The War of the Worlds | Trailer – BBC

Every film adaptation of the famous H.G. Wells science fiction novel has been set in a modern-day America (at the time or release) with the last one in 2005 starring the always competent Tom Cruise. The BBC is setting things right and placing the action of the new mini-series in smack in the middle of Great Britain in 1897 when the novel was published, this time using average humans rather than Hollywood icons who refuse to age. The alien invasion comes by way of huge spherical meteors that birth the intergalactic tripods of death. Eleanor Tomlinson and Rafe Spall take center screen as George and Amy, the main characters who struggle against the invasion while trying to forge a life together. Attempts at fighting the aliens utilize old school cannons and bolt action rifles in what we’re guessing is utter futility. But consistent with previous versions, there’s a lot of death, destruction, and screaming. It debuts on the BBC later this year.