# Unexpected screenwriters **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 29, 2022, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unexpected-screenwriters/961920 "2022-03-29T16:58:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 62
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2022, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unexpected-screenwriters/961920/62 "2022-03-30T20:48:07Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > H. G. Wells has 141 credits on IMDb, all from adaptations of his work. But he apparently actually worked on one, with a dialogue credit. [The Man Who Could Work Miracles](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0029201/?ref_=nm_flmg_wr_125), a light fantasy of the sort not usually attributed to him. Actually, I think that **The Man Who Could Work Miracles** is the best overall Wells adaptation of all , and for years I attributed this in part to his NOT having anything to do with it. I knew that someone else wrote the screenplay, but this is the first I heard that he added some dialogue. I still think it’s the best because his input wasn’t large,. Wells DID write the screenplay for **Things to Come** , and it’s rather dismal. The movie is visually striking and imaginative, but wells’ hand is pretty heavy in allegory (“Everytown” my foot – why not just come out and call it London? It’s got St. Paul’s right there in the background.) Too many characters “stand for” something, but aren’t really people. He wrote another screenplay – **The King Who Was A King** – but it was never produced. It’s apparently on the internet, and I should read it. But from all accounts it’s as allegorically heavy as **Things to Come** Ironically, wells was right at the forefront of things. He was trying to team up with some inventors who wanted to turn **The Time Machine** into a sort of early Virtual Reality ride – a box with a movie screen in the front that depicted scenes from different historical eras. If they had done it, they probably would’ve scooped Hale’s Tours, which is credited with starting lots of movie careers. > **[Hale's Tours of the World](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hale%27s_Tours_of_the_World)** > > Hale's Tours of the World were an attraction at amusement parks and similar venues in the early 20th century. They were specially constructed spaces designed to simulate a railway journey. > George C. Hale was born on October 28, 1849. He was a well travelled and prolific inventor, engineer and Fire Chief of Kansas City, Missouri from 1882 until retiring in 1902. Interested in the use of film, Hale came across William Keefe who had conceived the idea of an imitation railway passenger car on a cir... > [@HG Wells question](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hg-wells-question/82709): > > I’m going to try this in ‘Cafe Society,’ though I suspect it might be just as appropriate for GQ. Regardless… I recall reading some time ago about a plan HG Wells and an entrepreneur hatched to create what would today be called ‘motion simulator rides’ based on Wells Time Machine book. Paying customers would get into the Time Machine simulator and experience the rapid passing of days (flickering lights) and then be treated to famous scenes from history (painted tableaus or dioramas). The ride w… > [@](#): > > As **don’t ask** noted above, it was Robert Paul who collaborated with H.G. Wells on this. According to John Baxter’s **Science Fiction in the Cinema** (1970 – a wretched book, but sometimes a useful reference) Wells and Paul applied for a patent on October 24, 1895 for a device to duplicate the effects Wells had described in his novel **The Time Machine** a year earlier. “The plan might have worked had either man possessed the money to develop it. However, Wells moved on to eminence as a writer and Paul to frustration and obscurity as a pioneer of the cinema.” --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unexpected-screenwriters/961920)._