By RAY KELLY
Two producers heading up the completion of Orson Welles’ unfinished The Other Side of the Wind say they intend to deliver a film close to what the legendary director would have wanted when he completed principal photography in 1976.
Noted Hollywood producer Frank Marshall, who was a line producer on the original shoot, and Filip Jan Rymsza of Royal Road Entertainment detailed their plans in conversations this week with Wellesnet. The duo, along with Jens Koethner Kaul, have secured the partial ownership rights for The Other Side of the Wind that were held by the Paris film company Les Films de l’Astrophore and the late Mehdi Boushehri. Agreements were also reached with Welles’ youngest daughter, Beatrice, who heads the Estate of Orson Welles, and his longtime companion Oja Kodar, who inherited the late director’s ownership.
“Everyone has a notion of how it should be done,” Rymsza said. “My goal was to bring everybody together with a shared sense of purpose.”
Producers are not pursuing a film-within-a-film-within-a-film scenario or a documentary on the making of the movie. Rather, the movie will utilize instructions left behind by Welles, as well as a 40-minute workprint edited by Welles and now in Kodar’s possession, to complete the movie he set out to make.
Marshall believes there is no need to shoot additional footage, adding a scene at a drive-in theater will completed as a visual effect and he has photographs taken on the set for the needed glimpse of a fatal car crash.
In a letter written less than a month before his death on Oct. 10, 1985, Welles stated his wish that in the event he was incapacitated The Other Side of the Wind “shall be completed” with Kodar’s involvement.
Welles’ workprint will be shipped from Kodar’s home in Primosten, Croatia, to Los Angeles later this fall.
Presently, the 1,083 reels of negative footage, which have been kept outside Paris for decades, are being indexed and cataloged before their transfer to Los Angeles.
“Incredible safety measures will be taken” in transporting the negative to the U.S. in the coming weeks, Marshall said.
Rymsza added, “The negative is in pristine condition. The technicians were smiling the whole time as we went from reel to reel.”
The negative and the 40-minute workprint will be digitally scanned. A software program will then match the images on Welles’ workprint to the corresponding negative reel.
“We are going to know exactly where Orson Welles left off,” Rymsza said.
The producers are aware of a 105-minute assembly prepared by Welles’ faithful cinematographer Gary Graver with editor Frank Mazzola and shopped by Graver and film historian and Wind co-star Joseph McBride to prospective investors 16 years ago. There are also rumors of a longer Welles-edited workprint. “We are investigating all of these,” Rymsza said.
Marshall, who will oversee the editing of The Other Side of the Wind, said he will immediately begin assembling a production crew, adding there has been no shortage of interest in the film community.
“It’s a challenge,” Marshall said of matching Welles’ editing style. “For me, Orson was way ahead of his time in the way he shot and constructed his movies.”
Marshall said he, Kodar and The Other Side of the Wind co-star Peter Bogdanovich know Welles’ intentions for the film. There is also the workprint, other scenes edited by Welles and not included in the workprint, various scripts and written instructions left behind by the late filmmaker to rely on.
“We have a road map to guide us,” Marshall said. “We are going to be able to imitate his style.”
The producers had already talked with potential distributors prior Tuesday’s announcement of the united effort to complete the movie. Since that announcement, they have received what Rymsza described as a “flurry of emails from all types of parties” and will entertain offers at the American Film Market next week in Santa Monica, Calif.
A distributor could be named by late fall.
“Financing is in place, there is no shortage of interest,” Rymsza said. “We want to set up a release strategy… (and) establish a release date.”
Marshall added, “I think we will find the right distributor. There’s plenty of interest.”
With the centennial of Welles’ birth in 2015, there is interest in releasing the film theatrically next year, though no date is set in stone, both men said.
There is also enough additional footage and history for extras on a DVD and Blu-Ray release, when the time comes, Rymsza said.
Home video rights will be determined with the distributor. However, Showtime, which attempted to reach a completion deal years ago, will have the North American cable TV rights, Marshall said.
The Other Side of the Wind takes place at the 70th birthday party of maverick movie director Jake Hannaford (John Huston), who is struggling to make a commercial comeback at a time when the studio system has been replaced by the New Hollywood. The party is attended by young directors, like Brooks Otterlake (Bogdanovich), hangers-on, critics and movies freaks – many of whom are not so subtly patterned after people in Welles’ life. Hannaford dies at the conclusion of the party and his final hours are recounted in a collage of still photos, and 8mm, 16mm and 35mm color and black-and-white film shot at the party, along with scenes from his unfinished comeback movie.
Welles struggled to complete The Other Side of the Wind until his death, but was stymied by issues ranging from financing to the Islamic Revolution in Iran.
For nearly 30 years, repeated efforts to complete the film have failed, often because of squabbles and bad blood among rights holders and investors.
Marshall and Rymsza were able to bring these parties together.
“Everyone has realized next year is the perfect time for the movie to be completed and released,” Marshall said. “Everyone wants this to happen and to honor Orson’s legacy.”
Beatrice Welles told Wellesnet she was immediately impressed with the two after her first meeting with them in late August.
“It was very clear that they were committed to preserving the integrity of my father’s work, and that’s the most important thing,” she said. “It wasn’t about them, it was about honoring an artist’s work.”
_________
[br]
Post your comments on the Wellesnet Message Board.