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War of the Worlds, Chocolate Factory Trailers 637

Posted by michael from the slurms-mackenzie dept.
rocketjam writes "The trailer for Tim Burton's version of 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' is online at Yahoo. The movie stars Johnny Depp and scheduled for release in July of '05. I think Tim Burton is the perfect director for a new Willie Wonka movie. The trailer looks very Burtonesque." And reader daquake writes "Our first peek at Steven Spielberg's contemporary version of War of the Worlds is available from Apple. Spielberg's installment is just one of many that have been developed throughout the years including a film produced last year n England."
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War of the Worlds, Chocolate Factory Trailers More

War of the Worlds, Chocolate Factory Trailers

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  • That has to be the number 1 druggy movie ever.

  • Marylin Manson meets Willy Wonka... (Score:5, Funny)

    by neuro.slug ( 628600 ) <neuro__&hotmail,com> on Friday December 10, 2004 @11:42AM (#11052271)
    Wow, that's one scary Willy Wonka. I can almost see him saying:

    "Hello, Charlie.."

    -- n

    • Re:Marylin Manson meets Willy Wonka... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by hey! ( 33014 ) on Friday December 10, 2004 @11:49AM (#11052355) Homepage Journal
      Well, Gene Wilder I think had an important insight into the character. Willy Wonka is supposed to be scary even a bit creepy. He is not like your parents, who will protect you from the consequences of your actions. He will let you be free, but you have to suffer the consequences.

      • Re:Marylin Manson meets Willy Wonka... (Score:5, Insightful)

        by garcia ( 6573 ) * on Friday December 10, 2004 @11:55AM (#11052420)
        He will let you be free, but you have to suffer the consequences.

        Just because his actions creep you out (that crooked smile and that detached wonder he seems to have) does not mean that he has to look like The Crow in a purple robe or a hollow eyed heroin addict.

      • Re:Marylin Manson meets Willy Wonka... (Score:5, Insightful)

        by DarkSarin ( 651985 ) on Friday December 10, 2004 @12:11PM (#11052589) Homepage Journal
        And you don't find Johnny Depp (ala pirates of the c.) to be just a shade creepy? Depp is a good choice, methinks, and I don't think that this is going to be a bad movie.

        Will it live up to the high bar set in the 70's? Perhaps, but I think you (and everyone else) should compare it to the book, not the Gene Wilder starring flick that we all know and most of us love (I have a friend that won't watch movies with midgets--eg, willow, willy wonka, ewoks, etc).

        • Re:Marylin Manson meets Willy Wonka... (Score:4, Insightful)

          by hey! ( 33014 ) on Friday December 10, 2004 @02:41PM (#11054482) Homepage Journal
          Well, I can't view these trailers on my Linux box, so I can't comment directly on Mr. Depp's adequacy or inadequacy. However, commenting on your comment, I think that this character is very, very hard to get right. The trick is the character has to be tinged with menace without being overtly menacing. After all, the children are supposed to think Wonka's a patsy just like their unspeakable parents. On the other hand, you don't want to believe that Wonka would actually let the children be killed or really harmed. The fantasy for kids watching this movie is the that they can get a taste of freedom and its consequences, not the full adult load.

          Mr. Depp's screen personality does have me concerned. It's very very easy to fall into the trap of winking at the audience -- the way that actors in really bad Gilbert and Sullivan productions insist on being in on the joke. It'd be very easy to turn this story into a loud, archly self referential but ultimately neutered romp. The kind of movies idiot reviewers will find "magical", even though they would not know magic if it conjured a demon from hell to bite them on the ass.

          A fantasy movie has to be believable.

          Look at the scene in the original movie where Charlie and Granpa confront Wonka in his office. It was a sublime and courageous performance by Mr. Wilder.
          • The final scene is far and away my favorite. Gene Wilder has said that it was hard for him to do, screaming at young Peter Ostrum like that, but I think he managed to pull it off brilliantly. Credit also has to be given to Jack Albertson throughout the film, but also in that scene, where he showed Grandpa Joe's seething rage (watch his eyes during "You're an inhuman monster!") at Wonka's treatment of Charlie, and in so doing clearly delineated the difference between the world-view of an adult and the hone
    • Edit:

      That was supposed to be:

      "Hello, Charlie.." [/hannibal] -- with html brackets.

