![]() What was Hollywood’s reaction to the spin-off? “Nobody is interested right now,” Pal sighed. Isn’t that a great idea?” Pal asks gleefully.Ī Starlog article a few months later (May 1978) reports that the script was ready, the book version was near completion, and Pal was eager to bring the production to the screen. He would rather not be born than to have his parents die. “From then on in, it’s the story of the young man trying to find his parents in the future and warn them not to try to go back in time. A young man stands there … He has just witnessed the death of his parents and his own birth. Then we pan over to the time machine and next to it is a 1977 version of the machine. He gets killed and, then, she gets killed. He runs after her to try to protect her from the bombing with his own body. He drives so recklessly and so fast that the machine hits the wrong moment and place and freezes during the London Blitz of 1943. They’re both in the time machine, Weena is pregnant, and the Time Traveler … wants his son to be born in his own time, his own place. “We open it up with the Time Traveler and Weena rushing back from the future. “This is actually how the film will begin,” he says, relishing every moment of his storytelling. You can sense Pal’s excitement as he relates the story: In a December 1977 Starlog article, Pal said that he and Joe Morhaim were busy writing a new screenplay as well as a novel. The Time Traveler was to do for these people what he wanted to do for the Eloi.” That is, help them escape their oppressors and become peace-loving and self-sufficient. But he also included giant insects, and human beings who hide from them in huge honeycombs. “The Time Traveler was to go on into the future even farther, as in the novel: Pal prepared moody sketches of this unimaginably distant time, with the prescribed crabs and the huge, dim sun on the horizon. In his book, “Keep Watching the Skies” (1986), author Bill Warren described the first-announced sequel script: I think we could have developed a very interesting story of the loneliness of these two people.” I can just see Rod Taylor and Yvette Mimieux, just the two of them there, go in there where the crabs are and the ocean is flat and doesn’t move any more and the sun is hot all the time. I would have loved to make a sequel having the Time Traveler go back in time, or - there was a great sequence which … just didn’t fit in our plot - to go back to the same place and then go further into the future when the crabs took over. We had very difficult times with just the changing management. I would have, but we just never got to it at MGM. In a 1975 interview for Castle of Frankenstein magazine, Pal was asked if he’d ever thought of doing a sequel. Some of the early concepts for the sequel appear in comments and drawings by George Pal. Sal Ponti, had just completed work on another George Pal project, “Atlantis, the Lost Continent” (1961). Initial plans for “Return of the Time Traveler” included reuniting Rod Taylor and Yvette Mimieux and adding newcomer Anthony Hall to the cast. 9, 1960, Pal moved up the filming of a sequel to January 1961 while pushing back the making of “The Brothers Grimm” (1962). According to an item by Los Angeles Times film critic Philip K. Its pre-release buzz prompted MGM to put a sequel on its roster for 1961.ĭirector George Pal was eager to do it. In July/August 1960, “The Time Machine” opened to critical acclaim and audience enthusiasm. Part 2 will look at “ Time Machine: The Journey Back” (1993) and Rod Taylor’s turn at writing. This post will take a look at George Pal’s attempts at a sequel. Bad timing and lack of financing thwarted their efforts. George Pal and Rod Taylor both tried their hand at writing or producing a follow-up. Ideas, scenes, books, notes and drawings have surfaced over the years. ![]() Ready? Just hop in a time machine, create an alternate reality, and you’re all set!įor a while after the release of “ The Time Machine,” it appeared that a follow-up was on the fast track.īut a direct sequel – one that included George Pal and Rod Taylor – never came to pass. COMING SOON! “Return of the Time Traveler,” starring Rod Taylor and Yvette Mimieux! Produced and directed by George Pal! Special effects by Ray Harryhausen!
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