Questions and Answers with Timothy Hines, Director of the movie H.G. WELLS' THE WAR OF THE WORLDS. A Pendragon Pictures production. A Timothy Hines film. Produced by Susan Goforth. Directed by Timothy Hines.
Director Timothy Hines talks H.G. WELLS' THE WAR OF THE WORLDS
and answers the fans most frequently asked questions.
I noticed their were Fighting Machine Puppeteers in the credits.. Were the tripods/Fighting Machines miniatures, CGI or both?What was the inspiration for the fighting machine designs?
The Fighting Machines are both CGI and Puppets. The design was based as much as possible on Wells' descriptions. It started with a medieval hood with a liripipe off the back. The liripipe was shortened and streamlined and flying buttresses were added to the front so that it wasn't JUST a hood. The tentacles were made to look like chain links as they were described by Wells. But we also made them high tech. We had to constantly shift back and forth between our modern sense and how a Victorian might have interpreted what he was seeing. The three cockpit windows were designed after three paneled windows on jet planes. Wells described a boiler on
stilts and at other times he talked about the hooded head looking around. We came up with the neck piece so the hooded head could turn and sometimes nestle into
what looked like a boiler on stilts. Finally, and some people seem to be picking up on this, Wells was a lover of Art Nouveau. That is the organic part of the design.
Wells evolved some of his descriptions of the fighting machines and we sometimes had to make a design choice between two things. I don't think there was
DIRECTOR TIMOTHY HINES recently took the time to answer fan questions. We compiled the most frequently asked questions and posed them to Mr. Hines.
What is your favorite part of the movie, that which you feel came best together?
The Writer and the Curate in the collapsed house. There was great chemistry between Anthony and John.
You chose a very daring look to the film with a sepia-like quality. What was the reason behind this?
We knew we couldn't get a typical Hollywood look, so we went for a classic age Hollywood look combined with a newsreel feel. Sort of The Wizard of Oz meets The World at War. I wanted it to feel old and archival. It was a constant tinkering process. Constantly evolving. All in all it came out pretty well.
Do you have any plans to make the soundtrack available on CD?
Yes.
What does the unusual copyright date on the movie mean?
The person in charge of the copyright date saw how the copyright looked in Roman
numerals and it was just a couple of letters, so he researched it and found there to be an older, more authentic way to display it. That's what we went with.
any case where we missed it. I have received many positive emails on the designs and a couple questioning the heat ray. Wobbly disk or camera? Maybe we got that wrong but
it works and is still true to the spirit of Wells.
"I went for a classic age Hollywood look combined with a newsreel feel. Sort of The Wizard of Oz meets the World at War." --Timothy Hines
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What was the biggest hurdle to overcome production wise?
Budget.
What's next for Pendragon?
CHROME, a sci-fi adventure movie about a superhero robot who rises up against evil in a tyrannical society of the future.
