H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds (Hines film) added scenes, re-edits, and re-tooled special effects; the director says this is the definitive version. "The Classic War of the Worlds" replaces the 3 hour rough cut version, "H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds", that was widely distributed and is now discontinued. In 2012 a re-imagined, re-edited, and re-thought version, with new material added, was released under the title War of the Worlds – The True Story; this new version, again directed by Timothy Hines, is presented as a faux-documentary. It revisits Wells' novel, portraying its events as historical by way of the documented recollections of a survivor of
The War of the Worlds (radio 1968) reporters as actors. Other changes reflected the changing state of the industry: instead of the old-time radio programming fare of the 1930s, WKBW's "War of the Worlds" broadcast was interwoven into the station's top 40 programming. Initially, a script was written for the news reporters to act out; however, upon hearing the rehearsals, it was evident that the news reporters (except Irv Weinstein, a professional radio actor at the beginning of his career) were not adept at scripted radio acting. So instead, Kaye wrote an outline based on the events that were to occur, and the news reporters were then