      What's that silly preview button for, anyhow?

    • I thought Depp looked almost as though they tried to add a little Michael Jackson to his appearance

      NOT the glove wearing hip look, but the freaky guy in his 40s Jackson

  • *ahem*

    No, no, that wasn't me just sqealing like a little schoolgirl just now. It was...erm, my case fan!

    Now go away. I--uh, need to replace my case fan.

  • this movie is going to be awesome (Score:5, Interesting)

    by hsmith ( 818216 ) on Friday December 10, 2004 @11:43AM (#11052285)
    The original was nothing like the book, it was dark and gloomy.

    i think burton w/ depp will combine to make an kick ass flick the way the book intended it to be. i hope burton redoes alice in wonderland, THAT would be a trippy movie

    • Re:this movie is going to be awesome (Score:4, Insightful)

      by mothlos ( 832302 ) on Friday December 10, 2004 @12:03PM (#11052510)
      No, the original film based on the musical was not too much like the book, but this movie doesn't look like it will shape up to capture the 'feel' of the book either. The book was always goofy but with an edge of sinister that you just couldn't grasp. This trailer with the music chosen and the silly slapstick Burton has Depp doing as well as the camera direction (the down shot on the group standing next to the chocolate river) makes it feel like Burton isn't catching the British part of all of this.

      Just like Planet of the Apes, he just doesn't 'get' the concept of the story and even if he is truer to hard action the original work, he just doesn't have it in him to be true to the idea of it.
    • Do you mean that you would like to see Burton remake "Alice in Wonderland," the Disney hatchet-job? No thanks! Personally I would like to see Burton make "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There," which are two brilliant books by Lewis Carroll, the pseudonym of Charles L. Dogson. Perhaps you've heard of them?

      SiO2
  • Also, the new Batman tralier [mymovies.net] is out too! Sweet!

  • Panic (Score:3, Interesting)

    by P-Nuts ( 592605 ) on Friday December 10, 2004 @11:44AM (#11052293)
    It would be amusing if the War of the Worlds TV trailer (which is refusing to play on my machine), was engineered to look like a news broadcast, and managed to cause panic like the radio series [about.com].

    • What You Say? (Score:2, Insightful)

      by ackthpt ( 218170 )
      It would be amusing if the War of the Worlds TV trailer (which is refusing to play on my machine), was engineered to look like a news broadcast, and managed to cause panic like the radio series.

      Are you kidding? We're at freaking war in Iraq, soldiers are taking the SoD to task for the shit they have to ride into battle in, and most people are completely oblivious to the knucklehead who got us into this fine mess.

      Three years ago we witnessed something astounding, two jets colliding with the WTC towers an

  • Contemporary War of the Worlds (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 10, 2004 @11:45AM (#11052311)
    *Yawn*

    Evil, vaguely Arabic aliens invade. Only the square jawed hero (played by the guy from that movie that was vaguely popular last year), the love interest (with that woman from the movie your girlfriend watched) and the wisecracking black sidekick (fuck knows, they all look the same to me) can defeat them. 2 hours of bland Hollywood shite. This is the sight of a culture so bereft of originality that plagiarism is hailed as a creative force.

    • WotW: The Musical! (Score:4, Funny)

      by ackthpt ( 218170 ) on Friday December 10, 2004 @12:43PM (#11052997) Homepage Journal
      Evil, vaguely Arabic aliens invade. Only the square jawed hero (played by the guy from that movie that was vaguely popular last year), the love interest (with that woman from the movie your girlfriend watched) and the wisecracking black sidekick (fuck knows, they all look the same to me) can defeat them. 2 hours of bland Hollywood shite. This is the sight of a culture so bereft of originality that plagiarism is hailed as a creative force.

