MovieChat Forums > War of the Worlds (1988) Discussion > Spielberg stole WOTW logo?

Spielberg stole WOTW logo?

posted 18 years ago by ariaofsc
3 replies | jump to latest

When I saw the poster for the Speilberg WOTW with the hand gripping Earth, my first thought was "They ripped off the teaser image from the 80's show". But, then, shortly thereafter, the show got released on DVD and the teaser image was missing. And in the interviews for the show, no one connected with the movie made any reference to any other versions of WOTW except for the original movie. I'm gonna guess that they cut the image out of the DVDs so that it could make it look like it was an original idea for the movie campaign, even though fans of the show know it was not.

The main reason I even remember that hand is because this show used to scare the living hell out of me when I was younger.

[–] Jasons_Argonaut 18 years ago

The hand intro on the series was extremely memorable and cool. I have always wondered why they dropped it from the DVD set and gave us a cheesy looking new design, but I just assumed it had to do with their giving us the absolute cheapest product imaginable to go along with the non-remastered, VHS quality episodes. I have not looked at anything about Spielberg's bad remake since seeing it in theaters, but now that you've pointed this out, I find it rather insulting. How under-handed can Paramount get?

[–] movieperson113 18 years ago

I'm guessing this so bare with me. It appears that possibly Spielberg bought the rights to the "Alien Hand Opening" for his movie. So maybe he owns the image of the hand over earth with the title.
Rich people seem to have to own everything I guess and keep it away from us "regular" folks. Sad! Well if it's the real reason.

[–] the thorn of Thurisaz 18 years ago

Well, even though I'm biased in that I loved the Spielberg film (though I hate the fact that Cruise had to go loony right before the film dropped rather than wait until M:I 3, as payback for Abrams for screwing up Alias), but it fails to make sense. Images for the Spielberg film use the alien hand-grab - sure, but there's no animation in any of the promotional material I've seen. Though the animation was cut, the alien hand holding Earth appears both on the DVD box, as well as remaining behind the closing credits. And if Spielberg wanted to get all creative credit he surely would have nixed "Dust to Dust" from the box set.

I know a lot of people have it out for Spielberg's War of the Worlds, and it's an absurd curiousity as to why they dropped the alien hand intro from the DVDs, but I think you're going to have to look elsewhere for the answer. Anyone thought of contacting Paramount directly? I know the odds are stacked against a reply, but it'll be good to at least vent in their direction.

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