Bet you had no idea that legendary actor Leslie Nielsen lent his voice to a gory animated movie in 2007. Bet you had even less of an idea that he offered his talent pro bono. So, why haven't you seen it? That's where things get complicated.
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00:00Bet you had no idea that legendary actor Leslie Nielsen lent his voice to a gory animated
00:05movie in 2007.
00:06Bet you had even less of an idea that he offered his talent pro bono.
00:10So why haven't you seen it?
00:12That's where things get complicated.
00:14It's not easy for actors to pull off the career shift that Leslie Nielsen did.
00:17The son of a royal Canadian Mountie stationed near the Arctic Circle, Nielsen started his
00:21entertainment career in radio.
00:23After studying performing in Toronto, he made his way to New York, where he began working
00:27in theater and then in television.
00:30Partially to advance his career, and partially because he was uncomfortable about his modest
00:33beginnings, Nielsen maintained a stoic screen persona that kept him busy in TV throughout
00:38the 1950s and 60s.
00:40When Hollywood called, it was with dramatic and occasionally romantic parts that suited
00:44his steely front.
00:45From Forbidden Planet in 1956 to The Poseidon Adventure in 1972, Nielsen maintained steady
00:51work as a serious, authoritative actor.
00:53But in 1980, when Nielsen was 54, he was cast in the disaster movie parody Airplane.
00:59His deadpan performance drew raves, and while it took a few years for the rest of Hollywood
01:03to tap into his comedic potential, by decade's end, his persona had definitively shifted
01:08from dramatic lead to king of the spoofs.
01:11"'Shirley, you can't be serious."
01:12"'I am serious.
01:14And don't call me Shirley.'"
01:15All of his feature film credits from his final years are comedies, and he was working on
01:19another comedy when he died in 2010, an animated film called The Waterman Movie.
01:24But his last, unreleased performance may never see the light of day due to production woes.
01:29The man behind Leslie Nielsen's final, unreleased role is Brian Waterman, who was only 22 years
01:34old when he approached the actor about doing a voice for an animated feature.
01:38Waterman had developed an animated series in college named for himself, and it featured
01:42a main character based on Nielsen, Reddy Espinoza.
01:46The explorer extraordinaire's design approximated the performer's face if he had a dueling scar
01:50down one eye.
01:52Waterman told Entertainment Weekly that Nielsen was his childhood hero, and when he began
01:56working on a feature, he reached out to Nielsen's representatives.
01:59He was prepared to scrap the film when he didn't hear back after several months, but
02:03the star personally contacted him to discuss the project further.
02:07Nielsen agreed to work on the film without compensation, and he regaled Waterman with
02:10stories from his life and career as they recorded his part for The Waterman Movie.
02:15While the film remains Nielsen's last role in that it is currently unreleased, it wasn't
02:19his last production.
02:21Recording sessions were done by phone in 2007 over two days.
02:24In the years between recording his lines and his death, the actor made six more movies.
02:28Nielsen completed all his lines before he died, and told Waterman he would help to promote
02:32the film once it was completed.
02:34The two hit it off and would regularly converse up until Nielsen's death.
02:38Waterman said that the last time they talked was before Thanksgiving 2010.
02:41The comic actor who played the hapless American detective Fran Drebin in the Naked Gun movies
02:46has died.
02:47The Waterman Movie was an independent production and had several years of work behind it by
02:51the time Leslie Nielsen got involved.
02:53Brian Waterman set up a Kickstarter in 2010 to raise the budget for the film, with the
02:57goal set at $35,000.
03:00He fell well short of that before the clock ran out.
03:03Backers had pledged just over $13,000.
03:05By the time Nielsen died, Waterman had just two minutes of completed footage, plus a handful
03:10of animation tests.
03:12Waterman eventually got almost five minutes finished.
03:15The initial scene of the Waterman Movie, with help from CJC Animation.
03:18He told Creative Chair in 2013 that a lack of money and manpower had been the two greatest
03:23roadblocks to further progress.
03:25Unless either situation changed, he said it was likely that production would continue
03:29to drag out.
03:30But Waterman insisted that he was still working on the film.
03:33The Waterman Studios website still carries a production history section wherein he vows
03:37to finish the film, if only to bring another Leslie Nielsen performance to his fans.
03:41The website does not appear to have been updated since 2012.
03:45CJC Animation's page on the project describes it as indefinitely on hold, and there have
03:49been no updates on the movie from Waterman himself in years.