In the February 9 issue of The New Yorker, writer Michael Schulman details the planned reconstruction of Orson Welles’ The Magnificent Ambersons using artificial intelligence to convey the missing scenes.
For the highly detailed 6,700-word article, Deepfaking Orson Welles’s Mangled Masterpiece, Schulman interviewed Fable Studio Showrunner CEO Edward Saatchi and Ambersons consultant Brian Rose about the project, as well as Wellesnet’s Ray Kelly. Schulman asked about fan reaction to planned AI-involved reconstruction, which Kelly described as divided between horrified purists on one side and those who are intrigued, but skeptical, on the other.
The article balances Saatchi’s lofty pronouncements with stinging criticism of the project and him by Ambersons documentarian Joshua Grossberg; Melissa Galt, the daughter of Ambersons star Anne Baxter; and actress Justine Bateman, who slams Saatchi as having “the ethics of a piece of dirt.” ( Bateman was a key AI advisor to SAG-AFTRA during the 2023 contract negotiations.)
Saatchi has made headway with the Welles estate, which initially criticized the project, but seems to have somewhat softened its stance. Beatrice Welles told The New Yorker, “In regards to what Fable Studio is doing, while I am skeptical, I know they are going into this project with enormous respect toward my father and this beautiful movie, and only for that I am grateful.”
Fable Studio will employ actors for voice and physical performances to drive the AI-created characters in a project that is expected to take two years to complete.
The New Yorker was shown some very early test footage created by Fable Studios and multiple AI images are in the online article. (Wellesnet was permitted a glimpse of the “boarding house” ending in which an AI-generated Eugene Morgan visits with Fanny Minafer.)
There have been no announced plans for a commercial release of the project, which its backers hope will demonstrate the power of AI as a tool in filmmaking.Saatchi told The New Yorker he sees his efforts as “righting a historic wrong.”
Welles lost control over the final shaping The Magnificent Ambersons in early 1942.
With editing underway on the film, RKO Pictures ordered Welles to Brazil in February 1942 to direct the ill-fated It’s All True. According to RKO memos and cables, two groupings of Ambersons footage (14 reels and another 10), as well as 10 reels of Journey Into Fear, were shipped to Brazil so Welles could finish editing the film. However, after a test audience reacted badly at a preview of a 131-minute cut, RKO ordered a happier ending to be shot in Welles’ absence and drastically cut the movie down to 88 minutes.
The excised footage and outtakes stored in RKO’s vault in Southern California were subsequently destroyed. The footage sent to Brazil is presumed lost.
“They destroyed Ambersons,” Welles would say in a BBC interview 40 years later, “and the picture itself destroyed me; I didn’t get a job as a director for years afterwards.”
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