Is Oja Kodar holding up The Other Side of the Wind?

[mido505]

Some of these Welles scholars like Droessler worry about Welles's "legacy".

Stefan Droessler, Jonathan Rosenbaum, Oja Kodar, and company had better start worrying about their own legacies. Right now their carefully built up reputations are swirling down the toilet, and it is their own fault.

Jonathan Rosenbaum makes a fool out of himself every time he opens his mouth in public. Oja Kodar has gone from sainted figure to reviled harridan in less than a year. And Droessler is one to talk. His record of achievement is neither substantial nor stellar.

His one unquestionable success, the comprehensive Arkadin cut, was a no brainer. The raw materials were at hand (Bogdanovich deserves all the credit for that), and Welles's intentions were fairly well known. Putting together that assembly didn't require much in the way of creative effort or insight. Even so, Rosenbaum didn't think much of it. What a shocker.

The recent restoration of THE MERCHANT OF VENICE sounds clever, but silly. Is Droessler's solution to the missing reel and the missing sound any less chancy and random that the solutions that will have to be found regarding the TOSOTW footage? Is it any less chancy and random than Franco's much-derided decision to use bits of IN THE LAND OF DON QUIXOTE to structure DQ in the absence of the Patty McCormack footage, a decision essentially foisted on him by Oja Kodar? I think not. I don't think Droessler is in any position to be casting stones in that regard.

What about THE DEEP? How many years has he been screwing around with that? And still the general public has seen only fragments. Droessler is on record saying THE DEEP is more promising a project than TOSOTW - well, promises promises. The version recently screened in Paris sounds distinctly UN-promising.

Where is MAGIC SHOW, the project Welles worked on so intently in the last years of his life? I haven't heard anything about missing negatives, reels, or sound. Put it together and put it out.

It's 30 years on, you hacks. Stop with the ego and the attitude. Stop behaving like petty, recalcitrant children. Stop with the bitching and the finger pointing. Welles had legitimate excuses for why he didn't finish projects. You don't.

The fan base has been intensely loyal for 30 years. We selflessly raised over $400,000 for TOSOTW, money that for many of us could have been used more rationally elsewhere. It's not like we're rich, but we gave what we could, sometimes more, because we are fans. We are loyal, and patient; but this lastest tacky and pointless fracas is now testing that loyalty and that patience. Be careful. We are getting testy. Actually, we are moving past testy towards angry. In fact, we are poised to turn on you like a horde of bulls at Pamplona. Don't fuck up, because when the trampling starts, the trampling will be ugly.

[Wellesnet]

The TOSOTW delay caused by Oja Kodar is discussed by Welles friends, experts at Chapman University on Sept. 11.
http://www.wellesnet.com/the-other-side-of-the-wind-delay-raised-at-prestigious-welles-panel/

[tonyw]

The video of the discussion was really interesting. Is the preventing the signing of a contract another legacy of that male possessive trait seen in a certain 1941 film? Anyway, let us hope the document is now signed as Joe and others at that panel hoped.

[Le Chiffre]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhxTtSqjeWo#t=1711
Here's an attempted transcript of some excerpts from the Chapman conference, Part 2 (15:00 mark):

Joe McBride:
At 4:40 this afternoon, I checked in on THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND, what’s happening with this film, and I’m sure a lot of you are curious. What’s exasperating is that, back in November, the New York Times announced that deals had been made with Oja, the Iranians and other investors; it’s going to come out, we’re going to start editing, we’re going to get the negative to Hollywood, etc. This summer Oja, for whatever reason, decided she wanted more money, so she demanded a new contract. It’s a crazy situation – legally and financially – but Oja demanded more than the 1 million she signed for. If I were the producers I would not have done it, but they renegotiated to give her more money. Then Oja and Sasha went on some cruise and were incommunicado, so the legal papers were not signed, and the producers were going crazy. Right now they are back in Croatia, and Jonathon Rosenbaum, who has become their Rasputin, is advising them.

Rosenbaum claims Oja thinks the producers are cheating her. For sixteen years she’s been screwing every deal that’s been made, so we don’t know what her motives are. Does she want control? Does she want more money? Is it just some perverse desire to block the film from coming out?

Now the producers are hoping she’ll sign next week, but this has been going on for sixteen years.

