First off, much thanks for the coverage of our film “War of the Worlds: Goliath”.

As an independently funded and produced feature we deeply appreciate the growing interest and generally high reviews our production work is getting in the fan community.

As the creator/producer/director on War of the Worlds: Goliath” I wanted to jump into this discussion to respond some of the more critical comments offered by your site’s readers.

Guys, everyone’s entitled to their opinions. It’s a free country, generally, but I would urge you to give us a bit more of a chance before jumping in to some of your conclusions.

Calling a production “garbage” without any idea of its script or storyline is a bit premature isn’t it?

The screenplay on War of the Worlds: Goliath” was written by David Abramowitz who has excellent credentials as an established screen writer, notably for his outstanding work as the key writer/Show Runner on the generally acclaimed “Highlander” TV series. David also wrote the very good script for the anime, “Highlander: the Search for Vengeance” feature which was directed by Kawajiri and animated at Madhouse in Tokyo.

Incidentally, I was a co-producer on that piece of work.

As for being derivative of Scarlet Traces well, LOL, friend. I originally wrote the War of the Worlds: Goliath” storyline and developed the first look on this project in 1998, well before the Darkhouse storyline (which was an excellent story by the way). Conceptualizing a sequel to the H.G. Wells novel, however, is nothing new. A novelization sequel to “The War of the Worlds” was written early in the last century.

And as to being a “parochial” American centric effort. Again, this says a lot more about the writer of that comment then myself or our movie.

For the record, War of the Worlds: Goliath” features an INTERNATIONAL crew of warriors. Our core team includes a BRITISH lead, a black CANADIAN an IRISHMAN, a MALAYSIAN and one AMERICAN. Support characters are again, international, including Von Richthoffen, Nikola Tessla and many others.

In fact, there’s a an entire secondary story arc dealing with Internationalism vs. Nationalism in the face of an impending Martian Invasion.

And we have an opening sequence set in England.

So, I’d say, give us a fair shot. You might be pleasantly surprised.

Finally, our budget has been upped significantly from the 3 million dollar figure. You’ll see, when “War of the Worlds: Goliath” hits the screen next year.

Check this pic out of the monorail:

http://www.heavymetalmagazinefanpage.com/wotwshot28l.jpg

Isn’t this a little bit like the monorail in Scarlet Traces? Have Edington & Disraeli been credited? Look at their 2003 version:

http://www.2000adreview.co.uk/features/interviews/2006/edginton/edginton5.jpg

A little too close for comfort I think.

I’m reasonably sure, but don’t have the time to do the legwork to confirm 100%, that many of the other designs appear to be rather blatant copies of other steampunk artists’ works.

With no mention or credit of the original creators, I’m guessing.

Hate to be a naysayer, but this sounds like it’ll garbage. When someobdy says “think ‘X’ meets ‘Y’” it usually means a lack of originality.

Even the poster contains so many American Disney/Pixaresque clichés that one suspects this will sink without a trace. A terrible ‘sameness’ has invaded animation, a homogeneity reflecting America’s cultural arrogance & wilful ignorance.

But then, Heavy Metal was always a poor cousin to Epic, its (sadly) long-gone superior, which did more than litter its pages with half-naked women so young boys would buy it.