The BBC has dropped a trailer for its upcoming adaptation of H.G. Wells’ alien-invasion classic, “The War of the Worlds.”
Set in Edwardian England, in the southern English county of Surrey, the three-part series stars Rafe Spall (“Jurassic World: Fallen Kingfom”), Eleanor Tomlinson (“Poldark”), Rupert Graves (“Sherlock”) and Robert Carlyle (“The Full Monty”) as earthlings caught up in the panic after a meteor bearing extermination-minded aliens lands in the usually placid British countryside. Craig Viveiros directs.
The series will be broadcast on flagship channel BBC One this fall. ITV Studios has sold the show to major European countries and more than 50 African territories.
Spall plays George, a man who escapes his failing marriage to begin a new life with Amy (Tomlinson), despite societal disapproval. Graves plays George’s brother and Carlyle an astronomer.
The production is one of two warring “War of the Worlds” TV adaptations. The other, spanning eight episodes, comes from Studiocanal-backed Urban Myth Films in partnership with Fox Networks Group Europe & Africa and AGC Television. It transposes Wells’ novel to present-day Europe and stars Gabriel Byrne (“Hereditary”), Elizabeth McGovern (“Downton Abbey”), Léa Drucker, Natasha Little, Daisy Edgar Jones, Stéphane Caillard, Adel Bencherif, and Guillaume Gouix. Gilles Coulier (“The Natives”) and Richard Clark (“Versailles”) each direct four installments.