Henry Jaglom:
This reminds that, back in 1983, Orson, Oja, Kiki, and me flew to Paris to try to get the film out of the vaults, by going to the courts and claiming we had a company called “WellesJag”, and that we had a million dollars, which was what the Shah’s relatives were then asking for in order to release the negative. So we went to the French court, testified about a company that didn’t exist and money we didn’t have, and as far as we thought when the verdict came down, it worked, and everything had been solved! So we came back to America only to discover that the old problems were still in place. All we knew was that Oja had spoken to somebody afterwards – and I’ve never found out what that was about – and she somehow managed to stop it. I’ve never understood her intention. Peter may know.

Peter Bogdanovich:
I haven’t spoken to her in a while. She got angry with me at one point, and then we made up, but she’s fouled up a lot of things.

HJ:
Why?

PB:
I don’t know. A psychological problem perhaps, where once she lets go of it, she doesn’t have it anymore.

JMcB:
Some people are speculating that that’s her one big power trip, that instead of getting the 1.4 million, she’d rather block it. The New York Times is on the story and the New Yorker is on the story, and it’s going to come out pretty soon. I can testify that Oja is good in it, Henry’s good in it, Peter and John Huston are terrific in it. But every time someone offers her a million dollars, she tries to figure out how to get a million point five out of them, and that turns people off. It’s tragic because all of us who worked on this film put our heart and soul into it; Gary Graver put his whole life into it, and then died. The world should see this film.

One of the conundrums of editing is that Welles said that the film-within-the-film should be fifty percent of the film, and I argued during the time I was working on it that that stuff should be cut back, because it would drive people out of the theatre. But Oja thinks that that is a work of art because she stars in that part and she’s naked a lot in it, and she helped write it and direct it, and she got very offended when I said we needed to cut that stuff back, and that apparently part of her problem, because she’s very protective of that.

PB:
She has approval of that. She has approval of her nudity, and she’s nude through most of it.

JMcB:
Yes, that’s one of her demands is that she have approval over her nudity.

[tonyw]

Thanks for the transcription since parts of the audio were muffled. If the second Mrs. Kane proved reluctant to pursue her career then the ostensibly fourth Mrs. Welles also expresses her own version of frustrating Mr. Kane. This could make a good Joe Orton play, come to think of it, FRUSTRATING MR. KANE.

[RayKelly]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhxTtSqjeWo#t=1711
Here's an attempted transcript of some excerpts from the Chapman conference, Part 2 (15:00 mark):

Thanks for doing the transcript, though it is painful to read.

A month before the Chapman panel, I wrote that TOSOTW was stalled because of Oja. I took some flak from kindhearted folks who could not believe she would be an obstacle.

At Champman, three prominent people made it clear that she has been a hindrance.

Henry Jaglom: "Somehow managed to stop it. I’ve never understood her intention."
Joseph McBride: "For sixteen years she’s been screwing every deal that’s been made."
Peter Bogdanovich: "She’s fouled up a lot of things."

They echo what the lawyer for the Boushehri family wrote in 2007: "We have been waiting for many years for her to agree to a deal... My own personal feeling is that she is incapable of making a deal with anyone... Our client has never been the problem. Kodar has been."

[Jeff Wilson]

If this:

One of the conundrums of editing is that Welles said that the film-within-the-film should be fifty percent of the film, and I argued during the time I was working on it that that stuff should be cut back, because it would drive people out of the theatre. But Oja thinks that that is a work of art because she stars in that part and she’s naked a lot in it, and she helped write it and direct it, and she got very offended when I said we needed to cut that stuff back, and that apparently part of her problem, because she’s very protective of that.

is what's holding up the film, that's really depressing, because that stuff is absolute death to sit through.

[RayKelly]

Jeff,
Sadly, we are not even at the point for the editing arguments to begin.
That will be another ugly battle I am sure.

[I=Eye]

Here's something I was told by an anonymous source in defense of Oja-

At first all the focus was on whether the film would be edited in time for the 2015 Cannes film festival and the Welles centennial. But now in retrospect, it looks like what was happening was that this whole thing was put together in such a way so as to create a public push and public promotion juggernaut that would overcome any resistance or problems by the sheer force of having been publicly announced, in and of itself. As a result, there would be so much pressure on Oja that she couldn’t refuse, or so they thought. That apparently was their method. But now we can forget about the editing and post-production timetable. It hasn’t even started yet.

Then there is the issue of payment. There was an escrow account set up for her, and her nephew Sasha was in Los Angeles for a long period of time waiting for the funds to be deposited in the account, which they never were. As a result, Sasha claims, he missed out on some business opportunities. So Oja’s lawyers told her “You shouldn’t even communicate with this guy; he’s in breach of contract”, because he never communicated with Oja about what was happening or what was causing the problem with the escrow account, which was part of a performance-based contract.

