Jeff Wayne teases the long-awaited War of the World's musical movie

7 October 2025, 08:44

Jeff Wayne talks up a War of the World movie

A film version of Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of War of the Worlds could finally be on the way.

Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of War of the Worlds is an absolute phenomenon.

The original double album has gone nine times platinum in the UK alone on the way to 15 MILLION global sales.

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Since its release in 1978, the project has been adapted several times over. There's been a collection of radio edits, Spanish and German-language reworks, live tour production, New Generation remake, and even a few video games.

In 2019, Jeff Wayne's The War of the Worlds: The Immersive Experience opened in London and last week it earned a Guinness World Record for the longest theatrical run of a musical immersive theatre production, racking up over 31,000 performances.

• Watch the full interview above

One medium that feels obvious for the Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of War of the Worlds is cinema, but despite Jeff Wayne kicking off negotiations with Paramount for a movie adaptation just three months after the album was first released nearly half a century ago, it's never happened.

Speaking to Gold Radio in at the secret Red Weed bar in London after the Guinness World Record ceremony celebrating the success of the Immersive Experience, Jeff Wayne explained why there's not been a movie yet, and why that could finally change.

Jeff Wayne's The War of The Worlds: The Immersive Experience (Official Trailer)

"It's been a mixture of being very protective, because I have been approached, not tonnes of times, but several times by filmmakers or a director that have a vision for it that just doesn't correspond with what I fell in love with and what I know my dad and I promised to Frank Wells, the son of HG Wells," Wayne said.

"But watch this space, actually, because in the middle of October we're going to see the first assembly of a sequence of our own version of the film version of The War of the Worlds.

"And I'm hoping we'll take it to complete fruition – maybe partner with a media company or take it in our own way."

Asked for the reason for the world record success of Jeff Wayne's The War of the Worlds: The Immersive Experience, Wayne said: "Truthfully, I think when we were planning this out a good result would have been three to six months.

"Here we are six and a half years later and I think in looking back it's because our immersive experience touches so many technologies and human interactions that it's all-encompassing as an experience.

Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of The Worlds - The Journey

"It's all glued together by my original score for The War of the Worlds, new elements have been added and it's just a lot of fun as well.

"When the general public arrive, they're coming to escape out of the real world for a few hours, only to discover that not only are they escaping out of the real world but they're part of the show, interacting with our live actors in every one of our 24 rooms."

Jeff Wayne's The War of the Worlds: The Immersive Experience continues in London and tickets are available now.