Orson Welles Returns to the Movies...From the Grave

Even Orson Welles is getting in on the 3-D bonzanza, only 25 years after his death. A recording of Welles narrating a children's Christmas novel will be the jumping off point for a new live-action/CG flick called Christmas Tails. It will be the first film production for digital effects and makeup shop Drac Studios. The Hollywood Reporter has the vital information about the project, and it's an interesting story. The book Christmas Tailes was self-published by Robert Leed, who convinced Welles to record the text in the last few months of his life. Incidentally, Welles worked right to the end; he died just hours after taping an interview with Merv Griffin. But after the initial recordings, Leed didn't do much with them and they sat in his Las Vegas home untouched for many years. Drac President Harvey Lowry heard a rumor of the so-called lost Welles tapes and eventually worked his way to Leed, optioned his book and got the tapes, as well. Following a chemical process used to clean them up, Lowry next went to the Welles estate, which gave permission to use the very identifiable recording of the writer-actor-director-bon vivant for commercial use. "It's a movie about how Santa's dog saves Christmas, but on one level, this a story about the discovery of Orson's lost tapes," Drac president Harvey Lowry said. "This is a substantial find. It's something that a filmmaker dreams of." The tapes are believed to be the last professional work Welles ever did, which would make this even more rewarding. Drac plans to shoot the film this summer and fall, hoping for a holiday release next year.