Finally, someone tried to secretly remove the negative from the French laboratories prior to that escrow agreement being satisfied by saying he had a “verbal agreement” with Oja. When it comes to an escrow account, a verbal agreement, as the saying goes, isn't worth the paper it's written on. One of the lab technicians has confirmed this story, although I don’t know whether he will testify in court if it goes there. They need Oja’s signature before they can remove the negative, and she won’t sign until she has been paid.

This summer they apparently offered her a complete lump sum payment of everything she was owed instead of the escrow installments, but she refused the lump sum payment. Why? Because since there was committed a breach of the original contract, she now has the right to renegotiate that contract. What’s likely is that these people did not have the money to fulfill the original escrow contract, but they do now, so they are desperately trying to rectify a situation of what appears to Oja to be a breached agreement. The problem is that whatever trust was there has been destroyed, and she now considers them to be crooked. It might actually be good if it goes to court because, whatever the reality is, it will come out through the court documents that will all be made public.

[Le Chiffre]

Well, if it goes to court we probably won't see the film for years, so I hope that doesn't happen.

Jeff, your comment reminds me of something I mentioned to Roger Ryan as we watched Joe McBride's "Wellesiana" presentation at Indiana U. this past May. When the sex scene in the car from Wind was shown, I said I was getting bored with it. I was dazzled by it the first time I saw it twenty years ago in ONE MAN BAND, but now I'm sick of seeing it without it's proper context. I don't know how all that stuff will play when and if the film is finally assembled, though, and one thing to consider is that those scenes are in 35mm whereas the party scenes are all in 16mm, so the film-within-the-film is probably what will look best on the big screen. Maybe that's why some people want it 50/50.

[Wellesnet]

Comment from Hollywood Elsewhere:

Back in 2013 at a screening of They All Laughed, Bogdanovich himself told me that Oja was the problem. I was like, "You mean Beatrice." And then he glared at me said "No - OJA."

From "Orson Welles - a First Inventory" by Jonathan Rosenbaum:

“When we started writing the script,” Kodar says, “we had two stories. Orson’s was called Jake Hannaford and it was too long, because it was based on the life of movie director Rex Ingram, and on Hemingway following the bullfights through Spain, and on some of Orson’s own experiences. Orson came to the conclusion that the bullfights had become just a tourist attraction and had lost whatever sincerity they once had.

“So after he discovered his script was too long, and cut everything he wanted to cut, he discovered it was too short. This is how we decided to make a sort of osmosis of his story and my story, and began working together on a new script. My story is that there is a man who is still potent — it’s not that he is impotent — but gets a real kick from the idea of sleeping with his leading man, sleeping really with the woman of his leading man. So he is not a classic homosexual, but somewhere in his mind he is possessing that man by possessing his woman. And at the same time, just because there is a hidden homosexuality in him, he is very rough on open homosexuals, as so many of those guys are.

“This is one reason why the script is so complicated and has so many chords. When you see the film, you will feel that somebody else worked with him because there are things that he never would have done alone, and never did before. He was a very shy man, and erotic stuff was not his thing. And in this film, you will see the erotic stuff. He kept accusing me with his finger: ‘It’s your fault!’ And he was right — it’s my fault!”

[Antone]

Here's something I was told by an anonymous source in defense of Oja- ...

So if I understand it correctly, you (I=Eye) are saying that Mr. Marshall and Mr. Rymsza purchased the rights to the other half of the film, appeared on the front page of the New York Times and then launched a very public fundraising campaign to complete this film, but all the while left one final aspect of the deal flapping in the breeze – the purchase of Ms. Kodar’s ½ interest in the film. If I’m not mistaken, you are also claiming that in doing so, they were both insolvent and incompetent in their plan to steal the film out from under Ms. Kodar without having to pay her for the rights. Finally, you claim that they lied in order to sneak this film out of the lab without Ms. Kodar’s permission – and that – holy crap – will they pay for it if this winds up in court.

I think that kind of captures the essence of your argument. Feel free to fill in the blanks if something is missing.

Now, let’s examine the staggering combination of things that would have to be true for any of this to actually be plausible.

The most significant of the assumptions underlying all of this, would be the idea that Mr. Marshall and Mr. Rymsza are both bumbling fools and scheming, unscrupulous thieves, who have chosen to risk their reputations in order to deprive Ms. Kodar of her payment for the half of the film that she owns through a bequest from Orson Welles. Because either they bought out everyone and put their asses on the line (with the media, those who donated through the online campaign and possible investors/distributors) in order to put the squeeze on Ms. Kodar without paying her from a place of pure greed and did so very poorly (bumbling would seem to be the most apt descriptor under your scenario), or they are vile, nefarious bad guys who simply have it out for Orson’s former mistress.

