If you're a fan of sequels, you'll be disappointed but if you love remakes then today is your lucky day. Variety reports that following 48 hours of frenzied negotiations, the planned Tom Cruise-starring, Steven Spielberg-directed redux of HG Wells' famous alien invasion story "The War of the Worlds" has been shoved onto a very fast track, with only 10 weeks of pre-production scheduled before the film goes into shooting later this year.
As a result of "War" being moved up though, the previous major projects of both names have been put on the backburner. Spielberg's 1972 Munich Olympics terrorist project has been pushed back to a shooting start in June 2005 at the earliest, whilst Paramount's "Mission: Impossible 3" with newly hired J.J. Abrams set to direct, has postponed going into production until next summer. Thus both films which had been facing very public crew and rewrite problems, are unlikely to surface onscreens til 2006 - allowing plenty more time for them to be worked on.
DreamWorks and Paramount, the studios behind the now delayed films respectively, are co-financing "War of the Worlds" which is expected to cost around or over $100 million and that's wih both Cruise and Spielberg opting out of fees in favour of a share of the gross. "War" is now on track for a November start date and a 2005 release.
Thanks to 'KarlChilders'.
