The idea for an adaptation of Around the World in 80 Days had occurred to another of cinema’s great visionaries, Orson Welles, but a 1946 stage version that he wrote and appeared in, Around the World, was a disaster. Welles had asked Todd to produce it but pithily remarked that “when it became apparent that, among other things, he was in no position to provide finances, I was forced to take over the responsibility of this myself.”
It lost over $300,000, and seemed to suggest that the story was box office poison. But Todd was intrigued by the potential for a film on a grand scale and, in 1954, he bought back the film rights from the British producer Alexander Korda, who was delighted to relinquish them: he called the project “too tough to make and too expensive”. Korda had not bargained with the impresario’s impresario, a man of whom it was said “he’ll move mountains if necessary. If it’s not necessary, he’ll build a mountain so he can move it.”
Todd hired the New Yorker writer SJ Perelman to adapt the screenplay, telling him that “the circulation of the New Yorker is 350,000. I want this picture to be seen by over a hundred million.” As director, he chose the young Englishman Michael Anderson, who was best known for his films The Dam Busters and the Orwell adaptation Nineteen Eighty-Four. Anderson was professional, talented, cheap and malleable; there was no doubt that Todd, not him, would be the auteur of this picture.
Casting was crucial. David Niven was the quintessential English gentleman actor of his day, and Todd telephoned him and summoned him to a meeting. Niven later wrote in his memoir The Moon’s A Balloon that “I had never met Todd but I had heard a hundred stories about the legendary master showman, gambler, promoter or con man – everyone saw him from a different angle.”
Their conversation was brief. Todd, smoking “a cigar of grotesque proportions”, asked Niven if he’d heard of Verne and Around the World in 80 Days. When the actor replied “I was weaned on it”, Todd said “I’ve never made a picture before but I’m gonna make this one. How’d you like to play Phileas Fogg?” An overjoyed Niven exclaimed “I’d do it for nothing!” Todd replied “You gotta deal”, and disappeared into a swimming pool.
