Georges Méliès
In 1902, Méliès produced his first masterpiece, A Trip to the Moon.  It was inspired by several works of the time that speculated about life on the moon. H.G. Wells and Jules Verne wrote about space travel, for instance, and Offenbach composed an opera about a trip to the moon. Trip was a huge success in France. Méliès hoped to make a fortune showing it in the United States. Thomas Edison and other moviemakers made copies of Trip however, and made money on Méliès's work.