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The 9/11 terrorist attacks inspired Steven Spielberg to remake sci-fi classic War of the Worlds
Steven Spielberg didn’t think War of the Worlds needed a remake, but the 9/11 terrorist attacks changed his mind
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Movies are supposed to be escapism, but that doesn’t mean they don’t reflect the world around them. Film is an artform, every director, writer, and actor an artist, and all artforms speak to an artist’s life experience – even if it’s subconsciously.
“I think any filmmaker would not be completely honest if they said that [there isn’t] a lot of the subconscious that rubs off on every choice,” Steven Spielberg said during an interview with The Big Picture’s Sean Fennessey. “Every choice that we make to decide genre or decide on a particular book or a script that we find or have always wanted to do. It always comes out in the wash. As I’ve gotten older and I’ve become more aware of the world as it was, as it is currently and as I hope it could be someday, that’s going to always rub off on the work.”
Spielberg admitted that this is one of the reasons he remade War of the Worlds in 2005. The H.G. Wells novel has been adapted numerous times, including a 1953 film starring Gene Barry, and Spielberg wasn’t sure if another was needed. However, the events of 9/11 changed his perspective.
“I remember the only reason I wanted to make War of the Worlds, because I thought that George Pal and Byron Haskin, the director, in the first War of the Worlds with Gene Barry, that was a great movie – I didn’t need a remake, but 9/11 affected me in a very profound way, and I wanted to find some metaphor for 9/11,” Spielberg explained. “And that’s why I resurrected War of the Worlds, because it’s much more analogous to that.”
Spielberg's War of the Worlds is currently available to watch on Pluto TV. Spielberg's next movie, a return to sci-fi and alien stories called Disclosure Day, will be in theaters June 12.
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