The movie drastically re-imagines the Time Machine story, setting it in New York City of the same era as the novel rather than England. The Eloi and Morlocks are both extremely different from their novel counterparts, with the Eloi being a cliff-dwelling tribal group and the Morlocks a race bred into differing casts for specific purposes. The film was directed by Simon Wells, the grandson of H.G. Wells, the original novel's author.