New Mini-Series Borrows Welles' Description:

[Glenn Anders]

The following item appeared in News from WENN, at the IMDb this evening:

SOPRANOS MASTERMIND CHASE REFLECTS ON THE BIRTH OF HOLLYWOOD

[16 March 2009 6:35 PM, PDT]

"The Sopranos creator David Chase is developing a new TV miniseries about the birth of Hollywood.

"The TV mogul is the brains behind RIBBON OF DREAMS, which will track the earliest filmmaking in California, beginning in 1913.

"Chase will write and executive produce the miniseries, as well as direct the first episodes. Paramount Pictures chairman and CEO Brad Grey, who executive produced THE SOPRANOS, will also serve as executive producer on the new miniseries.

"The miniseries will feature actors portraying movie mogul D.W. Griffith, John Ford, John Wayne, Bette Davis and others.

"The title of the HBO movie takes its name from movie legend Orson Welles’ description, 'A film is a ribbon of dreams.'"

The mention of John Wayne and Bette Davis suggests that RIBBON OF DREAMS might conclude with the coming of Talkies, but perhaps, if the reception is favorable, the timeline for the series could be pushed on to accommodate the meteoric arrival of Orson Welles in Hollywood, allowing him an opportunity to utter his famous description. That event could also provide a fine finale, or if RIBBON OF DREAMS becomes an unlikely rival to the success of THE SOPRANOS, launch a further exploration of Hollywood's history.

A later Reuters dispatch provides additional detail to support my initial surmise:

"The miniseries, "A Ribbon of Dreams" -- whose title comes from Orson Welles' observation that "a film is a ribbon of dreams" -- will begin in 1913 and follow two men, one a college-educated mechanical engineer, the other a cowboy with a violent past, who form an unlikely producing partnership.

"The duo will start off as employees of D.W. Griffith and then cross career paths with such Hollywood greats as John Ford, John Wayne, Raoul Walsh, Bette Davis and Billy Wilder. Through the eyes of the two main characters -- as well as their offspring -- "Dreams" will chronicle the growth of the film industry from the age of rough-hewn silent Westerns, to the golden era of talkies and the studio system, to the auteur movement, to television, and finally to the present day."

Sounds as if an alternate title may be: HOLLYWOOD GODFATHERS.

Glenn

[Store Hadji]

Ribbon of Dreams is a great title.

If Welles is depicted, hopefully he's honorably represented. I like how both Tim Burton and Benjamin Ross presented him.


Terry

[Glenn Anders]

I agree on the title, Terry.

My mind has been playing with David Chase's choice of that title, and it occurs to me that Chase has given evidence in the past of his admiration for Welles and things Wellsian. For a start, at this point, he is a kind of a more "successful" Orson Welles who writes, produces, directs, and even acts, while commanding a salary of $15,000,000 a year. He has just completed an unprecedented seven year series, THE SOPRANOS, a television counterpart to CITIZEN KANE and THE GODFATHER. He grew up on classic movies, and obviously loves them, to a point that the vicious, crude Sopranos were movie buffs. Remember that, according to Peter Bogdanovich, Chase sought him out early in the Sopranos' saga, suggesting he liked him so well in a small part he had seen Bogdanovich perform that he might have a role for him in the series, and several years later, Chase called him to play Dr. Elliot Kupferberg. Then, consider Chase's choice of the title RIBBON OF DREAMS in a context of that controversial final episode of THE SOPRANOS in which the screen suddenly went to black as the Soprano family, ringed with enemies, sat quietly in a Jersey diner. Consider, then, another famous Welles quote: “If you want a happy ending, that depends, of course, on where you stop your story.”

If I'm correct, we won't have to worry about Welles being "honorably represented." Chase will not sugar-coat Welles, if the mini-series gets around to him, but our man will have a significant function in the story, I'm sure.

Thank you for your response, Terry.

Glenn

[Store Hadji]

I've still never watched The Sopranos, despite consistently hearing superlative things about it.

I'll take a look at it after I finish Battlestar Galactica this week.


Terry

[purplepines]

I feel the first season of Sopranos was the most consistent and original, and after seeing all of them, I think if I ONLY saw the first season, that would have been adequate [CRUCIFY HIM!].