A NEWSPAPER HOAX - TOWN BELIEVED ALIENS INVADED

This is a little late as it happened on April 1st as part of an elaborate April fools joke. This url was sent to me by friend, FX man Karl Cottle. The basics of it are this:

AMMAN, Jordan — A Jordanian newspaper's April Fool's Day report chronicling a late-night visit by 10-foot-tall aliens in flying saucers sparked public panic and almost led to the town's emergency evacuation, officials said Monday.

There was much more to people’s confusion as you will see if you read on here:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/06/ufo-april-fools-prank-spa_n_525834.html

Now I am thinking about the nature of hoaxes every day I’m constructing a movie that is a hoax documentary that says the War of the Worlds really happened a hundred and ten years ago. You can read the entire premise and how I came to mount this picture here at Space Daily and a little back-story at the Mukilteo Beacon.

The premise of War of the Worlds - The True Story is that in 1965 a documentary film crew captured the memories of the last living survivor of the war between Earth and the planet Mars that took place at the turn of the 20th Century. Nothing was done with the footage until, in 2006, it was discovered in the basement vault of a condemned house. Found in the vault with the interviews, was previously unknown footage of the actual Martian invaders and their machines of war.

I find it interesting how quickly a conspiracy can spread. A young producer working on War of the Worlds – The True Story was at a social gathering and telling a few acquaintances about the project. He explained how our story is a fictitious documentary and that it’s really a dramatic movie that is kind of a forgery of a documentary where an actual Martian invasion occurred and is part of our history. The funny thing was that more than one person only half heard what he said and later asked question like, “Did Mars really invade the Earth a hundred years ago?”

So it caused me to take pause and reflect on Orson Wells back in the 1930s, how he did scant announcement that the War of the Worlds radio play broadcast was fictitious. And how many were frightened and worried that the world was actually being invaded.

That it happened again on April 1st to another group of people should be of no surprise. It is interesting that the people of Wells' War of the Worlds were completely unsuspecting of what was to befall them. The Salem Witch trials can show us what happens if we imagine too much danger in the shadows. Conspiracy – what is really out to eat us and what is just a shadow? It’s a question each generation has to wrestle with so that they don’t over or under protect.

I’m thinking of such things as we forge a documentary in a world where a War between Earth and Mars actually occurred a hundred and ten years ago.

http://www.sfcrowsnest.com/articles/news/2010/War-of-the-Worlds-gets-a-mock-umentary-film--14696.php

~Later-