      Sounds like what we really need is a War of the Worlds Musical!

      Is this the real life
      Is this just fantasy
      A.D. 2101, War was beginning
      Open your eyes, look up to the skies and see
      Martians, yeilding no sympathy

      Because I'm easy come,easy go,
      Fly Zig high, fly Zig low,
      Anyway the Zig goes,doesn't really matter to me, to me

      Mama, just watched TV,
      Ignored what prophets said,
      Now martians coming and we're dead,
      Mama, life had just begun,
      But now we've gone and thrown it all away
      Mama ooo, didn't mean to make you cry
      If I'm not back again this time tomorrow
      Carry on,carry on,as if nothing really matters

      Too late, we're on our way,
      To destruction, Cats say,
      Told to make our time today,
      Goodbye everybody, I got to go
      Gotta leave you all behind and move a Zig
      Mama ooo- (any way the wind blow)
      I don't know how to fly,
      I sometimes wish I'd never been born at all

      I see a little silhouetto of a man
      Is the curate!, Is the curate, dragged by a tentacle
      Laserbolt and heatrays very very frightening me
      All your base, All your base
      All your base, All your base
      All your base are belong to us!

      But I just a poor boy and nobody loves me
      He just a poor boy from a poor planetoid
      Spare him his life from this monstrosity
      Easy come easy go, will you let me go
      Take off every Zig! For great justice!
      Take off every Zig! For great justice!
      Take off every Zig! For great justice!
      For great justice! For great justice!
      Move, move, move move, move, move Zig!

      Mama mia,mama mia,mama mia let me move
      Someone set up us the bomb!

      So you think you can stone me and spit in my eye
      So you think you can love me and leave me to die
      Oh baby, I know what I doing baby!
      Just gotta get out-just gotta move Zig right outta here

      Nothing really matters, anyone can see
      Nothing really matters ,nothing really matters to me

      Any way the Zig goes....

  • Nightmare inducing grin (Score:4, Funny)

    by Gudlyf ( 544445 ) <gudlyf@@@realistek...com> on Friday December 10, 2004 @11:45AM (#11052312) Homepage Journal
    As if the first Woka movie's boat ride scene wasn't enough to give kids nightmares [retrocrush.com]...dear lord that grin on Depp in the trailer...that grin...

    shiver

    • As if the first Woka (sic) movie's boat ride scene wasn't enough to give kids nightmares...
      Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is tied with Poltergeist for the most nightmare-inducing movie of my childhood. For me, though, the worst scene was not the boat ride but the scene where Augustus falls into the chocolate river and gets sucked up into one of the pipes. That movie still freaks me out, much to my wife's amusement.
  • This reminds me of the time NPR interviewed the "In a World" guy. You know, the same guy that seems to narrate every single movie preview, many times starting with "In A World Where ...". I'd like to listen to it, but my employer blocks streams from NPR. Some of you may be more fortunate.

  • Why are we celebrating this? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by nasalgoat ( 27281 ) on Friday December 10, 2004 @11:46AM (#11052322) Homepage
    All they seem to do now is remake movies that don't need to be remade. The original Willy Wonka was a perfectly excellent film and I see no need to ruin it with a remake. Same with War of the Worlds.

    Whatever happened to original scripts?
    • They're all going to Adam Sandler. *phew*

      Given the original scripts coming out, mabye tons of remakes isn't so bad after all.

      • Re:Why are we celebrating this? (Score:5, Insightful)

        by BTWR ( 540147 ) <americangibor3 AT yahoo DOT com> on Friday December 10, 2004 @02:48PM (#11054534) Homepage Journal
        Given the original scripts coming out, mabye tons of remakes isn't so bad after all.

        ***YAWN***

        Yet another cliched "There's nothing good/original coming out anymore." Everyone like you seems to remember the "good ol' days" of 1972 or some shit like that. Well, let me tell you, aside from The Godfather, a LOT of crap came out that year, and every year after and before. This year (like most others) has had some AMAZINGLY wonderful AND ORIGINAL screenplays:

        Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Oh yeah, Charlie Kaufman is "so unoriginal")

        The Incredibles (Yep, Pixar does the same film over and over - ALL ANIMATION! I mean, come on!)

