Trivia / The Time Machine (2002)

• Box Office Bomb: Budget, $85 million. Box office, $56,832,494 (domestic), $123,729,176 (worldwide).
• Budget-Busting Element: Though it had a modest financial return, it used a significant portion of its budget on the props in Alexander's laboratory, namely the Time Machine itself and his collection of pocket watches.
• Creator Backlash: Guy Pearce has said in later interviews that he wasn't a fan of the final product.
• Creator Killer:
  • The first and only live-action film directed by Simon Wells, who was left so exhausted by the experience that he bowed out late in the shoot, leaving Gore Verbinski to take over for the remainder of the shoot (accounting for the last quarter or so of the film). He didn't direct anything of any description again — though worked as a storyboard artist on several Dreamworks animated films — until 2011's Mars Needs Moms, and judging by that film bombing as well, probably wishes he hadn't bothered. Apart from The Time Machine and Mars Needs Moms, all of Wells' movies are DreamWorks Animation films.
  • The Time Machine was also the first of three movies in 2002 and 2003 that dealt a setback to the career of screenwriter John Logan. The other two are Star Trek: Nemesis and DWA's Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas.
  • Samantha Mumba's film career was essentially derailed by the failure of this film. While she had a number of film roles after this, most of them were smaller budget Irish films.
• Deleted Role: Philip Bosco's scenes as the Dean were cut from the final print.
• Fake American: American scientist Alexander Hartdegen is played by British-born Australian actor Guy Pearce. The other major characters in his era are played by Mark Addy, Sienna Guillory, and Phyllida Law, who are all British. So... they changed the setting from Britain to America, only to cast a bunch of British actors.
• No Stunt Double: Guy Pearce personally asked to do as many of the stunts he could, outside of one or two that the studio wouldn't allow him to do. He even broke a rib filming the part where he tackles a Morlock.
• Real-Life Relative: Mara's younger brother Kalen is played by Samantha Mumba's real life brother Omero.
• Recycled Trailer Music: The trailer used music from Stargate.
• Remake Cameo: Alan Young, who played Filby in the 1960 adaptation, appears in this film as a florist.
• What Could Have Been: There were originally going to be several Über-Morlocks instead of just one, and they would have looking completely inhuman and monstrous, "like giant silverfish" according to the script.

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