Return to the Centre of the Earth Leskanich. The story is narrated by Patrick Stewart. Recording was delayed after Wakeman was hospitalised with a life threatening case of double pneumonia and pleurisy, and needed time to recover. Upon release, the album reached number 34 on the UK Albums Chart. In 1974, Wakeman released his second solo album "Journey to the Centre of the Earth", a concept album based on the same-titled science fiction novel by Jules Verne. It tells the story of Professor Lidenbrook, his nephew Axel, and their guide Hans who follow a passage to the Earth's centre originally discovered by Arne Saknussemm, an Icelandic alchemist.
The Fabulous World of Jules Verne in which its heroes directly acknowledged their fondness for reading Verne. The second of Zeman's Verne-based films was "Vynález zkázy"; the later ones were "The Stolen Airship", based on "Two Years' Vacation", and "On the Comet", based on "Hector Servadac". The main literary source material for "Vynález zkázy" was Verne's 1896 novel "Facing the Flag". However, rather than a straightforward literal adaptation of the novel, Zeman conceived the film as if the story were being retold by one of its characters, the young engineer Simon Hart. Moreover, since "Facing the Flag" included many memorable Vernian motifs—including submarines, volcanoes, mysterious figures