The first act, as the Traveller makes his first few trips forward, are quite well done. That's partly the journey he makes, but this whole idea of a romantic interlude with one of the Eloi just seems odd. Much of that is what art directors bring to the project, so it's not completely out of possibility. Why not avoid adding anything that Wells didn't have in the book, but merely take the written word and rethink it in a new narrative. Of course, having said that, it's odd that I would reference Sleepy Hollow , since that film's plot was nothing like the story it was based upon.
People are sick of the revisionist approach to aliens and future beings.
There would be a strangeness in each and every step. Look at 1979's Time After Time . Anyway, all of this is quite academic as Simon Wells makes his revisions to the script and prepares to bring his ideas to his ancestor's story. There's plenty of material sitting there, waiting to be used that doesn't need anything new to accompany it, both in plot and philosophical concept. Expect casting talks to start sometime soon.