Orson Welles flew to Paris to discuss the project personally with the Russian author. Orson Welles George Orson Welles (; May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American actor, director, writer, and producer who worked in theatre, radio, and film. He is remembered for his innovative work in all three: in theatre, most notably "Caesar" (1937), a Broadway adaptation of William Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar"; in radio, the legendary 1938 broadcast "The War of the Worlds"; and in film, "Citizen Kane" (1941), consistently ranked as one of the greatest films ever made. In his 20s, Welles directed a number of high-profile
Orson Welles on an idea by Orson Welles". Welles spent around nine months around 1947–48 co-writing the screenplay for "Cyrano de Bergerac" along with Ben Hecht, a project Welles was assigned to direct for Alexander Korda. He began scouting for locations in Europe whilst filming "Black Magic", but Korda was short of money, so sold the rights to Columbia pictures, who eventually dismissed Welles from the project, and then sold the rights to United Artists, who in turn made a film version in 1950, which was not based on Welles's script. After Welles's elaborate musical stage version of this Jules Verne novel,