Peter Bogdanovich as Brooks Otterlake in a scene from Orson Welles’ The Other Side of the Wind. (Netflix photo)
Update: The watermarked screenplay has been removed from the Netflix site. However, copies were apparently downloaded and are popping up on file sharing sites, such as DocDroid, though the copy we saw was later deleted.
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Orson Welles’ screenplay for The Other Side of the Wind is available as a free download as Netflix makes a bid to score award nominations for the script credited to Welles and Oja Kodar.
A PDF of the script (with a Netflix watermark) is currently available at https://guilds.netflix.com/media/screenings/film/film_scripts-695f8c55-5e4b-4971-9e5d-45165e4aeb32.pdf
The screenplay differs at points from scenes found in the completed film. In addition to alternate dialogue, it includes a scene near the conclusion where the Jake Hannaford character is confronted at the drive-in theater by a faux John Dale.
Welles shot the scene with Rich Little’s Brooks Otterlake impersonating Dale. However, he apparently scrapped that idea when Peter Bogdanovich took over the Otterlake role and did not reshoot it.
Netflix’s award season push suggests Welles and The Other Side of the Wind be considered for special recognition in 11 categories, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Film Editing.
Actors Bogdanovich and John Huston are also suggested as worthy of consideration, as well as cinematographer Gary Graver and composer Michel Legrand.
(Thanks to Film Stage for alerting fans to the available awards season scripts.)
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