BBC One’s War of the Worlds miniseries coming to AMC Premiere

AMC Premiere will eventually broadcast BBC One’s adaptation of H. G. Wells’ 1898 science fiction novel, War of the Worlds.

With the deal between AMC Premiere and Mammoth Screen/ITV Studios,  The War of the Worlds is all but guaranteed to broaden its audience. The 3-part series was originally broadcast on BBC One between November and December of 2019. The War of the Worlds has seen many incarnations. In addition to the novel, it had the legendary 1938 radio broadcast by Orson Welles. Some other classic moments include the 1953 Byron Haskin sci-fi movie.

Also, in 1988, a syndicated television series began, only loosely based on the novel and featuring “Walking Dead” levels of gore (which was rarer on TV then). Then, of course, there was the 2005 film version, directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Tom Cruise (and featuring narration by Morgan Freeman). If that’s not enough, Epix has its own premiere of a separate, 8-part series on February 16th, 2020, which had previously been broadcast in France.

The BBC One series takes place in Edwardian England and stars Eleanor Tomlinson, Rafe Spall, Rupert Graves, Nicholas Le Prevost, Harry Melling, Jonathan Aris, and Robert Carlyle. All three episodes are directed by Craig Viveiros and written by Peter Harness.

While The War of the Worlds hasn’t garnered universal acclaim, it does retain a 67% fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes, if one puts much stock in that. In any case, any fan of the original novel clearly has many options, and future retellings are surely in store. BBC One’s The War of the Worlds does not have an official premiere date yet for AMC Premiere.

Do you have a favorite adaptation of War of the Worlds?  Feel free to let us know in the comments!