When Matthew Asprey Gear, author of “At the End of the Street in the Shadow: Orson Welles and the City,” announced last fall that he would offer an online course for newbie and veteran Wellesians, we were intrigued. Apparently, we were not alone. The course was a success on both sides of the Atlantic and another is in the offing.
Gold Ninja Video is releasing a limited edition Blu-ray set of Gary Graver rarities, ranging from his first directorial effort in 1963 to footage from Orson Welles’ unfinished “Filming The Trial.”
Beatrice Welles — whose father, Orson Welles, produced, starred, directed and co-wrote “Citizen Kane” — sees Netflix’s “Mank” as a slap in the face of the late maverick filmmaker.
“Touch of Evil,” which has been available on DVD and Blu-ray, will soon be available on an Ultra HD disc. Kino Lorber’s set will include all three versions of the 1958 film.
The French detective novel “The Assassination of Orson Welles” is set at the Cannes Film Festival in 1949. A film-loving private detective is hired by Welles to find the gunman who tried to kill him.
The Culver City Historical Society discovered some of the elaborate stained glass windows from “The Magnificent Ambersons” mansion set.
Maila Nurmi, who gained fame as Vampira in the 1950s, reportedly dated Orson Welles a decade earlier, but the jury is out as to whether he fathered her child.
Porchlight Music Theatre will utilize the only surviving recording of a portion of “Around the World.’ In addition, Porchlight Artistic Director Michael Weber will talk with Wellesnet administrator Ray Kelly about the Broadway production’s history.
Orson Welles’ groundbreaking all-Black stage production of Macbeth is the subject of an upcoming BBC Radio 4 play. “Voodoo Macbeth” will be broadcast on January 28.
One of the 20th century’s most celebrated writers and one of its finest filmmakers enjoyed what the latter described as “a very strange relationship.”
An ambitious plan to reconstruct the 132-minute preview version of Orson Welles’ “The Magnificent Ambersons” using animation to replace the cut scenes is underway.
In 2020, fans saw the release of “Hopper/Welles” and Orson Welles’ radio work repurposed in a best-selling hip hop album.
As we get ready to kick 2020 to the curb, a reminder that streaming audio of four vintage Christmas radio shows featuring Orson Welles can be found on Wellesnet.
Orson Welles’ days as a commercial pitchman did not end with his death in 1985. He is featured in a promotion for a new video game. BioWare and Electronic Arts licensed the use of Welles’ voice for a teaser trailer for the next installment in its sci-fi video game series “Mass Effect.”
Even a contemporary director with as fine and as comprehensive an understanding of film-making as David Fincher, is still subject to the same myths about Orson Welles.
Film historian Joseph McBride, who penned “Rough Sledding with Pauline Kael” in 1971, graciously offered to revisit the authorship of Citizen Kane for Wellesnet after screening David Fincher’s new Netflix movie Mank — the latest in a string of unflattering film portrayals of Orson Welles.
Documentarian Mark Cousins looked into The Eyes of Orson Welles, now psychoanalyst/psychotherapist Jack Schwartz has published a paper on what could be called “the mind of Orson Welles.”
Welles once noted of his self-destructive screenwriting partner: “Mank always needed a villain.” The same can be said of the movie that bears his nickname.
“At Orson’s Fireplace” is an English translation of an article that will appear in the Italian film magazine Cabiria No. 196-197.
Harlan Lebo, author of “Citizen Kane: A Filmmaker’s Journey,” has unveiled his painstaking research into the hundreds of differences between the landmark movie’s final script and what ended up on the screen.
