Peter Bogdanovich a écrit :The Other Side of the Wind is Orson Welles only unrealized film project that could possibly be completed without the great man himself. There are many arguments to support this hope. But my goal would be to work with everybody who worked on the picture, Oja Kodar, and anybody who was around a lot. Frank Marshall was there for quite a while, so I would ask them what they all remember, and we would all pool our memories of what Orson had in mind. The idea would be to try and get as close as we can to what Orson had in mind, following the script and following notes that he made, and things he said to Oja about writing the script, and things he might have said to me. There’s a certain rhythm (in the film) that he obviously had in mind, and we’d try to get to that kind of rhythm, depending on the scene and also depending on the things we know about Orson.
Historique :
1966 – Orson Welles writes a script The Sacred Beasts, about a young bullfighter and an older film director who follows him around Spain and “admires” him. Ironically, Welles envisioned shooting this film very quickly.
August, 1970 – Shooting begins on The Other Side of the Wind in Hollywood. The script has now morphed into the story of an aging film director who is making his “comeback” movie. In place of a bullfighter, the director is now enamored with a handsome young man, whom he first encounters off the coast of Mexico. When the boy is attempting a “faked” suicide, Hannaford not only rescues him, but proceeds to cast him as the lead in his upcoming movie.
1971 – Acting as his own producer, Welles continues shooting wherever and whenever he has enough money to continue. He hasn’t yet decided who will play the 70-year old film director, himself or John Huston.
1972 – While editing the initial footage of The Other Side of the Wind in Paris, Welles begins working on a personal essay film, F For Fake.
January, 1974 – Shooting resumes in Arizona for three months. Welles has finally decided to give the role of Jake Hannaford to his old friend and colleague, John Huston who joins the company for six weeks of intense work at a house Welles has rented in Carefree, a luxurious new housing development in the desert, outside of Phoenix.
March, 1975 – Orson Welles presents two sequences from The Other Side of the Wind at his AFI life achievement award. Ironically, the film “experts” at the AFI attempted to veto Welles idea to show this footage, and he has to threaten them with not appearing in order to get the clips shown.
1976 – Principal photography is basically completed, but Welles becomes involved in a bitter legal dispute with his Iranian partners over ownership rights to the film. This dispute will effectively keep the picture from being completed during Welles lifetime. However, Welles continues to work on the editing of the film during the final nine years before his death in 1985.
1985 – Orson Welles dies unexpectedly on October 10. Oja Kodar inherits the rights to all of the many Welles movie projects that were still in progress. Kodar, with the help of Gary Graver and Peter Bogdanovich, attempts to find new backers who will “buy out” the Iranian backers and allow the film to be completed. None of the major (or even minor) Hollywood studios show any interest in funding the project.
August, 2002 – Oja Kodar reaches a deal with Showtime to finance the completion of The Other Side of the Wind, but the deal falls apart when Beatrice Welles claims she has the right to “approve” any such deal. Thomas White, Beatrice Welles representative says at the time: “Under the law, Beatrice stands in the shoes of Orson Welles in all matters that would have been his to decide. She controls the estate and protects her father and won’t do anything that she knows he wouldn’t have approved of. Therefore, the only way this project can go forward is with her blessing.” Ironically, in his will, Welles clearly states that anyone who attempts to interfere with Oja’s rights to his films would be completely disinherited. Why this provision has never been brought up in U.S. courts remains a mystery.
March, 2007 – A new Showtime deal is reached, which apparently placates Beatrice Welles with a substantial payment. Peter Bogdanovich announces that work can finally go forward on completing The Other Side of the Wind.
April, 2008 – Peter Bogdanovich films the opening of the Los Angeles vault where Oja Kodar has kept the rough-cut and other related material for The Other Side of the Wind.
June, 2008 – Showtime sets up an editing suite in Los Angeles, to begin the preliminary logging in work for all of The Other Side of the Wind footage. Tim King is the Showtime executive in charge of post-production. Sasha Welles, a nephew to Oja Kodar, is also working on the project as an assistant editor.
Dec. 2008 – After six months of work, Showtime puts the editing on “hold,” due to an unspecified complication. One possibility is that the negative is still unavailable for inspection in the Paris film vault where it is being held by French Officials. There is reportedly over ten hours of negative footage in the Paris vault, making access to it vital to properly complete the project.
February, 2009 – Peter Boganovich and Frank Marshall tell Variety the project is still viable. Marshall says: “Showtime is willing to pay for it, but they want to make sure the materials are there. The negative is in a lab in Paris, but we can’t get the estates together to get us into the lab to confirm that the negative is in good shape.”
Bogdanovich says: “
It’s going to happen in the next month or so. We’re aiming for Cannes (in 2010). Everybody wants it to happen. It’s film history. It will be something for it to finally be seen after all these years.”
- Source :
http://www.wellesnet.com/
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