admits we need 'like the world needs another Michael Bay.' Nevertheless, Josh has been blogging off and on for five years now, on topics ranging from his cancer surgery to the ups and downs of free lunches in Hollywood. This week Josh relays a story of finding out a stranger has been using your office for meeting prostitutes.

War of the Worlds and the Power of Mass Media

ichthuz — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:00:33 -0800

WNYC's Radiolab took a look into Orson Welles' 1938 radio production of H.G. Wells' novel The War of the Worlds, which caused mass panic in the United States when listeners mistook a radio drama for actual reporting. They then explored the question of whether such hysteria could be recreated in a similar way, recounting stories from Quito, Ecuador in 1949 and Buffalo, New York in 1968. (There was one other attempt in Santiago, Chile in 1944 which is not mentioned in the Radiolab synopsis.)

Orson Welles's radio War of the Worlds recreated by the cast of Star Trek.

feelinglistless — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:55:13 -0800

Orson Welles's radio War of the Worlds recreated by the casts of Star Trek.

WKBW halloween night 1973

wheelieman — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 06:44:46 -0800

WKBW aired a night of Halloween Goodies on Halloween Night 1973. Its quite worth the listen,especially the intro to the entire night. More within..... The biggest piece was The War Of the Worlds re enactment they did six years prior to this air check. It caused panic just like the original Orson Wells Broadcast. It is a look at FM radio back in its heyday. There is also a Radiolab on various radio broadcasts of this HG Wells classic.

That's no meteorite!

backseatpilot — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 12:31:01 -0800

Seventy years ago today was the original broadcast of "The War of the Worlds". Listen to it, uninterrupted, here. The program reportedly caused a mass panic across much of the Northeast. The Museum of Hoaxes has some good information about the extent of the actual "panic" that erupted from the broadcast. Grovers Mill - now part of Windsor Township - has a monument at the "crash site". Previously discussed monument at Woking, site of HG Wells' original Martian landing.

Woking Walker

Kronos_to_Earth — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 18:24:57 -0800

"Once the tripods start to move, no more news comes out of that area..." Fortunately Michael Condron's tribute to The War of the Worlds, put up on its centenary, will continue to remain in place.... But just in case, Mr. Condron has some microbes at the ready to help take the thing out....

Your random audio links of the day.

goodnewsfortheinsane — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 15:24:15 -0800

Today's post of tenuously related audio brings you ten historic radio broadcasts, 529 eternal questions in popular music, and one mildly amusing black metal band prank call.

What evil lurks in the hearts of men?

supercrayon — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 16:09:18 -0800

Orson Welles may be best known as the director and star of Citizen Kane, but before he made movies he was a star of the radio. Although he gained notoriety by narrating War of the Worlds in 1938, he was also the voice of Lamont Cranston, The Shadow, and had a successful run as the creator and star of the Mercury Theater On The Air, which, after gaining sponsorship, became known as the Campbell Playhouse. Even after the heyday of radio, Welles provided his voice for The Black Museum series (based on real-life cases from the files of Scotland Yard), and The Lives of Harry Lime, a prequel to his role in the film The Third Man.

Ladies and gentlemen, we interrupt our program of dance music to bring you a special bulletin from the Intercontinental Radio News.

goodnewsfortheinsane — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 05:26:40 -0800

Belgium is no more. Flanders has unilaterally declared independence, and the king has left the country in protest, RTBF reports.

Edison: 1, Mars: 0

brundlefly — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 15:45:44 -0800

Edison's Conquest of Mars! Garrett P. Serviss' unofficial, 1898 sequel to War of the Worlds, featuring Thomas Edison and Lord Kelvin as the heroes. It seems this book originated the space battle and the ray-gun, not to mention the aliens-built-the-pyramids plot. Sounds like a blast.

Snakes on the motherfucking plane

dobbs — Sun, 21 Aug 2005 22:14:47 -0800

I Find Your Lack of Faith Disturbing is the new blog by screenwriter Josh Friedman. Not much there yet but what is is fun, especially parts one and two of his adventures with arbitration on War of the Worlds. (Of note: Friedman is the writer who adapted James Ellroy's The Black Dahlia for ~~David Fincher~~ Brian De Palma.) {via The Screenwriting Life}

But still they come...

benzo8 — Tue, 21 Jun 2005 05:50:22 -0800

What with the new movie and the whole Tom and Katie thing, it's no surprise that the world's gone War of the Worlds mad recently. Still, for my money, this Darkhorse comic, adapted from H.G. Well's original text is gonna be ace - there are twelves frames up at the moment and they're adding all the time, with the aim of completely some 120 pages of superbly drawn comic-novel in the not-too-distant... Enjoy.

War of the Worlds!

zarq — Sat, 11 Dec 2004 15:33:20 -0800

The new War of the Worlds movie will premiere in June '05. Based on H.G. Wells book, (e-text), the story terrified thousands of American radio listeners and caused a panic on October 30, 1938. That night, a series of increasingly alarming breaking news reports (narrated by a young Orson Welles) about an invading force of Martians interrupted the Mercury Theater show on WABC radio in NYC. Welles had announced at the start of the hour that he was reading a story, but most of the audience tuned in late and thought it was all real. More information can be found here and here. Wav files of the original broadcast can be downloaded (or purchased) from here. "They're bombing New Jersey!": Check out a picture of the NYTimes front page and full text of the article they ran the next day. War of the Worlds has been made into several films, including this one from 1953.

ClassicSciFiModels

srboisvert — Thu, 15 Jul 2004 04:50:09 -0800

Space 1999 models. War of the Worlds, Flash Gordon, Alien and more. Welcome to the art of Martin Bower.

The Martians are Coming!

arto — Fri, 09 Jul 2004 12:29:21 -0800

War of the Worlds cover art from the last hundred years or so. (Plus, related artwork and the Martian-Canadian conspiracy, finally uncovered!) [via kottke]

Do you hear it? It's a curious humming sound that seems to come from inside the object.

anastasiav — Thu, 30 Oct 2003 09:51:16 -0800

Ladies and gentlemen, we interrupt our program of dance music to bring you a special bulletin from the Intercontinental Radio News....
Today is the 65th anniversary of the famous Mercury Theatre presentation of War of the Worlds, as adapted for Radio by Orson Welles. The infamous broadcast (listen in Real Audio or RealAudio or TrueSpeech) caused no small amount of uneasyness, and even some outright panic as listeners, already unsettled by coverage of the impending war in Europe, were all to willing to believe that Martians had indeed landed in Grovers Mill, New Jersey. The broadcast led to an FCC investigation and remains a touchstone in the evolution of the American media.

...a curious humming sound that seems to come from inside the object

Irontom — Mon, 27 Oct 2003 07:46:06 -0800

TV and the Hive Mind
64 years ago this week, six million Americans became unwitting subjects in an experiment in psychological warfare.

America in the 1930s

plep — Wed, 09 Jul 2003 07:53:26 -0800

America in the 1930s : on film, in print, on the air. Some highlights : War of the Worlds, the Robert Johnson notebooks, Superman's identity crisis, Babe Ruth, a female evangelist, building the Chrysler Building.

War of the Worlds

RunsWithBandageScissors — Tue, 29 Oct 2002 07:39:06 -0800

War of the Worlds (this is not about Bush) Don't own a television? Want an alternative? Live performance, live orchestra, no net. October 30, 2002 8-9 PM Eastern. Glenn Beck recreates Orson Welles chilling performance that captivated a nation along with full orchestrations and foley effects. this is a radio broadcast