War of the Worlds Trailer Shows that Alien Invasion Epics Can Be Period Dramas, Too

Modern movie fans might immediately think of Tom Cruise being stalked by a spidery robot alien when we talk about The War of the Worlds, but the newest adaptation of the story hopes to take audiences back to its original era. H.G. Wells' classic sci-fi novel was first published in the late 19th Century (and, famously, scared the daylights out of radio listeners during a 1938 broadcast). BBC's three-part mini-series adaptation of the novel, directed by Craig Viveiros, revisits the story with that vintage landscape in mind.

The series stars Rafe Spall and Eleanor Tomlinson as a married couple named George and Amy who decide to walk away from society and start their own life away from the noise. That sounds like a quaint enough narrative on its own, but then comes the alien invasion. As the trailer shows, whatever respite the characters might've enjoyed in their quiet countryside life is going to be interrupted when a mysterious crash-landing brings massive creatures with bright blue eye-beams into their backyard. Neither these characters, nor the skeptical local leaders, will be able to deny the danger for long, and that's when the real fight for survival will begin.

Sure, it's a little weird seeing these folks fight with single-action tanks and old school crank guns, and it's especially jarring to watch these marvels of fiction cascading over old castles and British architecture, but this still looks to be an exciting and authentic take on what Wells originally wrote.

The series also features Rupert Graves as George's brother Frederick, while Robert Carlyle portrays an astronomer named Ogilvy.

The War of the Worlds arrives to BBC this fall.