As Charles Foster Kane might have said, “Don’t believe everything you hear in The New York Post. Read the Inquirer!”
The New York Post reported on April 3 that Citizen Welles author Frank Brady, 82, had been tapped by Beatrice Welles to produce a novelization of the Citizen Kane screenplay, as well as a prequel book entitled Rosebud.
While The New York Post quoted Brady as dissing the ludicrous claim in Frank Mankiewicz’s recent memoir, So As I Was Saying, that Welles did not write a word of the screenplay, the newspaper never attributed a source for the alleged book deal. Its report was later repeated by ContactMusic.
The New York Post also erroneously claimed the Oscar-winning screenplay has never been published in book form. The shooting script was featured in The Citizen Kane Book, first published in 1971.
Reached for comment, Beatrice Welles said she has not approved a novelization or prequel of her father’s landmark film.
Citizen Kane marks its 75th anniversary this year.
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