        Kill Bill, Vol 2 (The best samauri movie made in 20 years. And wha!?!?!? It was American?)

        Spiderman 2 (MAYBE 1978's Superman was an equal. MAYBE. I personally thought Spiderman 2 was better. But this is without question at least ONE of the greatest super hero movies ever made. Took the genre to new levels that perhaps ALL future superhero movies will be judged against. And FYI, before you say so, a "sequel" does not connotate unoriginalness. Empire Stikes Back and Godfather 2 both took the same characters and presented them in a new light to be wonderfully entertaining).

        Shaun of the Dead (Um... a zombie romantic comedy, that works? Yeah, I'll call that original any day)

        Napoleon Dynamite (I didn't see it, but everyone I know says it was a different movie than had been made in a long time)

        Movies I personally loved (i.e. my opinion), but understand I may find no mass-critical acclaim for:

        Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story

        Mean Girls (seemed like yet another High School movie, but it surprisingly had a lot of heart, and great characters)

        Hero (It just worked for me)

        Team America: World Police (To me, it was the funniest film I had seen in years)

        Harry Potter & Prisoner of Azkaban (Alfonso Cuarón made the best film in the series, so far - I'm really looking forward to 4 and 5)

        Miracle (I never saw a movie before that I knew EVERYTHING that was going to happen, yet I was very excited and suspenceful in seeing it).

        And I can only speculate, based on the flawless (or nearly flawless) directoral efforts of these directors that we have at least a few more gems coming out:

        The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (Wes Anderson is NOTHING if not original)

        The Aviator (Maybe he'll finally get his oscar?)

        Anyway, I didn't mean for this to sound mean-hearted. It's just that it's very common to hear this knee-jerk reaction to "today's (movies, television, culture, teenagers, music)" and forget that yes - a lot of trash comes out, but it does EVERY year. Be a half-full kinda person and treat yourselves to some of the wonderful new entertainment that came out this year.

    • Both of these movies are adaptations of books. I imagine neither director will use the previous movies significantly for inspiration. Burton's movie even uses the title of the book (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory rather than the previous movie's title, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory).

      This being Slashdot, and text being a rather lossy format when compressing sarcasm thereto, you may be trolling. If it is indeed a troll, I commend you, for its subtlety is unrivaled by all but the most accomplishe
    • Tim Burton is good; Depp is good; Wonka is good.

      But am I the only one who got a little Cat in the Hat vibe from the trailer?

      You know, they'll feel the need to pep it up for today's hip, wired youngsters. You know, "I feel we should rastafy him by ... ten percent or so." Then throw in a bunch of pop-cultural references and jokes for the 'grown-ups' and presto! sucky movie.

  • And it was pure, unmitigated crap. What's wrong with steampunk Victorians fighting off a Martian invasion? It's not like Hollywood has any regard for science anyway.
    • What's wrong with steampunk Victorians fighting off a Martian invasion?

      You'll get them. There are two War of the Worlds movies coming out. The other one from Pendragon Pictures will be set in the original book's setting.

      I know what I'll be doing this weekend: retooling and reorganizing my War of the Worlds website [war-of-the-worlds.org]. Interesting that this Spielburg version is depicting the alien hand holding the Earth in a manner very reminiscent of the 1988-1989 season of the TV series.

      I just wish I had a complete wor

  • No creativity (Score:5, Insightful)

    by rice0067 ( 220981 ) on Friday December 10, 2004 @11:49AM (#11052356)
    Its nice to see that there is no creativity left in the movie industry. Why not come up with something new instead of redoing movies that there perfectly good to begin with.
    that means:
    Willy wonka....
    War of the worlds...
    Oceans 11..
    Manchurian candidate.
    Star Wars special editions.