Scenario one suggests that one of the wealthiest and most successful producers in Hollywood has made himself party to a Bialystock and Bloom quality attempt to avoid paying Ms. Kodar $1.4 million (which you say they now have – assuming they didn’t have it before) but the motive remains unclear. Are you suggesting that he is doing this for the money (let me remind you that Welles films have hardly been a source of profit for anyone)? Is it possible that you think he’s a congenital liar and thief who just can’t help himself? And if either is true, why didn’t he just try to cheat everyone? Why only Ms. Kodar? And why, with all of his experience in Hollywood, would he do this so ineffectively, particularly with all of the publicity this project has received. If true, and you were able to figure this out, how do you think he planned to keep it out of the New York Times? Just a hypothesis, but wouldn’t you think the damage to his reputation (on what is pretty much a volunteer project for him) would far outweigh the negligible financial benefit of saving $1.4 million (or probably much less since the rights would have to be acquired at some point) on a film that will be unlikely to turn a profit?

Scenario two is much cleaner – these guys just don’t like Ms. Kodar and seemingly decided to buy out other parties, only to take out their unexplained rage on Ms. Kodar for reasons that only she understands.

Then there is the idea of a lawsuit. Who is it that will be testifying on Ms. Kodar’s behalf? So far I count her nephew, her niece, her sister, Mr. Rosenbaum and an unnamed guy at a film lab. I have experience in corporate litigation, and I can tell you, that’s not much of a roster to take into court given that you have three relatives among your five witnesses – and one of the two others is an anonymous lab tech that you say you aren’t sure will even testify. Based on my professional experience it doesn’t sound like much of a case unless Colonel Mustard comes into court and hits someone with the candlestick.

I guess in the end, I don’t see any possible motive on behalf of the producers that would support your theory. Nor do they seem to have any history of doing things like this, though I suppose one can never trust those Hollywood folks, right? But, for the sake of argument, let’s just say that you have it wrong, leaving us to wonder what could possibly be responsible for this impasse?

I have a possible theory. Perhaps Ms. Kodar simply realized that Mr. Marshall and Mr. Rymsza had gone to all of this effort, exposed themselves publicly and the only thing that was left was to tender her payment for the negative. Yet, when they attempted to do so, Ms. Kodar realized that she could cock block them (for lack of a better word) and that they’d be completely screwed without her signature – which suddenly seemed like it was worth more money than it was before, given that these two men had put their reputations on the line. So she said that she wanted more or there was no deal. What possible motive would she have for doing this? The oldest and most reliable motive in human (and Hollywood) history: greed.

[mido505]

At first all the focus was on whether the film would be edited in time for the 2015 Cannes film festival and the Welles centennial. But now in retrospect, it looks like what was happening was that this whole thing was put together in such a way so as to create a public push and public promotion juggernaut that would overcome any resistance or problems by the sheer force of having been publicly announced, in and of itself. As a result, there would be so much pressure on Oja that she couldn’t refuse, or so they thought.

Given that Oja Kodar already had signed a contract at this point, why the need to "put so much pressure on Oja that she couldn't refuse"? Couldn't refuse what? To fulfill a contract she had already signed? This scenario makes no sense at all, and, given that it is the lead paragraph in your brief, does not inspire confidence.

Finally, someone tried to secretly remove the negative from the French laboratories prior to that escrow agreement being satisfied by saying he had a “verbal agreement” with Oja.

According to various articles there are over 1000 cans of film in the lab, in 35mm, 16mm, and 8mm. I've seen the pictures; we are talking about a room full of celluloid. What was the mystery man going to do, sneak the footage out in his pants? It would take hours to remove the cans, load up a truck, which would have to be waiting, drive to the airport, load the plane, also fueled, ready, and waiting, and jet off to happy Hollywood, where the producers could edit in peace, because every time the cops showed up to arrest them, they could say they had "a verbal agreement" with Oja. This assertion is also absurd, and fails to inspire confidence.

One of the lab technicians has confirmed this story, although I don’t know whether he will testify in court if it goes there.

Oh, he'll testify all right, when he's supoenaed. And he had better tell the truth, because perjury is a serious offence. This is not a game. Be careful what you throw out into the public sphere.

This summer they apparently offered her a complete lump sum payment of everything she was owed instead of the escrow installments, but she refused the lump sum payment. Why? Because since there was committed a breach of the original contract, she now has the right to renegotiate that contract.

Why? For more money? From people who tried to scam her? With people whom she no longer trusts? I thought the point was to get TOSOTW made. Why not take the cool mil and move on?

