"Me and Orson Welles"

[Glenn Anders]

Ray, Alan: Your suppositions about the wider opening of ME AND ORSON WELLES seem correct; in fact, the opening appears to have been moved up.

The film premieres in San Francisco on Tuesday, December 1, 2009, with Richard Linklater and Christian McKay scheduled to be in attendance. That's why I have been making references to Lawrence French's first interview with Christian McKay, and the rapport they seemed to establish there. McKay indicated that he would welcome continuing the conversation at greater length over a glass of wine when he arrived in San Francisco.

Thats's what I understand Larry wants to do, if the LA P.R. agents will allow it.

Thank you, as always, for your wise counsel.

Glenn

[ToddBaesen]

It appears Zac Efron's star power isn't helping ME AND ORSON WELLES at the box-office. All the teen fans seem to be heading to see TWILIGHT: FULL MOON, instead.

The New York-LA opening at only four theaters produced a rather tepid $65,000, which comes to a per theater average of only $16,250. Since these are the two biggest movie markets I wouldn't expect box-office will be much better in additional cities when the film expands in December.

[Alfred Willmore]

Toddy,

At the screening I attended in L.A. there was almost no one under 40 and I'd say the average age was about 70.

Wilfred

[RayKelly]

I guess the film won't be coming to Asia then but at least the rush to DVD will be quick.

Peter,
I don't know about the US (or Asian) DVD release, but according to the Hollywood Reporter, British retailer Tesco has the exclusive DVD rights for 12 months in the UK beginning Easter 2010. I would guess -- and it's only a guess -- that it will likely be released around that time here.
As a fellow western Massachusetts resident you know the chances of seeing Me and Orson Welles here are slim if Sumner Redstone's Showcase/National Amusements chain doesn't pick it up.

[RayKelly]

It appears Zac Efron's star power isn't helping ME AND ORSON WELLES at the box-office. All the teen fans seem to be heading to see TWILIGHT: FULL MOON, instead.

It will never be a Twilight. Even Disney's Hollywood Musical franchise isn't quite that strong.
My 14 year old son informed me today that there are girls in his freshman class who have seen Full Moon seven times already.
Both he and I are of the same mindset on Twilight: Vampires are bloodsucking fiends who perish in the purifying rays of the sun. They do not "sparkle" nor should they wallow in teen angst when they are 109 years old.

[Alfred Willmore]

bloodsucking fiends who perish in the purifying rays of the sun.

quite a line!

[ToddBaesen]

From Today's NY DAILY NEWS gossip columnists
RUSH & MOLLOY

Given the more accurate report on the Wellesnet main page coming straight from Chris Welles Feder, it appears this piece has quite a bit of it's own distortion in it.


Orson Welles' daughter not happy with 'Me and Orson Welles'


Orson Welles' oldest daughter, Chris Welles Feder, is ready to grab a stick and "Citizen"-cane the makers of a new movie about her father.

Feder basked in the applause when she was introduced at the New York premiere of Richard Linklater's "Me and Orson Welles." But afterward, she couldn't hide her displeasure with the movie, which paints her dad as a dictatorial director and cad who cheated on her pregnant mother.

"That's not my father - it's a distortion," Feder told us as she walked out of the Cinema Society/Screenvision/Brooks Brothers screening. "They took all the negative things and fashioned a character that's a caricature. It's laughable."

The movie, based on Robert Kaplow's novel, features Zac Efron as an aspiring actor who lands a part in Welles' 1937 Mercury Theater production of "Julius Caesar" - only to end up fighting Welles for bedroom privileges with his sexy assistant (Claire Danes).

"It's inconceivable my father would ever act as he did toward Zac Efron's character," Feder went on. "He was known for being kind to his actors."

Feder conceded that Christian McKay is uncanny as the 22-year-old Welles. But at the Gramercy Hotel after-party, she still gave him a piece of her mind and a copy of her memoir, "In My Father's Shadow," "because I want him to know the real Orson Welles."

McKay told us: "I respect her opinion enormously. At the same time, there is the historical record. I spoke with actors who worked at the Mercury. One had hair-raising stories about Welles' womanizing. If we made him more likable, we'd have taken all the drama away."

P.S.: Chris' half sister, Beatrice, says she won't see the film (she boycotts all dramatizations of her father's life). Likely to be happier with it is Arthur Andersen, the actor who inspired Efron’s character and who went on to play that cereal-guarding leprechaun in the Lucky Charms commercials.

[Alfred Willmore]

The film 'Me and Orson Welles' does not have an actual independent distributor in the United States.

Freestyle Releasing is a DIY operation that allows films like this which were not picked up by a distributor to have limited runs, paid for by the original producers of the film.

[Magentarose67]

From Today's NY DAILY NEWS gossip columnists
RUSH & MOLLOY

Given the more accurate report on the Wellesnet main page coming straight from Chris Welles Feder, it appears this piece has quite a bit of it's own distortion in it.


Orson Welles' daughter not happy with 'Me and Orson Welles'


Orson Welles' oldest daughter, Chris Welles Feder, is ready to grab a stick and "Citizen"-cane the makers of a new movie about her father.

Feder basked in the applause when she was introduced at the New York premiere of Richard Linklater's "Me and Orson Welles." But afterward, she couldn't hide her displeasure with the movie, which paints her dad as a dictatorial director and cad who cheated on her pregnant mother.

"That's not my father - it's a distortion," Feder told us as she walked out of the Cinema Society/Screenvision/Brooks Brothers screening. "They took all the negative things and fashioned a character that's a caricature. It's laughable."

The movie, based on Robert Kaplow's novel, features Zac Efron as an aspiring actor who lands a part in Welles' 1937 Mercury Theater production of "Julius Caesar" - only to end up fighting Welles for bedroom privileges with his sexy assistant (Claire Danes).