    While we are at it might as well remake casablanca.
    And teen wolf.
    • To be fair, the original Ocean's 11 isn't a pace on the contemporary version. The original was a showcase for the Rat Pack and little more. The contemporary version is very well done, expertly directed and filmed, with an engaging plot and a fantastic ensemble cast. Now, Ocean's 12, I don't know. It'd have to be Godfather Part II good to make it in my book.

    • Re:No creativity (Score:4, Funny)

      by Mad_Rain ( 674268 ) on Friday December 10, 2004 @12:07PM (#11052551) Journal
      While we are at it might as well remake casablanca.
      And teen wolf.

      SSsssshhh! You're going to give them ideas!

      Movie Exec: I bet Keanu Reeves would be great for Rick's part!
      Keanu: You'll, like regret it - maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but you'll be all like 'Whoa!'

      noooooooooooooooo!
    • OK, so this genetically engineered clone is sent by Emporer Palpatine to a future galaxy far, far away to take control of a small planets unsuspecting masses. Unfortunately, without a special kind of chocolate, the munching candidate turnes into his true shape, which vaguely resembles a bipedal wolf. To get the special chocolate, the candidate hires an elite team of theifs to obtain it for him from an ultra-top secret choclate development lab in Casablanca! The plot is uncovered, however, by a group of t
    • While we are at it might as well remake casablanca.

      How can you remake Casablanca? The one starring Myra Dinglebat and Peter Beardsley was definitive!

      "Of all the space bars on all the worlds you had to re-materialise in mine."

  • War of the Worlds has Tom Cruise (Score:5, Funny)

    by Nine Tenths of The W ( 829559 ) on Friday December 10, 2004 @11:50AM (#11052360)
    Are the aliens going to be led by Xenu?

  • I'm just not feelin' it... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by phaln ( 579585 ) on Friday December 10, 2004 @11:51AM (#11052373) Homepage
    While I think Burton will do a decent job with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, I really don't think it stands a chance of beating the 1971 version with Gene Wilder. There's a certain magic to it that I don't think can be replicated so easily into a polished Hollywood flick, no matter who's directing.

    War of the Worlds, so far, looks like one worth checking out.
    • Watching the trailer I just feel that it's just a remake of the original film, not an alternate vision of the book.

      Just shows how the original film adaption got the visuals pretty much spot on. As much as I like Burton's style I don't think (looking at the quick trailer) that he's added much. I guess he couldn't really use his dark style so much when creating the interior of a sweet factory.
    • I really don't think it stands a chance of beating the 1971 version with Gene Wilder.
      Not unless Johnny Depp can make it through the whole movie without blinking even once. Those eyes!
    • There's only one person who could out-do Wilder in the Wonka role. And they cast him. The rest of the movie, we'll see. But Depp as Wonka is just . . . perfection.
    • Wouldn't Gene have made an excellent Doctor?

      I've long felt that Willy Wonka was a renegade Timelord.

      Look at the facts:

      Goes to places nobody else has been, or even heard of.

      Has access to technologies beyond everybody else's.

      And you cannot tell me the WonkaVator wasn't just a modified Type 40 TT capsule.
  • The idea of having Tim Burton direct this remake seems like a masterstroke, but after seeing the preview, Depp seems so wrong for the part. I'm sure he'll bring his flare, and he's an amazing actor--but there's something about the way he was holding himself that seemed distinctly non-wonka. I for one *liked* the fact that the original movie was so much darker than the book, so I hope that this one stays dark in vibrant Burton-esque way.
    • Would have been a cool choice. Did anyone see "The Life and Death of Peter Sellers"? He did an amazing job. He could bring that amazing creepy/whimsical kind of attitude to Wonka.

  • direct .mov url (Score:4, Informative)

    by TeknoHog ( 164938 ) on Friday December 10, 2004 @11:53AM (#11052401) Homepage Journal
    linky [yahoo.com]
    • Thanks. I hate how Apples insists that I enable the itunes store to watch the full screen trailer. And nothing pisses me off more then how the fullscreen version takes over the screen while it is downloading. Don't get me started on how I have to download it each and everytime I want to show it to someone. It is a movie trailer. Don't you want me to burn a CD and pass it around? Isn't reaching a greater audience the point of advertising?

