Gabriel Byrne and Elizabeth McGovern are in action in the first pictures from the “War of the Worlds” series from Canal Plus, Fox Networks Group Europe & Africa, and AGC Television.
The H.G. Wells adaptation is set in modern-day Europe. Byrne and McGovern belong to an ensemble cast featuring Léa Drucker, Natasha Little, Daisy Edgar Jones, Stéphane Caillard, Adel Bencherif, and Guillaume Gouix. Gilles Coulier (“The Natives”) and Richard Clark (“Versailles”) will direct four episodes apiece.
“In literature, dystopian novels and science fiction has been a safe place for us to deal with collective terror,” Byrne said. “But what Wells also understood is that the greatest threat is not from out there, but from inside ourselves, and we see in this new telling of the story a warning that it is only our own humanity that will save us.”
CREDIT: Studiocanal/FNG/AGC
The adaptation of the Wells classic comes from “Misfits” creator Howard Overman and is produced by Studiocanal-backed Urban Myth Films.
The first images from the eight-part drama show the stars, as well as troops in French uniforms with guns at the ready. Another shot shows a group of civilians sheltering in London’s subway system.
CREDIT: Studiocanal/FNG/AGC
Canal Plus and Fox have Europe and Africa rights. AGC is taking the show out in North America and co-distributing with Studiocanal in Latin America, Asia, and the Middle East. Fox is selling it in Europe.
The series is one of two adaptations of the novel in the works. U.K. pubcaster the BBC’s “The War of the Worlds” is set in Edwardian England. ITV Studios has sold that version to Australia, France, Spain and a host of other territories.