The War of the Worlds
The War of the Worlds (1898) is a science fiction novel by H.G. Wells. It describes the experiences of an unnamed narrator who travels through the suburbs of London as England is invaded by Martians. It is one of the earliest stories that details a conflict between mankind and an alien race, and the invasion has been re-imagined so many times over the years and exerted such an influence on the genre that it is hard to imagine that science fiction would be quite the same without it.
On the evening of October 30th 1938, Orson Welles and the players of his Mercury Theatre were preparing to broadcast the latest in their series of weekly literary adaptations. The Halloween production of H.G.Wells' The War of the Worlds should have been no different to any that had gone before, but before the hour was up, Welles would find himself at the centre of a perfect storm of controversy. What should have been a simple if innovative retelling of a tale of alien invasion had triggered one of the first great mass panics of the modern media age...
Orson Welles' Radio-Script
Click on the link below to access a pdf version of Orson Welles' 1938 radio-script that induced mass panic all over America.
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War of the Worlds
Click to view the YouTube video of the 1953 award-winning film version of The War of the Worlds, produced by George Pal and directed by Byron Haskin.
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War of the Worlds
Click on the YouTube video to view Steven Spielberg's 2005 film interpretation of HG Wells' classic The War of the Worlds.
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