      It makes me want to just download the file in a loop all day. I wonder
  • I don't see anything original in the Willy Wonka trailer. I'm sure it will make a boatload of money when the DVD is released.

  • Marilyn Manson (Score:5, Informative)

    by gamgee5273 ( 410326 ) on Friday December 10, 2004 @11:55AM (#11052425) Journal
    I remember a few years back, when Burton first started talking about doing the remake, that he wanted Marilyn Manson to be Willy Wonka.

    No matter how flipped-ouyt this version looks, can you imagine one with Manson in it? That would have rocked. :)

  • Tim Burton has lost it (Score:5, Insightful)

    by hcsteve ( 814889 ) <hcsteveNO@SPAMgmail.com> on Friday December 10, 2004 @11:57AM (#11052447)
    Does anyone remember Planet of the Apes? The original is a classic, and Burton's remake was one of the most memorable stinkers in recent movie history. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is a classic film, even if it doesn't hew very closely to the book, and I fear that a Burton remake will be Planet of the Apes all over again. Please, Tim Burton, leave my childhood alone.
    • Don't go watch the fucking movie.
    • The original "Planet of the Apes" was basically a philosophical movie with some action. It wasn't weird or creepy or macabre or especially fantastical, which are all the elements that Tim Burton is good at. He made the PotA remake into a standard action film, which is something he's not good at.

      But "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," the book, has plenty of weird and creepy and macabre and fantastical stuff; it's exactly Burton's kind of movie. Just because it's a remake doesn't mean it'll suffer the s
    • Does anyone remember Planet of the Apes? The original is a classic, and Burton's remake was one of the most memorable stinkers in recent movie history.

      The Planet of the Apes "reimagining" was craptacular indeed, but it wasn't a "Burton movie".
      It was a studio movie, with a big name director. There is a difference. I can't tell how much of the crap was inserted forcibly by the execs and how much was due to Burton being drunk off his ass, but it stank of marketing drone influence.

      If you haven't realised how
  • I can't help but wonder if anyone will ever use the second book (Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator), and make a sequel. Yes, it wasn't as good as the first, but that's prose for you.

  • Johnny Depp (Score:5, Funny)

    by the Dragonweaver ( 460267 ) on Friday December 10, 2004 @12:00PM (#11052480) Homepage
    Does anyone else look at Depp and think, "Oh God, that's Michael Jackson!"

    Brings an extra level of creepiness, donchathink?

    • Re:Johnny Depp (Score:3, Funny)

      by iiioxx ( 610652 )

      Does anyone else look at Depp and think, "Oh God, that's Michael Jackson!"

      That was my first thought: "Holy fucking christ, it's Michael Jackson as Willy Wonka."

      That's scary: A guy who looks like that inviting five lucky children to tour his "chocolate factory."

      I read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory about 20 times as a kid. I don't remember picturing Willy Wonka as a Jackson-esque cross-dressing, psycho pedophile.

      Burton's gone over the edge. His Planet of the Apes sucked huge mutant donkey ball

      • That was my first thought: "Holy fucking christ, it's Michael Jackson as Willy Wonka."
        That's scary: A guy who looks like that inviting five lucky children to tour his chocolate factory.

        That's not so bad.
        It's when he's "visiting" their "chocolate factory" that it gets scary ;-)

  • Chocolate Factory is Not a Remake (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ytsejammer ( 817925 ) on Friday December 10, 2004 @12:04PM (#11052518)
    From what I understand, Burton's movie is not intended to be a remake, but rather a better interpretation of the book.

    So, I think it would be well advised for those of you looking to this movie in the hopes (or the fears) that it will be an updated Willy Wonka to attempt to forget about Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and instead view this movie as the screen adaptation of the book 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'.

    In fact, if I remember correctly, Roald Dahl was not happy with 'Willy Wonka', which I can understand since the book is incredibly darker than the movie.

