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 drama) fell to Paul Stewart, the person Welles would later credit as being largely responsible for the quality of "The War of the Worlds" broadcast. Welles wanted the music to play for unbearably long stretches of time. The studio's emergency fill-in, a solo piano playing Debussy and Chopin, was heard several times. "As it played on and on," Houseman wrote, "its effect became increasingly sinister—a thin band of suspense stretched almost beyond endurance. That piano was the neatest trick of the show." Dress rehearsal was scheduled for 6 pm. "Our actual broadcasting time, from the first mention of the meteorites to