Producer Frank Marshall has confirmed Netflix is in interested in completing Orson Welles’ The Other Side of the Wind.
Speaking in Las Vegas after being named CinemaCon’s International Filmmaker of the Decade,, Marshall (Jurassic World, Indiana Jones, Bourne Identity) described the streaming giant as the ideal home for Welles’ unfinished film, adding he hoped it would debut by the end of the year, according to reports in Screen Daily and The Hollywood Reporter.
“We are close,” Marshall said on Monday night. “We are in negotiations with Netflix, which I think is a great place for this movie. It will be a theatrical release as well.”
Netflix has 75 million subscribers in 190 countries.
Wellesnet broke the news last week that Marshall and fellow producers Filip Jan Rymsza and Jens Koethner Kaul had partnered with Netflix in the decades-long quest to complete Welles’ film. The deal still needs the OK of Oja Kodar, a rights holder in the film.
The two-picture deal would include the completion of the feature film for theatrical and streaming release and creation of a full-length documentary.
For several months, producers have been tight-lipped about the status of The Other Side of the Wind. Fans have been understandably edgy after donating $406,405 to an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign last summer to help edit the more than 40-year-old footage. In probing the lengthy delay, Wellesnet confirmed from multiple sources that the deal with Kodar had to be rewritten to include the producers’ recent partnership with Netflix.
Netflix is planning a massive slate of original programming this year, including a dozen movies. Its recent original films have included Beasts of No Nation and the sequel to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
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