Seattle, WA (PRWEB) June 08, 2012

Pendragon Pictures announces that Sacramento California has been added to the theatrical movie exhibition dates of WAR OF THE WORLDS THE TRUE STORY. The movie will make its California premiere in a special engagement at the luxurious Crest Theatre on Saturday, July 7th at 3:30 and 8pm.

The US theatrical release of WAR OF THE WORLDS THE TRUE STORY has its world premiere at Landmark Theatres Harvard Exit June 14 in Seattle. The limited engagement showings continue on June 22 in Bellingham, Washington at The Mount Baker Theatre, and June 21-24 in Portland Oregon at the Cinema 21 and The Hollywood Theatre. Then California, Arizona and New Mexico in July.

WAR OF THE WORLDS THE TRUE STORY is the eyewitness account of Bertie Wells, the last living survivor of the Earth/Mars War that took place in the year 1900. Bertie struggles to find his wife amidst the destruction of humankind at the hands of terrifying alien invaders. Using visual effects techniques pioneered in FORREST GUMP, WAR OF THE WORLDS THE TRUE STORY blends a modern cast with battalions of actual soldiers in combat, classic era movie stars, and declassified footage of tentacled alien creatures and their astonishing war machines.

Based on the most beloved sci-fi novel of all time by H.G. Wells, the movie is the result of a 15-year journey by Director Timothy Hines and Producers Donovan Le and Susan Goforth to bring the novel to the big screen. Starting as a $ 42-million production in 2001 with a Hollywood cast, the movie was shut down when the 9/11 attacks occurred. Now, triumphantly, this epic movie comes to theaters, capturing the original novel that terrified generations.

Bertie Wells is performed by veteran stage actor, octogenarian, Floyd Reichman, with the younger Bertie Wells preformed in flashback by Anthony Piana.

Anthony appeared as the writer in my 2005 movie version, says director Timothy Hines. We didnt want to retread what we had done before. Plus the 2005 movie was released unfinished. It was unfortunate for Anthony and other cast members to have the picture released in that state. It was a disservice to us all in that the distributors were in such a rush to beat Spielberg.

Producer Susan Goforth adds, When a movie is created many dozens of hours of footage are filmed. Any actor in any movie could be made to look bad if wrong takes and flawed moments are chosen or not properly removed. That is not the case here. The new movie, WAR OF THE WORLDS THE TRUE STORY is reconceived from scratch, with an entirely different approach, that is that the war between Earth and Mars is part of our history and this is a look back at the worlds bloodiest war that could have been.

In WAR OF THE WORLDS THE TRUE STORY we get it right. Timothy used a very tiny portion of footage from the original movie shoot. And that which was used, was chosen with great care and picked to concisely support the new vision, says producer Donovan Le.

The special effects in WAR OF THE WORLDS THE TRUE STORY were also handled with great care through laborious effects production and a post-production schedule of 121 weeks.

Hines says, The visual effects are state of the art and powerful but are also designed to seamlessly blend in with actual images of combat and the world of 1900.

Susan Goforth concurs, When we started this picture we all agreed that the effects should not be breakout movie stars on their own but support at every moment that the Earth Mars War actually happened.

The kind of care that went into the production can be illustrated with the work done by the talented effects artist, Ultrakarl, in the creation of the Martian alien invaders.

I felt a huge amount of anxiety, stress and pressure from myself, as artists sometimes tend to do, says Ultrakarl. I had a mind-set of, this isn’t my creation, but that of the father of science-fiction itself, whose work is so well known and loved for so long that I had to be very aware of that — a responsibility to H. G. Wells, the legions of fans and to myself.

My first order of business was to break down and figure out what Wells was saying about the creature and what he wasn’t saying. For example, my first sketches had the Martian with three sets of tentacles, thinking they would have based their walking machines after themselves, but no mention of this was in the book so I had to eliminate those features.

Next was to sort out the biology based on the environment and the ideas of evolution and how they would adapt. Based on the book I concluded they were underground dwellers, this meant minimal light and thin atmosphere. Some of the biological choices I made included a kind of doubled pupil in each of the eyes, very thick short coarse hairs for detecting vibrations and sound to help with the “tympanic ear” membrane, and assisted oxygen intake. Thinking the mouth area was not adequate to breathe, I included some slit-like openings in the ribcage covered in longer finer hairs to breathe and protect them from debris and dust particles. My designs included all manner of anatomical drawings from the large brain all the way up to fatty deposits, muscle tissues and outer membranes to try and understand how these creatures lived and moved.

Finally it was time to build the monster. Originally I wanted to make a large sculpture of clay and do the traditional thing of making huge molds and positives, but soon realized the nature of the creature wouldn’t allow for this. Too much tight control, I thought, would prevent the Martian from growing, by this I mean that sometimes when I sculpt, I sit with the clay and ask it what do you want to be? The same happened with the Martian, I got into my ‘zone” and simply started cutting and shaping materials until the Martian told me what it wanted to be. The end result was a very organic, naturally growing and evolving process.

A lot of work and sleepless nights, sometimes feeling I was in a trance and being more a conduit rather than a creator, I had been working on the Martian creature for weeks, having great doubts and fears, as artists tend to do. But then the day came when we went to the set and uncovered him. The crew had such a great response having not seen him or the process and the advantage of those fresh eyes relieved much of my anxiety. We all had so much fun making him come to life. Everything coalesced into a truly amazing experience; there is nothing quite like being on a movie set watching and being a part of that creative magic.

Pendragon Pictures is distributing WAR OF THE WORLDS THE TRUE STORY through its new distribution company LHG, in the face of a quickly changing business landscape.

Susan Goforth is emphatic about the theatrical distribution of WAR OF THE WORLDS THE TRUE STORY, To quote Variety Magazine,The symbiotic business model between the theater owner and studio that has supported both for decades is eroding, and may prove unsustainable soon without changes. We have created a distribution plan that will have us into 200 theaters plus by fall.

Donovan Le adds, We are booking a variety of theatrical venues from 400 to 1,500 seat theaters, but we are choosing theaters that have a sense of class and decorum to support the spectacle of our 1900-set movie.

Such a theater where WAR OF THE WORLDS THE TRUE STORY will play is the historic Crest Theatre in Sacramento California. The theater was created as a vaudeville house in 1913, then converted to a motion picture theater in the late 20s. After a closure in 1979, the theater reopened in 1985 featuring the MGM musical “Singin’ in the Rain” which starred Donald O’Connor who was in attendance at the event. In 1995, a million dollar restoration brought the Crest, Sacramento’s last picture palace back to its spectacular golden-age appearance. The elegant Crest boasts of a fabulous gold leaf art deco interior. As part of the

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