Orson Welles’ historic The War of the Worlds radio broadcast is the focus of a planned movie, We Interrupt This Program.
Sean Sorensen’s Royal Viking Entertainment has teamed with Echo Lake Entertainment, which controls the rights to the original The War of the Worlds radio play by Howard Koch, according to Deadline.
Sorensen penned the spec script, which reportedly chronicles the stormy struggle behind the scenes between Welles and his Mercury Theatre partner John Houseman.
With its realistic news bulletins, Welles’ October 30, 1938 broadcast on the Columbia Broadcasting System fooled some radio listeners into believing that Martian invaders had landed in New Jersey.
Echo Hill will finance the film for a 2018 shoot with FilmNation International handling offshore sales.
The producers plan to hire a director shortly.
The War of the Worlds has inspired two TV productions on the making of the broadcast: Studio One: The Night America Trembled in 1957 and The Night That Panicked America. an ABC movie written by Nicholas Meyer (Time After Time, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan).
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