Part III: Pendragon and Dreamworks
by Dave Coustan

12/2/2004

In the first part of Stuffo's interview with "The War of the Worlds" director Timothy Hines, he explained the origins of the project. In part two, he described the making of the movie. Now, in the third and final installment, Hines discusses the circumstances that led to the possible release of two "The War of the Worlds" movies in the same year by different studios.

Why did Pendragon shoot the movie under the fake name "The Great Boer War?"

"One, it was a great in-joke to me. Because the Boer War was the war in which H.G. Wells wrote 'The War of the Worlds' in reaction to. And so anyone who actually was deeply connected to the book might know..'gee the Boer War, why does that sound so familiar?'"

"Secondly it was a war that was going on in the turn of the century for England. And so for us to be shooting a picture where we're marching around with nineteenth century troops, in England, preparing to go off to war, that was a good cover. People would immediately accept that in reason that 'oh well that makes sense, that was when the Boer war was occurring.'"

Photo courtesy Pendragon Pictures These soldiers could have been in a movie called "The Great Boer War"...

"And part of that was that we shot it under 'The Great Boer War' just to not be inundated with onlookers and with fans of War of the Worlds and as it was, and as it is, we get thousands of letters a week of people essentially wanting employment or wanting to be involved or giving us advice on how to make the movie. And it would have been doing it in a fishbowl."