Tom Walsh was handed a copy of Bobbi Hess’s children’s book during a Los Angeles meeting with her late husband in 2014. Walsh, the director, co-writer and chief executive of independent production company TW3 Entertainment, had found the story he wanted to turn into a film.
He would spend over ten years trying to make it. Studios hesitated to fund the project, and Walsh put the cost of a traditional production at $80 million.
Generative AI changed the calculation, Walsh said. “The doors are not very open to new kind of ideas and new kind of stories and everything, and that makes it a little tough for independent filmmakers, so that's where AI came in.”
The result is Merry the Christmas Witch, a two-hour adaptation of Hess’s 2012 book. It follows Merry, described as the first witch born on Christmas Day, as she tries to defeat evil witches who have kidnapped Santa Claus in an effort to destroy Christmas.
Hess is 70, based in New Orleans and works as a technical writer.
Walsh worked with AI studio Phatty Acid on the film during a 10-month production. About 50 people took part, including foley artists, editors, sound designers, a composer and other production professionals. The team used ElevenLabs, Seedance and Nanobanana.
Human actors recorded the script to guide the characters’ movement and sound. Syncing problems later led Walsh to use AI-generated voices rather than hire voice actors.
Walsh described the process as a hybrid one, with experienced crew members judging whether AI-generated material looked polished or sloppy.
He says the film was made for $1.5 million using AI, a fraction of his estimate for a conventional version. The project became economically possible only with generative AI, according to Walsh.
The film is complete. It still has no distributor or premiere date.
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