An interplanetary insurrection

H.G. WELLS’ novel about invaders from the red planet with their fighting machines and death rays has inspired numerous interpretations since its publication in 1898 launched the alien-invasion subgenre of science fiction.

The most famous, or infamous, version was probably the Oct. 30, 1938, radio broadcast by Orson Welles’ Mercury Theatre. Although it was introduced as a dramatization, thousands of listeners who tuned in late were convinced the invasion, relocated in Howard Koch’s script from England to Grover’s Mill, N.J., was real.

Paramount purchased the film rights in 1925 for Cecil B. DeMille, but the script languished until it landed with producer George Pal. His 1953 version, made at the height of the Cold War, starred Gene Barry as scientist Dr. Clayton Forrester. It won an Oscar for special effects, and it’s fun to watch the Martians wreak havoc on downtown Los Angeles.

In 1978, Jeff Wayne released a rock-musical album, in recent years rereleased on a double CD from Sony, that was narrated forebodingly by Richard Burton. Justin Hayward of the Moody Blues performed the song “Forever Autumn,” which became a hit single. Other participants included Thin Lizzy’s Phil Lynott, Manfred Mann vocalist Chris Thompson, future Elton John lyricist Gary Osborne, singer David Essex and musical veteran Julie Covington.

In the late 1980s Paramount dusted off the library title and resurrected it as a syndicated TV series. Accidental exposure to radiation brought back to life the aliens from the 1953 “invasion,” who had been killed off by earthly microbes, sealed up and dispatched to a toxic waste dump. Director Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise started production last November on the version scheduled to open in June.

With a script by David Koepp, the movie filming in New Jersey, New York and Los Angeles also stars Miranda Otto, Tim Robbins, Dakota Fanning, Justin Chatwin, David Alan Basche, Rick Gonzalez and Ann Robinson, who played the female lead in the 1953 movie version, as Cruise’s mother-in-law.