25 years ago a good friend of Orson Welles, Robert X. Leed, wrote and published a children’s story called Christmas Tails about a group of dogs saving Christmas when a pack of sick reindeer almost force Santa to cancel the holiday. At the time, Leed was lucky enough to have his friend Welles record a full narration of the book.
Now Drac Studios, the special effects house responsible for effects in Benjamin Button and other Oscar winners, have acquired these tapes and are using them as a springboard to produce a feature-length film that will mix computer animation with live-action.
The tapes were acquired when the head of Drac, Harvey Lowry, looked deeper into rumors he had heard about existence of the recordings, and managed to contact Leed and strike a deal. The estate of Welles has made an agreement with Drac and the film is moving forward with Todd Tucker directing. The studio namedrops How The Grinch Stole Christmas and the style of Boris Karloff’s narration as an example of how they plan to approach mixing Welles’ voice into the film.
So, to summarize… Orson Welles is going to be a part of a modern, partly computer animated, 3D kids film. I wonder if they can figure out a way to work Mrs. Buckley’s Peas into it.