There have been a lot of film and TV adaptations of H.G. Wells’ novel The War of the Worlds over the decades. Just since the release of the Steven Spielberg movie starring Tom Cruise twenty years ago, we have seen at least seven feature film adaptations of the story (one animated, one directed by C. Thomas Howell), one mini-series, and one multi-season series. So why not gear up for another telling of the story? A trailer has just dropped online for the latest War of the Worlds movie, which will be released through the Prime Video streaming service on July 30th, and you can check it out in the embed above.
Ice Cube and Eva Longoria star in the film, which was directed by Rich Lee from a screenplay written by Kenneth Golde and Marc Hyman. This modern day take on Wells’ story follows Will Radford (Ice Cube), a top cyber-security analyst for Homeland Security, who spends his days tracking potential threats to national security through a mass surveillance program, until an attack by an unknown entity leads him to question whether the government is hiding something from him … and the rest of the world. Clark Gregg, Andrea Savage, Henry Hunter Hall, Iman Benson, Devon Bostick, and Michael O’Neill are also in the cast.
Patrick Aiello and Timur Bekmambetov produced this War of the Worlds, with Adam Sidman serving as executive producer.
Aiello told Deadline, “The idea was organic. When catastrophes happen today, we experience them through our devices. That insight shaped the storytelling and tech used to create this immersive thriller. For the first time ever, a studio-scale sci-fi epic has been produced using a format that places audiences inside the action through the lenses of phones, computers, and tablets. It’s a visceral, first-person experience designed for big screens in a language and format that is now natural within our daily lives.” Bekmambetov added, “It’ll be exciting for audiences to watch the movie and ask themselves: If aliens invaded today, how would we experience it? Most likely, we’d be watching it on our phones. In that way, it’s kind of a modern spin on Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds. Back then, he used radio, the most popular technology of the time, to make people believe the invasion was real. Today, that medium is the screen of our devices.“
What did you think of this War of the Worlds trailer? Will you be watching the movie on Prime Video? Let us know by leaving a comment below.