From Anthony Pearson's excellent eveofthewar site - which Hines also threatened to sue last year for criticizing the movie!
http://eveofthewar.com/articles/1184042 ... 27s_The_Wa r_of_the_Worlds%3F
Did Dark Horse Comics Rip Off Pendragon's The War of the Worlds?
By Anthony Pearson Jul 26, 2006, 11:21 GMT printer friendly email this article
Pendragon Pictures, the company behind last years straight to DVD "faithful" adaptation of The War of the Worlds have now decided to give a formal legal notice to Dark Horse comics who published their comic version of The War of the Worlds online last year and in print earlier this year. In a latest press release from Pendragon Pictures of which has appeared on websites such as Yahoo! C.E.O of the company, Timothy Hines claims that Dark Horse have ripped off the imagery used in their film.
Many of my collegues and friend on Eve of the War disagree with Pendragon Pictures on this particular topic as the imagery in Dark Horse Comics The War of the Worlds which was released online only a few months after the Pendragon film was based like Pendragon Pictures film on the descriptions used by H. G. Wells' in the original 1898 novel and on styles/fashions of the time The War of the Worlds is meant to be based in.
Also Dark Horse comics The War of the Worlds fighting machine design and other designs were made before Pendragons The War of the Worlds as they were shown in the graphic novel sequel to The War of the Worlds, Scarlet Traces.
What do you think? Do you think Dark Horse Comics ripped off Pendragon Pictures The War of the Worlds? Vote Yes or No here.
When released last year Pendragon Pictures did not go down well with the fans of the book and is regarded by many, though faithful in ways to the novel as the least favourite adaptation of The War of the Worlds.
Full press release
SEATTLE, July 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Pendragon Pictures has given formal legal notice to the principals of Dark Horse Comics alleging innumerable replications of images from Pendragon's period accurate movie version of THE WAR OF THE WORLDS. Pendragon's movie, H.G. WELLS' THE WAR OF THE WORLDS, was released in the U.S., Canada and most countries internationally June 7, 2005 and has grossed over two million dollars in sales from U.S. retail stores alone. The complaint accuses Dark Horse, the third-largest comic book publisher in the U.S. and recognized world-leading publisher of licensed comics material, of directly replicating hundreds of images from the Pendragon movie. Both productions are based on the public domain 1898 H. G. Wells novel, but Pendragon alleges that Dark Horse has played foul in replicating camera angles, designs, character likenesses and a myriad of artistic choices for their comic.
Pendragon C.E.O. and Director of H.G. WELLS' THE WAR OF THE WORLDS, Timothy Hines states, "Most of Dark Horse's revenue comes from comics that are based on licensed movies, including BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, SHREK, STAR WARS and ALIEN. These guys are experts at converting film frames into comic books. I was astounded at the degree of similarity between our production and their comic book which came out a year after our movie was disseminated worldwide. We believe its just theft of our artist's hard work -- plain and simple, and we won't let this stand. I invite the public to come to a website we've set up, http://www.martianinvaders.com , showing dozens of frames of identical or of striking similarity between Dark Horse's comic and our WAR OF THE WORLDS and decide for themselves."
Pendragon Producer Susan Goforth adds, "We've set up a way for people to vote as to whether or not they see what many who have brought this to our attention see. If Dark Horse wanted to use our images they simply could have licensed our movie. It was hard enough going up against Spielberg and Tom Cruise. It's no surprise that our movie was savaged by the friends and allies of our competitors. Our own distributor was intimidated into not releasing the director's cut of our film, which is actually the final cut, for fear of retaliation from Paramount, so we are just now releasing it ourselves online. Why a giant like Dark Horse would copy us without license is beyond me."
Dark Horse just promoted its comic book version of WAR OF THE WORLDS at Comic-Con San Diego, which ran July 20-23. Comic-Con is the largest comic book convention in the U.S., and was attended by all the major movie studios and comic book publishers. Pendragon Pictures is selling its true to the book movie version of H. G. WELLS' THE WAR OF THE WORLDS online through http://www.buywowdvd.com .
ABOUT PENDRAGON PICTURES: Pendragon Pictures is an independent motion picture and distribution company who's primary product is a movie adaptation of H.G. WELLS' THE WAR OF THE WORLDS (http://www.pendragonpictures.com/WOTWKEY.html ). Unlike the updated and reset Spielberg/Cruise version of a similar title, Pendragon's WORLDS is a dead-on to the book accurate adaptation. Through retail outlets in Canada, U.S., Japan and Australia, and from internet sales, Pendragon's H.G. WELLS' THE WAR OF THE WORLDS has grossed several million dollars. Pendragon's next production is a futuristic robot action adventure film called CHROME