What I see is that there was probably a stumbling block related to funding and the "performance-based contract". This is normal. When the producers rectified the problem, they moved to honor their commitment to Ms. Kodar, and pay up. In fact, perhaps in recompense for the inconvenience caused by the glitch, the producers seem to have condensed the payment timeline, offering a lump sum. But at that point the cool mil wasn't enough for Ms. Kodar.

The problem is that whatever trust was there has been destroyed, and she now considers them to be crooked.

So why up the price and continue the deal? Are the producers less crooked and untrustworthy because they are willing to pay $1.4 million instead of $1 million? Here's an idea: raise some money, buy out the producer's interest, and finish the film yourselves. After all, Ms. Kodar is the co-writer and, according to her publicist, the co-director of the film. The brilliant director of JADED could do wonders with the footage. Walter Murch's protégé Sasha could edit and mix the sound.

Antone's post is a brilliant and funny retort, and he makes a salient point that has been brought up before, and that neither Ms. Kodar, her publicist, nor the "anonymous sources" close to her have remotely tried to refute: why go through all this rigmarole, including paying off the other rights-holders, in order to insult, exploit, and harass Oja Kodar? Why expend all this effort, and spend all this money, to sabotage the project? It makes no sense. And why haven't the notoriously litigious Beatrice and the Iranians joined Oja in denouncing these perfidious Hollywood monsters? They seem content. The Boushehri's lawyer is on record stating that Oja is an irrational, contentious mess, and Beatrice has been out actively stumping for the project. These questions need to be answered before anyone is going to take any "anonymous sources close to Oja" seriously.

[Le Chiffre]

Thanks Antone and Mido. You both make some good points. If Oja or Sasha don’t sign, then it all boils down to whether funds were put in that escrow account or not. If they were, then I would think Royal Road will take Oja to court. If they weren’t, then it’ll be interesting to see if it goes that route. If I’m not mistaken, with French courts you have to pay all the defendant’s legal bills if you lose, so the stakes would be higher than in an American court. Therefore, they have to make sure they have a pretty foolproof case concerning any Breach of contract.

Looks like the OW Archive has started up again. Yesterday it’s manager wrote the following:

“Oja Kodar is clearly holding up the release of THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND and with good reason.
She is expected to turn the film over to the editor of THE BEAST OF THE SOUTHERN WILD?
It's a film I thought was AWFUL!
I daresay Oja and probably, Orson could not stand it as well.
THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND needs a great editor, on the level of Dede Allen or Walter Murch,

Oja stands to get $1.5 million once she signs over all her rights to the film.
Apparently, that is what people like Frank Marshall would like, so they could fuck Orson Welles over.
To me, Frank Marshall is sickening. I met him in San
Francisco way back in 1981 at the opening of RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK I asked Mr Marshall about THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND.
He told me, "You have to finish a picture, and Orson can't seem to do that... he always wanted to re-do scenes.
So I said, "But won't that improve the picture?"
Yes, but not in this case, where we only had 90 days.

Since Ms. Kodar was left the rights to THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND, and co-writ the film with Orson, I can only say, "It is now up to her."
She was in almost the exact same position when she had the Showtime contract in front of her about ten years ago and failed to sign it. To me, it is no surprise she would not sign a deal with lesser people.”

I don’t know if the manager is being used as a mouthpiece by others, but that actually seems in line with what we’ve been hearing about Oja lately. As far as I know, the only ACTIVE gesture she’s made to get the film completed has been to show the footage to people like Spielberg, Lucas, Eastwood, Oliver Stone, all of whom turned her down. Those who thus far have expressed an interest in completing it, including Mathew Duda and Showtime, as well as Royal Road and Beast editor Conclaves, have apparently been deemed either not worthy or not trustworthy.

[RayKelly]

... it all boils down to whether funds were put in that escrow account or not... If I’m not mistaken, with French courts you have to pay all the defendant’s legal bills if you lose, so the stakes would be higher than in an American court.

I am not sure the funding of the escrow account is the sole matter. It would not explain, as Antone and Mido pointed out, why Oja/Sasha would refuse a lump sum payment of $1M in July and ask for $1.4M Hopefully, everything is being resolved and it does not end up in court, but all of the contracts were filed in Los Angeles and this is subject to U.S. law. Silence from both parties as they negotiate a deal leads to fan chatter and speculation, some of it intelligent and some just way, way out there. As far the other website you mentioned, I have had "dealings" with the operator and tend not to put too much stock in his views -- nor am inclined to promote them.