    Hopefully, with Burton directing, we can get a more faithful interpretation of the book that stays true to the dark material.

  • Straight from the book... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Aash ( 130966 ) on Friday December 10, 2004 @12:04PM (#11052521) Homepage
    Did anyone notice that the narration in the War of the Worlds trailer is almost word-for-word from the beginning of the book?

    From the trailer:

    "No one would have believed in the early years of the twenty-first century that our world was being watched be intelligences greater than our own, that as men busied themselves about their various concerns, they observed and studied. With infinite complacency, men went to and fro about the globe, confident of their empire over this world. Yet, across the gulf of space, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic regarded our planet with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us."

    And from the book:

    No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinised and studied [...]. With infinite complacency men went to and fro over this globe about their little affairs, serene in their assurance of their empire over matter. [...] Yet across the gulf of space, minds that are to our minds as ours are to those of the beasts that perish, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us.

    I think that's pretty cool.

    • If you look further, you'll find that the radio broadcast, the 1953 movie, and Jeff Wayne's Musical Version and PC game all adapted the opening from the book. Other versions likely did as well.

      The original book is available free on-line from The Gutenberg Project.

  • Has anyone else noticed? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by WormholeFiend ( 674934 ) on Friday December 10, 2004 @12:04PM (#11052528)
    The alien hand on the War of the Worlds poster has its middle finger on top of Texas.

    Not that it necessarily means anything...
  • The original movie is the only movie credit listed for The Quaker Oats Company [imdb.com]. It's surprisingly tripadelic for a product tie-in movie, though perhaps that's because Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers hadn't redefined the concept of TV/Movies as long-format commercial.

    Can the new version top the original, and capture more of the book's dark side? I suspect so... the picture on the Yahoo! site looks more like A Clockwork Orange than Benji, and the trailer looks deliciously dangerous.
  • Sorry, but Burton has been boning it for the past few films: "Big Fish" and the embarassingly bad remake of "Planet of the Apes."

    Like "Planet...", Wonka does not need a rewrite. It was made at a time that appreciated edgy, gritty films, not watered down pablum that is market tested and approved. The original planet was gruesome and horrifying, Burton's remake was a forgettable joke that focused on action and _completely_ missed what made the original horrifying.

    I doubt Burton has the guts to make the ch
  • I'm not sold on either. Does anyone else find it odd that Spielberg, who made a large part of his career on the extraterrestrial contact film Close Encounters of the Third Kind, is now making xenophobic "The aliens will kill us all" films?

    Re: the Burton Chocolate Factory movie: Did I really just see an oompa loompa rock band breaking a guitar over an amplifier? Because I better not have fucking seen that, but I'm pretty sure I did.

  • WotW Fullscreen direct link (Score:3, Informative)

    by Chris Carollo ( 251937 ) on Friday December 10, 2004 @12:22PM (#11052720)
    Is here [apple.com].

  • Have you watched the original recently? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by dmorin ( 25609 ) <dmorin@gmail . c om> on Friday December 10, 2004 @01:04PM (#11053264) Homepage Journal
    Ok, the Willy Wonka character was great. The concept of the kids getting to see what it's like inside the factory is great.

    But as a movie? Can adults really stomach all the moralizing? Wait, time for a song about watching too much television! And here's one about chewing bubble gum! If Depp's version is going to cut back on that, and get back into the darker sequences like the boat ride, then I'd be all for it.

    By the way, I think the poster looks too Clockwork Orange for me.

  • Running out of movie acronyms (Score:3, Interesting)

    by shmert ( 258705 ) on Friday December 10, 2004 @01:23PM (#11053503) Homepage
    Ok, so now we add WOTW to the list:
    LOTR
    FOTR
    ROTK
    ROTJ
    WOTW

    The movie acronym namespace is getting overcrowded! I predict that soon movies will start being made with FIVE words in the title, maybe by throwing an adjective or expletive into the mix. War of the Doggone Worlds.

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