Hey folks, Harry here and just to let you know that we care... We've been following up on your request for information about THE TRIPODS TRILOGY. Here's what we've been able to find out...
THE TRIPODS TRILOGY- consists of three novels- THE WHITE MOUNTAINS, THE CITY OF GOLD AND LEAD, and THE POOL OF FIRE. Books by John Christopher (real name Sam Youd). They were partially produced as 6-8 (?) hour miniseries for BBC in early 1980's.
STORY- Starts out in what looks like Middle Ages England. Young Will Parker is distressed by how dull his life is, and worried about losing his friend in the morning when he turns sixteen and undergoes the "Capping" ceremony. Huh? Next day a twenty foot metal space ship with three legs comes into town and takes his pal away, returning him with a metal cap in his head. This is not the past. It is a future in which the mysterious ships came, and kicked our ass. Now every adult is capped at 16 so that they offer no resistance to the Tripods. Will meets a babbling derelict (victim of bad capping) who turns out to be in disguise; he tells him of a resistance movement off in the White Mountains (what we call France) and one night Will, and his younger cousin, set off to find this fabled place. Along the way they have adventures (including one in a fairy tale castle that has revived feudalism, and one in an abandoned Paris) hook up with another partner Jean Paul (no one speaks French so he becomes Beanpole) find and later join the resistance. Very STAR WARS, although written 10 years before it.
An article in Variety about this a whiles back led to the interest of Frank Darabont. Due to some unfortunate haggling with Frank's people, it led to the production wasting a year and the company was forced to telling him he wouldn't be working on the project. The plan now is for Graham Yost (Speed, Mission to Mars, Earth to Moon) to take a crack at it. In very active development at Touchstone Pictures
