War of the Worlds Goes Steampunk

Once again, H.G. Wells’ classic invasion tale, The War of the Worlds, is being retold in a different format. This time the story is the inspiration for War of the Worlds: Goliath — an animated film that gives the Martian tripods and Earth’s defense forces a steampunk-ish makeover.

Director Joe Pearson provided the following synopsis:

It’s an R rated, retro-history, steam-punk epic set in 1914, fourteen years after the first failed Martian invasion. Mankind has rebuilt her cities and military by adapting a lot of the abandoned Martian technology. They’ve created an international defense force, A.R.E.S., based on the lower end of Manhattan and under the command of Theaodore Roosevelt. They’ve built a formidable force centered around giant, steam-powered battle tripods [such as the sub-titular Goliath]. Think of Band of Brothers meets Star Wars, meets World WO. It will be cool steam-powered battle tripods, doomed Cossack cavalry charges, Victorian decco, steam-punk Manhattan, 1500-foot-long armored battle zeppelins, Teddy Roosevelt, souped up tri-planes, blood on steaming metal, sex in the cockpit… the usual.”

WotW: Goliath‘s budget is around $3 million, and the film is envisaged as a sequel to the novel by H.G. Wells. Originally intended to be part of a series of Heavy Metal videos, it is being co-produced by Kevin Eastman (owner of Heavy Metal).

Check out these cool production images of the tripods and the homeland defense vehicles:

For more images and an extended description of the project, see the production blog and also the Heavy Metal Magazine Fan page.

• Source: via Kaiju Search-Robot Avery
• Update: See the trailer.

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Robot Invasion

A Robot Invasion. A Technological Armageddon. The End of Life on Earth!

With Transformers 2 about to launch a spectacular robot invasion upon us, The Asylum has let loose its own lower-budgeted mechanoid invasion, in the form of a direct-to-DVD prequel to its own earlier film, Transmorphers — Transmorphers: Fall of Man (US-2009; dir. Scott Wheeler). Here’s a screenshot of one of the invading giant robotic entities.

The film is released on 30 June. See more images of the robots and the full trailer on Undead Backbrain.

Creating Robot 13

Undead Backbrain has just posted an extensive interview with Thomas Hall and Daniel Bradford, creators of a new comic series called Robot 13, which features the existential wanderings of a robot seeking clues to his own identity and fighting giant mythological monsters in the process.

The creators of the comic discuss their concept for Robot 13, both narratively and pictorially, recount how they got together to form Blacklist Studios, the influences behind the art of Robot 13 and much else besides.

Part One of the interview begins here.

M.O.R.A.V.

A new independently created and published comic — along with a proposed and long-in-development TV series — has been announced. Created by SFX designer Fon Davis, M.O.R.A.V. Multi-operational Robotic Armoured Vehicle seeks to depict in a realistic fashion the development of a robot army as part of future global conflict. The first issue of the comic is completed, with five further parts under way.

More information on Undead Backbrain.

Giant Gundam Robot in Fuji Park

As real-life giant robots go, this one is the biggest. As the culmination of a long-running project, a Japanese team has built a 59-feet tall full 1:1 scale replica of the iconic manga/anime mecha Gundam at the Gundam Crisis attraction at Fujikyu Highland, at the base of Mt. Fuji — protecting Tokyo from evil robots and, if necessary, giant monsters. Its size is impressive enough, but it lights up at night and the head swivels so it can keep a keen robotic eye out for the bad guys.

More spectacular images at Pink Tentacle.

Developmental details at Gizmodo and here.