Unproduced Welles screenplays - Lonely Life, Operation Cinderella, etc.

[Harvey Chartrand]

I came across a detailed list of Welles' unproduced film projects at http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=976810
I wish some enterprising young filmmaker would dust off Welles' LONELY LIFE screenplay. A tale of sexual obsession written in 1957 – the same year as TOUCH OF EVIL! Sounds like a winner! Or how about OPERATION CINDERELLA (1953), which Welles considered his best work. It's a comedy about Hollywood types in Italy that I suspect would be too dated now, but it could be reworked as a period piece.
It's such a shame (and I mean that literally) that all these wonderful scripts are likely to remain unproduced. Same with those prepared by other great directors (such as MARY ROSE, J.M. Barrie's ghost story that Universal wouldn't allow Hitchcock to direct).

[Knowles Noel Shane]

I think in time some of them will be filmed. I just hope that they are actually followed. Had Mr. Hickenlooper actually shot Welles' screenplay for Big Brass Ring it might really have been something.

[Orson&Jazz]

Wow, what an AMAZING list.

This is exactly what I was talking about. The man continually wrote. He was always doing something. How many people can you think of in Hollywood at that time, or maybe even in this time, worked as much as he did? He was phenomenal!


I would have liked to see the Cortez movie made. Plus the The Odyssey and The Iliad would have been interesting. I am sure the movies would have been much better than Troy! The Crime and Punishment would have also have been incredibly interseting. But, if Orson thought Operation Cinderella was his best, I definitely would want to see it.

[smartone]

it is amazing list
are ANY of these screenplays online?
i would love to read any of them

[Wilson]

Not everything on that list was necessarily gold; The "Mexican melodrama" project is one I read while at the Lilly, and it looks to all intents and purposes to be something Welles was going to produce for Dolores del Rio to star in, with Norman Foster to direct. There is paperwork to that effect. The script itself, not written by Welles, is fairly lame. It's exactly what the title says it is. As for Way to Santiago, it had promise, but needed a good deal of work. It's too dated to film now without extensive revisions which would defeat the purpose of filming a Welles script. It has a comedy scene with American tourists on a bus that would have been great had it been filmed, though. To answer the question above, none of the projects listed are online, or we'd know about them. There are excerpts from Salome in the Maurice Bessy book, though.