Simon Wells (born 1961) is an English film director of animation and live-action films. He is the great grandson of author, H. G. Wells.
Born in Cambridge, he attended The Perse School and De Montfort University where he studied audio-visual design. Upon graduating he found a job at Richard Williams's studio where he animated commercials and other projects. Wells later supervised the animation on Who Framed Roger Rabbit?.
Wells later became a member of Amblimation, a studio owned by Steven Spielberg, where he served as director on films such as An American Tail: Fievel Goes West, We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story and Balto. Wells was set to direct a sequel to Casper but the project was cancelled.
After the closure of Amblimation Wells joined Dreamworks where he worked as storyboard artist on many animated projects, he also directed The Prince of Egypt which was nominated for an Annie Award.
In 2002 he directed his first live-action film, a film adaptation of his great-grandfather's book The Time Machine.
In 2011 he co-wrote and directed Mars Needs Moms using motion-capture technology during the filming.
Famous quotes containing the words simon and/or wells:
“Stevenson had noble ideas—as did the young Franklin for that matter. But Stevenson felt that the way to implement them was to present himself as a thoughtful idealist and wait for the world to flock to him. He considered it below him, or wrong, to scramble out among the people and ask them what they wanted. Roosevelt grappled voters to him. Stevenson shied off from them. Some thought him too pure to desire power, though he showed ambition when it mattered.”
—Garry Wills, U.S. historian. Certain Trumpets: The Call of Leaders, ch. 9, Simon & Schuster (1994)
“Yes, that’s what I needed. Living flesh from humans for my experiments. What difference did it make if a few people had to die? Their flesh taught me how to manufacture arms, legs, faces that are human. I’ll make a crippled world whole again.”
—Robert Tusker, and Michael Curtiz. Wells (Preston Foster)