The Other Side of the Wind. (Orson Welles) Netflix.

Agent Coulson

This has been talked about for many years and now Netflix are putting the money in.

Netflix will finance the completion and restoration of the legendary filmmaker Orson Welles’ last film, The Other Side of the Wind.

The film, which has remained unfinished for decades, was shot by Welles beginning in 1970. It features a screenplay by Welles and Oja Kodar, and stars John Huston, Peter Bogdanovich, Oja Kodar, Robert Random, Lilli Palmer, Edmond O’Brien, Cameron Mitchell, Mercedes McCambridge, Susan Strasberg, Norman Foster, Paul Stewart and Dennis Hopper.

A satire of Hollywood, it focuses on the last days of a legendary film director named Jake Hannaford (played by Huston), who is struggling to forge his last great comeback as a major filmmaker. Hannaford is hard at work on his final masterpiece, The Other Side of The Wind.

Decades after its production, Filip Jan Rymsza, founder of Royal Road Entertainment, launched a crowd-funding campaign to finance the restoration and completion of the project. Now, the campaign has got its biggest backer yet.

“We could not ask for better partners or a better home. I’m immensely grateful to the whole Netflix team for their tireless effort and unwavering support. With Netflix’s global reach, this will undoubtedly be the widest release of any Orson Welles film, if not all of them combined,” says Filip.

Indeed, Netflix has acquired the worldwide rights to the movie. The completed film will be a Royal Road Entertainment production, continuing the work from Welles and Les Films de L’Astrophore, the original producers of the movie.

Producer Frank Marshall, who served as a Production Manager on the first production and has led efforts to complete this film for over 40 years, will oversee the completion of the film, working closely with Rymsza.

“I can’t quite believe it, but after 40 years of trying, I am so very grateful for the passion and perseverance from Netflix that has enabled us to, at long last, finally get into the cutting room to finish Orson’s last picture,” says Marshall.

“Like so many others who grew up worshipping the craft and vision of Orson Welles, this is a dream come true,” adds Ted Sarandos, Netflix Chief Content Officer. “The promise of being able to bring to the world this unfinished work of Welles with his true artistic intention intact, is a point of pride for me and for Netflix. Cinephiles and film enthusiasts around the world will experience the magic of Orson Welles once again or for the very first time.”

http://vodzilla.co/blog/vod-news/netflix-to-complete-and-restore-orson-welles-final-film/

Agent Coulson

Technocentral

This is brilliant news can't wait, don't think many Welles fans on here though

Agent Coulson

Netflix will be releasing this on November 2nd.

Agent Coulson

Added to Netflix today.

pixelburp

Well there's something that doesn't happen everyday. Hopefully this doesn't turn out to be ala "The Day the Clown Cried" and something that should never have seen the light of day

So, do we know what needed to be "completed"? Was everything shot, or are there missing scenes / score etc.

johnny_ultimate

Finally got around to watching this, and it's something else.

It's definitely late-Welles, with the manic, unhinged pace and approach that defined the likes of F for Fake and Chimes At Midnight rather than the more stately, better-known early works. It's meandering, hyperactive and unapologetic - for that reason, probably... OK, definitely not the best starting point for a Welles newcomer.

But there's no shortage of things to appreciate here. While the predominantly handheld, mockumentary approach doesn't allow for the careful compositions Welles is often best known for, it's still his film through-and-through - those brutally intimate close-ups could have come from few other directors. How much of the editing originated in the 'completed' and rough material I'd need to hear more about, but whoever is primarily responsible it's a hell of an effort - relentless forward momentum full of witty, strange, imaginative cuts.

Then there's the film within a film - a lecherous parody of 60s/70s art film that is loaded with moments of brilliance nonetheless. This is where the filmmaker's more traditional skills emerge, where the delivery is endlessly idiosyncratic. A feverish club scene is a highlight. That it's loaded with cinematic imagination while still being some sort of weird-as-**** parody is pure Welles.

Driving it all is this oddball, brute force study of male and artistic ego. That his real-life partner Oja Kodar is bollock naked throughout is one of many details that blur the line between fiction and reality. Hannaford is treated with some sort of grudging affection, but also obvious disdain - how much Welles is critiquing himself is alas an answer we'll never fully have, but he's sure as hell not letting himself off easy.

Anyway, it's a maddening production in many respects - moments of absolute brilliance, matched with stretches where you're not quite sure where any of this is going. It's mad, it's brilliant, it's frustrating, it's not like anything else - it is, in conclusion, Orson Welles.