Orson Welles Back From Grave for New TV Show

[akio]

Orson Welles Back From Grave for New TV Show

March 08, 2002 09:35 AM ET

by Jonathan Kent

LONDON (Reuters) - Screen legend Orson Welles is being brought back to life in a television remake of the classic '50s radio crime drama "The Black Museum," which he narrated, the show's producer said Friday.

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"I have a feeling knowing Orson as well as I did that if he were around he'd be laughing," Harry Alan Towers, who produced both the original radio show and the TV remake, told Reuters.

"The Black Museum" takes it's title from the name coined for Scotland Yard's Crime Museum by a reporter in 1877, two years after the museum opened. Each episode of the original focused on an item in the collection.

"This is Orson Welles speaking from London. The Black Museum, repository of death," Welles intoned in his booming voice opening a 1952 episode "The Bathtub."

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Welles' voice will be digitally transposed from the original radio series onto the film. Viewers will see Welles's silhouette recreated by an actor as the late auteur narrates the TV show.

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Towers says he tempted Welles into taking on the original series after he made a disastrous appearance on the London stage.

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The producers who are negotiating with broadcasters in the United States and Canada hope the show will hit TV screens around the world in September.

http://www.reuters.com/news_ar....=678929



Edited By Jeff Wilson on Mar. 08 2002 at 10:38

[Jeff Wilson]

I edited the article per the new article posting policy. In regards to the show, it sounds like it could be cheesy, with the silhouette and all. But we'll see. I didn't know Harry Alan Towers was still alive, much less still in show business.

[R Kadin]

A similar effort was launched a few years ago for "Alfred Hitchcock Presents", splicing colourized footage of Hitch's old intros and epilogues onto both ends of remakes of original episodes. Turned out to be about as good an idea as Gus van Sant's so-called "shot-for-shot" remake of Psycho. (Read into that what you will). Same thing was tried for "The Twilight Zone" series, as I recall.

Even if the proposed series' scripts are based on the original radio plays, I'd have to share your concern, Jeff, since OW would never settle for a straight transfer of material from one medium to another. And, of course, he would have been right.

[dmolson]

There is the possibility that this new show, if done with taste and cleverness, could actually expose more people to what we already know? It's not like 'old radio shows' are a hot commodity, so a little exposure could give a few more people a clue as to what a fabulous entertaining format it was/could be... also, a lot of the more popular shows in the 40s-50s featured scripts ripped right off the hollywood screens. So I personally will wait and see what comes of this. Yes, the Hitchcock remake was a terrible substitute for the original, while the Outer Limits 90s edition was a little thin, but better. I'm just glad that people are interested in OW and think he's got some value... Maybe it could help in lighting a match under some of his 'nearly completed' projects we keep bantering about...

[Welles Fan]

I'm kinda interested in this. I think I have the radio shows on one of those OTR MP3 CD's. Maybe some new people will be exposed to "the voice", though I daresay they probably could've talked today's "the voice" (James Earl Jones) into subbing for Orson.

Re: the Hitchcock redux-yeah, they merely colorized Hitch and stuck the intros onto remakes-the only good parts were the intros.

I did like the "new" Twilight Zone show, though. They had some very thoughtful and thought-provoking episodes (I particularly liked a touching one called Her Pilgrim Soul), and they often would do a little 5-10 minute story if that was all that was warranted (like the amusing Small Talent for War).

[R Kadin]

Actually, the more I recall on this, the I agree with you about the last Twilight Zone series: it was rather well done.

If memory serves, the producers paid considerable attention to honouring the standards set by Rod Serling and made special efforts to ensure his family was onside with the whole initiative - AND I believe that a number of contributors to the original series were invited along for the new ride.

I mention these things only by way of sharing your hope that there IS positive precedent out there for doing something like this "Black Museum" project - in talented hands and with the right, respectful approach.

Makes me wonder if we can contact Harry Alan Towers somehow to put in a helpful word or two...?

[Obssessed_with_Orson]

Welles Fan, only the good lord could substitute Orson's voice for anything. Nobody can outdo "the voice".

As for Mr. Jones, I consider him "a voice". But I only remember him as Darth Vader. And one of the officers in the movie "3 Fugitives"

bye now.

[jaime marzol]

i didn't mind the alfred hitchcock reconstruction and colorization. not the episodes, but the actual hitch segments. saw a bunch of them edited together and it was enjoyable to watch. and hitch always has a great sense of humor. the colorization and cleaned up footage looked quite good. all i had to do was turn down the color on the tv set and voila! fresh looking hitch footage.

[LA]

Sounds interesting, hopefully it won't be too bad, though Harry Alan Towers has had a very patchy career. I knew that he was still alive and working, as I heard recently he's produced a film called DEATH, DECEIT & DESTINY ABOARD THE ORIENT EXPRESS, which features an Austrian actor called Christoph Waltz, playing.......well, see for yourself. Of course, his radio series weren't bad, but his films have been very variable. Hopefully the series will be more like his radio series than his films. As long as he doesn't get Jesus Franco, who (badly) directed many Towers-produced horror films, to direct, it shouldn't be too bad.

[R Kadin]

A "patchy career" would seem to be putting it diplomatically, LA. Alas, something tells me that this project will not necessarily be playing to the more refined side of Mr. Towers' sensibilities...

That's quite the find, however, regarding this Mr. Waltz. Let's say no more, except to encourage others to follow your link for themselves. After all, why spoil ALL the fun?

[LA]

Re: The Black Museum, I get that feeling too. Oh well, whatever Mr. Towers does with it , it'll probably be entertaining in one way or another, ethier as a tasteful expansion of the radio original or as a example of so-bad-it's-good-ness.

Of course, looking on the bright side, it could be brilliant. I wonder who they'll get to direct?

That's quite the find, however, regarding this Mr. Waltz. Let's say no more, except to encourage others to follow your link for themselves. After all, why spoil ALL the fun?

My lips are sealed.