Unproduced Scripts - discussion of unproduced scripts

[smartone]

I have always heard about these mythical unproduced screenplays and would love to read some.

The Way to Santiago
Smiler With a Knife
HEART OF DARKNESS
THE LIFE OF CHRIST
THE LITTLE PRINCE
WAR AND PEACE
CAESAR
OPERATION CINDARELLA

I am sure there are others.

Has anyone ever read any of them?? and can give a short review?
More importantly Does anyone know where online I can find any of the unproduced scripts Welles wrote.

[blunted by community]

you can't get them on line.

the only 2 i've seen from your list are HEART OF DARKNESS, and WAY TO SANTIAGO. have not read HEART OF DARKNESS yet, and WAY TO SANTIAGO is ok.

[colwood]

http://www.geocities.com/orsonwelleslives/

I think I remember a couple members saying that some could be read if you visit the Lilly Library. But having never been there, couldn't be certain.

[Jeff Wilson]

HEART OF DARKNESS, SMILER WITH A KNIFE, and WAY TO SANTIAGO are all in the collections at the Lilly; HEART is actually also held in Indiana's general library on microfiche, so anyone can get a copy that way, as long as you don't mind feeding a microfiche machine for two or three hours. Huge fun, I can tell you. How good are they? SMILER, I've never looked at, so I can't say. WAY TO SANTIAGO has some fun moments and is very much in the anti-fascist mode Welles was working in at that time, but it also has some plot flaws that would have had to have been corrected before it got made. HEART is the best of the bunch, and it's really too bad it didn't get made. The others on the list, I'm not sure if script material survives.

SANTIAGO was in the news a few years ago, as some here may recall, when the revived RKO dug through a bunch of old scripts and found a copy. It was hailed as a "lost" Welles script and there was talk of making it. This was highly unlikely, given the re-writing that would have been needed, in addition to the subject matter (focusing on a Lord Haw-Haw type character, which many audience members might be unfamiliar with). The project unsurprisingly went away.

[Le Chiffre]

Lilly also has several drafts of the script for THE LITTLE PRINCE and one for CARMEN. They also have many unused radio scripts and several short scripts written for Welles, but not by him, including a hair-raising little 10-page script by John Tucker Battle called THE OUTER GATE, which could probably be ordered in it's entirety from Lilly.

Fantomas not long ago described a Welles script about female pirates called SANTO SPIRITO which sounded very interesting. It was written in the 60's and is located in the Munich Welles archive. With the huge success of PIRATES OF THE CARRIBEAN, it might actually be a good time to dust that off and shop it around to see if it has any takers. Pirates are hot right now!

[smartone]

wow i would love to read SANTO SPIRITO --- we should have a collective on here.. I have the "cradle will rock" book and wouldn't mind transcribing it so i could post it on here. if others who have unproduced scripts do the same then we could have a library of his unproduced scripts available to members of this website..