First images from War of the Worlds mini-series starring Gabriel Byrne

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Studiocanal-backed Urban Myth Films has teamed up with Fox Networks Group Europe & Africa and AGC Television for a new adaptation of the 1897 H.G. Wells novel The War of the Worlds, and a few images from this adaptation have arrived online to give us a look at some troubled people in the London subway system, French soldiers, and characters played by Gabriel Byrne and Elizabeth McGovern. I can't say these images stir up much hype for me, but obviously the companies involved want to keep the aliens hidden for now.

Written by Howard Overman, this adaptation is an eight episode mini-series that's described as a "contemporary re-imagining" of Wells's story. The titular War of the Worlds begins when 

astronomers detect a transmission from another galaxy, definitive proof of intelligent extra-terrestrial life. Earth's population waits for further contact with baited breath, but does not have to wait long. Within days, mankind is all but wiped out, with just pockets of humanity are left in an eerily deserted world. As alien ships appear in the sky, the survivors ask a burning question — who are these attackers and why are they hell-bent on our destruction? 

Gilles Coulier and Richard Clark each directed four the show's hour-long episodes.

Byrne had this to say about the mini-series: 

In literature, dystopian novels and science fiction has been a safe place for us to deal with collective terror. 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."

Byrne and McGovern are joined in the cast by Léa Drucker, Natasha Little, Daisy Edgar Jones, Stéphane Caillard, Adel Bencherif, and Guillaume Gouix.

Overman executive produced the series with Julian Murphy and Johnny Capps.

The rights to the show are held by Canal Plus and Fox in Europe and Africa. AGC is bringing the show to North America and is co-distributing with Studiocanal in Latin America, Asia, and the Middle East.