Wayne’s company is in pre-production on his own $48 million feature-length animated film using state-of-the-art CGI and Motion Capture technology. His team already have a completed script and storyboard including an original prequel explaining why the Martians leave their planet to invade Earth during the time of Victorian England. 

While the H.G. Wells novel is in the public domain in the US and certain other territories, Wayne owns all worldwide rights to his musical version, and all major rights to the original H.G. Wells novel including merchandising, soundtrack and commercial tie-ins, across Europe and much of South America, with the exception of the feature film rights which are owned by Paramount Pictures in those same territories.

Ironically, a joint venture between Wayne and Paramount was initiated in 1979 but never materialized, but when approached at that time to direct the Musical film Spielberg himself stated that it would make a “unique and visionary film”.

Wayne, currently in Los Angeles for meetings with various companies (including Paramount and Viacom Consumer Products) in relation to “The War of the Worlds”, is also completing production of his new television series – The Book of Tennis Chronicles, to be distributed by Fox Sports worldwide. 

He commented “these are interesting times for “The War of the Worlds”. There is no doubt that its profile in its different forms is going to be spectacular.

From what I understand, Cruise/Spielberg’s production will be set in more contemporary times, probably the USA, unlike my Musical Version which is set as H.G. Wells wrote it - in Victorian England. The excitement to me was always that through the eyes of humanity in the 1890’s, as opposed to today, a superior force from another planet was far more terrifying and would be far more difficult to defend against.

With a new multi-project contract with Sony Entertainment UK, including a 5.1 Surround Sound remix, to spearhead a 2005 international re-launch, Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of The War Of The Worlds is one of Sony Music’s crown jewels in virtually every territory. Since its first release in 1978 it has clocked up worldwide sales in excess of 12 million records. The re-launch project is a major priority both domestically and internationally, including the United States and will be backed by the full weight of Sony’s marketing and PR expertise in every key territory.

Two other projects in development based on Wayne’s musical work, include a major Theme Park attraction and a large scale multi-media live touring show, which will include some 20 minutes of animation from Wayne’s CGI film.

Timed with the Sony re-launch in 2005 will also see the launch of the official “The War of The Worlds” website, including full e-commerce capability. A wide variety of new and existing merchandise will be offered based on the original artwork from the double album, as well as a new comic book, and PC and Playstation computer games, which have already enjoyed commercial success, with new versions also planned.

Last month, Wayne’s double CD of club renditions from TWOTW, ULLAdubULLA, unexpectedly reached No. 1 on Apple’s iTunes album charts.

[Reader advisement: The preceding press release was submitted to antiMUSIC for publication. The content of this press release has not been verified by antiMUSIC or our publisher iconoclast entertainment group. ]

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