"It's inconceivable my father would ever act as he did toward Zac Efron's character," Feder went on. "He was known for being kind to his actors."

Feder conceded that Christian McKay is uncanny as the 22-year-old Welles. But at the Gramercy Hotel after-party, she still gave him a piece of her mind and a copy of her memoir, "In My Father's Shadow," "because I want him to know the real Orson Welles."

McKay told us: "I respect her opinion enormously. At the same time, there is the historical record. I spoke with actors who worked at the Mercury. One had hair-raising stories about Welles' womanizing. If we made him more likable, we'd have taken all the drama away."

P.S.: Chris' half sister, Beatrice, says she won't see the film (she boycotts all dramatizations of her father's life). Likely to be happier with it is Arthur Andersen, the actor who inspired Efron’s character and who went on to play that cereal-guarding leprechaun in the Lucky Charms commercials.

Go, Chris !

And I did not know that Arthur Anderson was the voice of the Lucky Charms Leprechaun (Lucky Charms was my favorite cereal as a kid) ...that's quite an irony...

Does anyone know if that's true, or if the authors of the article made a mistake?

[mido505]

Here is a link to a very informative LA times article that details the distribution strategy for ME AND ORSON WELLES:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/the_big ... -life.html. Things are not looking so bleak.

Here are a few points of note:

ME AND ORSON WELLES will open on 150 screens in the UK on December 4. The distributor is Vue, which owns 25% of the country’s theaters. This is a major deal and a very decent release for an independent.

Freestyle Releasing guided AN AMERICAN HAUNTING to a $16,000,000 gross, and the delightful BOTTLE SHOCK to around $4,000,000. BOTTLE SHOCK averaged $5,793 per theater on its opening weekend; AN AMERICAN HAUNTING averaged $3,452 per theater, considerably less than ME AND ORSON WELLES's $16,200. To keep things in perspective: Jim Carrey's remake of A CHRISTMAS CAROL averaged $8,159 per theater opening weekend, and the monster hit TWILIGHT NEW MOON averaged $35,497. TWILIGHT opened in 4,024 theaters; had MAOW done the same, it would have grossed $65,188,800. Now obviously this is a somewhat apples and oranges comparison, but I think it is a bit early to be disappointed.

The use of Freestyle in the U.S. is deliberate, as most of the specialty divisions of the major studios, who would be expected to pick up a film like MAOW, have been dismantled. The old distribution model for independents has broken down, and a new one needs to be built practically from scratch. The distribution of MAOW is in many ways a test case for the new model. $4,000,000 in P&A money has been secured from an outside source for MAOW. Freestyle Releasing is solidly behind the film, and president Mark Borde states that “This film won't be treated like a stepchild. It will play side-by-side with the top releases in the best theaters in the country.”

MAOW producers have secured a major DVD distribution deal with Warner Home Video. Warners featured a trailer for MAOW on the DVD release of Zac Ephron’s hit 17 AGAIN.

In short, ME AND ORSON WELLES is not set to disappear. Keep watching the skies!

[RayKelly]

While all this is local news, it's relevant here because these are the key independent cinemas for a very wide geographic area (there's a place Amherst and another cinema in NY State near Albany but they almost never have what the theaters I list above mention).

Larry Jackson, who worked on OSOTW and managed the Orson Welles Cinema in Cambridge, was involved in the redevelopment of the Amherst Cinema. It is a great theater.

[Alan Brody]

It'll be interesting to see what extras there are on that DVD, whether they focus more on Zac or on Orson. But we're getting ahead of ourselves- I'm just glad it's finally making it to theatres. The happy ending for Me and Orson Welles has me thinking once again of the sad fate of Fade to Black. I've pretty much given up hope for any kind of theatrical release for it, unless MAOW somehow becomes a smash hit (what a double feature they might make - Welles on the way up, and on the way down), but it would be nice if we got some kind of DVD release for that film in the U.S. too.

[Glenn Anders]

Yes, Alan, perhaps we should stay with the film itself for a moment longer.

Yes, magentarose65: Arthur Anderson started in show biz very early, joining the cast of one of the longest running youth radio shows, Let's Pretend, a year before he got the gig to play Lucilius in Welles' Julius Caesar. [In 2004, Anderson wrote a history of Let's Pretend.] And he was Lucky the Leprechaun for 29 years. Not much doubt about the essential accuracy of the article cited in that respect.

As a matter of fact, Todd, what are the examples of "distortion" you find in the article?

Aside from being pleased with the reception and after-party (features you always enjoy yourself), and with meeting the actors, especially Zac Efron and Christian McKay and his wife, Chris Feder seemed quite critical of the actual film, ME AND ORSON WELLES. In the article she kindly allowed Larry French to put up on the Wellesnet Homepage, she seemed pretty clear about that. In fact, on her Facebook page, Chris has a picture of herself with McKay, his wife, and the book, which she captions:

"At the party following the premiere of ME AND ORSON WELLES, I gave Christian McKay a copy of my memoir because I wanted him to meet 'the real Orson Welles.'"

We may reasonably assume from her article that she is not insulting McKay's performance, but as she writes, she feels that mostly the negative qualities of her father as a director and a man were stressed in the film.

Is she not indicating that the ME AND ORSON WELLES distorts Orson Welles' character, lacks the necessary balance which would make the film really work?

Glenn

[Alan Brody]

Positive review from the two "At the Movies" critics:

http://bventertainment.go.com/tv/buenavista/atm/

[Store Hadji]

Charlie Rose had a typically good interview last night with Richard, Christian, Claire and Zac. Christian plugged and praised Christopher's memoir and the 30-minute talk was focused as much on OW as anything. I turned on the TV at 3:00 AM (a complete fluke, that) and there it was.