Ray Harryhausen's The War of the Worlds

Ray Harryhausen's The War of the Worlds was a proposed film adaptation of H.G. Wells' 1898 novel.

In the early 1950s Harryhausen created a model Martian based on Wells' description for a demo reel showing it emerging from the unscrewed cylinder. He intended to make a faithful recreation of the original, set in the Victorian era.

He took it to Hollywood and left it with Jesse Lasky, Jr. for six months, but they couldn't raise any money and, eventually, Cecil B. Demille gave George Pál permission to make his own adaptation. Though confident that his friend George Pál would do a good job Harryhausen was still bitterly disappointed.

Gallery

Tripods attack a city

A tripod attacks a house

The Martians are overcome by the Earth's Bacteria

A Martian rising up out of the cylinder

A Martian rising up out of the cylinder