Production began in early September 2001, with plans to move into principal photography by October of that year, with a Halloween 2002 target release date. "Businessweek" reported that Hines abandoned this approach after the World Trade Center attacks. Two weeks later, with the support of Charles Keller, the director of the H. G. Wells Society, Hines began writing a new script with producer Susan Goforth, while they were filming Pendragon's "Chrome". The new direction taken would be to directly adapt the Wells novel, setting it in its original British setting and 1898 time period.