By RAY KELLY

File this under: “We really want to believe this, but have been disappointed before.”

Peter Bogdanovich says that the editing of Orson Welles’ unfinished  The Other Side of Wind could begin in two months. At first blush, it appears to be wishful thinking by the 77-year-old filmmaker, given that no deal with the various parties has been inked and the negative remains locked away in a film laboratory outside Paris.

And, sadly, it is not the first time Bogdanovich has publicly voiced a start date for editing The Other Side of Wind over the past three decades. 

Last night, Bogdanovich took part in a Q&A at the Metrograph in Manhattan’s Lower East Side, following a 35mm screening of his 1981 film They All Laughed. When asked about the status of The Other Side of the Wind, Bogdanovich said that producers told Bogdanovich that he and his team might start editing the film as soon as March of this year.

Bogdanovich told the crowd he had met with producers, including Frank Marshall,  just days earlier and discussed editing the film, according to Vincent Martini, an audience member in attendance.   (Marshall, co-producer Filip Jan Rymsza and Netflix have been in talks with Sasha Welles, the nephew and representative of Oja Kodar, a co-owner of the film, for more than a year.)

Reached for comment today, neither Rymsza nor Sasha Welles would discuss negotiations, which are apparently still ongoing.

Wellesnet  has reported extensively on the negotiations to overcome obstacles that emerged after a deal was first announced in October 2014.

At the Metrograph, Bogdanovich repeated the often told story of Welles asking him to finish the movie in the event of his death, according to Dan Mecca of The Film Stage.  “In the mid-70s, Orson and I were sitting together (on the set of The Other Side of the Wind), and he asked me ‘Peter, if any happens to me, promise me you’ll finish the picture.’ And I said, ‘Orson, what are you talking about? Nothing’s going to happen to you.’ He said, ‘I know,  I know, just promise me.’  Orson died in 1985 and I’ve been trying to finish the picture ever since.”

 

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