Official OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND Thread - All things OSotW he

[mido505]

If Peter Bogdanovich spent less time blathering about his last lunch with John Ford and doing his Cary Grant impersonation in front of rapt undergraduates we might have TOSOTW by now. TOSOTW is DITW.

[RayKelly]

It was great to read the Nuvo interview with Peter Bogdanovich on the main page today.

I could be cynical and say it is the same old story "...my guess is that it’ll be resolved in the next few months, and that we should be able to start editing it. I’ve been saying that for a long time." But I take some comfort in believing it is not dead yet.

[ToddBaesen]

Thanks for not being cynical about OSOTW, Ray.

One important reason Peter Bogdanovich also has for finishing the project, is he would make quite a lot of money if a Showtime deal is ever approved. Given he isn't exactly in hot demand as a director these days, OSOTW would provide him with a nice paycheck.

[RayKelly]

One important reason Peter Bogdanovich also has for finishing the project, is he would make quite a lot of money if a Showtime deal is ever approved. Given he isn't exactly in hot demand as a director these days, OSOTW would provide him with a nice paycheck.

Money is always nice -- and who wouldn't want to be known as the guy who honored Orson Welles' dying wish. If Bogdanovich didn't have a book tie-in thought out, I would be surprised. He sure has had the time to write it.

If this does happen, we should never forget the hard work done by Oja Kodar, Joe McBride, Showtime's Matthew Duda and the late great Gary Graver.

[Nepenthe]

P. Bogdanovich on status: (unchanged) http://www.thewrap.com/movies/column-post/wes-anderson-noah-baumbach-produce-bogdanovichs-nuts-22094 "Bogdanovich remains optimistic about completing the long-delayed restoration of Orson Welles' "The Other Side of the Wind," which the late filmmaker never finished and has been tangled in legal issues for years."

[RayKelly]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/jan/23/orson-welles-last-film-release
Another story that 'OSOTW" is on the way.
Like many of us, I will believe it when I hold the movie ticket in my hand

[Glenn Anders]

Very interesting, Ray.

I guess the question is, barring any other interference, who is putting up the money?

It sounds as if the plan is to make a movie-movie, and from the more than two hours of the rough I've seen, that would be the way to go. Frankly, however, I did not see the story in the screenplay fleshed out in the footage that I saw.

Perhaps, Todd Baesen, who has seen even more of it, will have something to say.

Glenn

[Roger Ryan]

While I don't know this for a fact, my understanding is that the footage that has been seen (whether it be the scenes collected by the Munich Filmmuseum or Gary Graver's "rough cut") consists of material that Welles edited himself and other footage deemed suitable to create a "work print" from. But it does not represent everything that was shot and contained on the negatives stored in the vault. Once all of that footage has been reviewed, it can be determined whether there is enough to flesh out the story found in the screenplay. Ultimately, there may not be enough footage and the documentary approach showcasing the best scenes may be the only option.

[atcolomb]

http://blog.moviefone.com/2011/01/24/or ... hare_email
Here is another link to a article from Cinematical on OSOTW.....

[RayKelly]

Oja speaks to the Croatian Times:

Orson Welles´ partner unsure about Showtime completing his movie

Orson Welles's partner Oja Kodar is still not sure that one of Welle's unseen masterpieces will really be released, as British daily newspaper the Guardian claimed earlier this week.

The Other Side of the Wind, shot in 1972, could now see the light of day, according to a British daily, but Oja Kodar, living in Primosten, Croatia, has said she is still not that sure that this is an option.

The film was kept away for 39 years and it could stay hidden if TV company Showtime do not meet Oja Kodar's demands.

"It is true that Jacqueline Boushehri, the wife of the Iranian producer, and I are interested in the film being finally completed. But from the Showtime we still did not receive the details of a budget. Without it I won't give the rights to anyone", Oja Kodar has told to Croatian daily Vecernji List.

She said she fears that the problem Orson Welles' movie Don Quijote encountered in 1994 - not enought post-production investment - will be repeated.

"I want people from Showtime to be aware of what it measn to complete an Orson Welles' movie", she has added.

As for Don Quijote she said she was completely dissatisfied with how it got completed, and she wants to avoid another possible disappointment.

[Glenn Anders]

If the money is going substantially to complete THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND, I'm entirely on Oja's Kodar's side. She is quite right that another DON QUIJOTE should be avoided. I'm a little surprised, though, at this point, that Miss Kodar would not be aware of the essential offer. But if she is correct, one more jig of the puzzle is in place. Showtime is still in the game.

BTW, atcolomb, reading over for a second time the article you post, I notice that the piece is written by Mike Bracken, who happens to be my longtime colleague at Epinions. He has branched out considerably since 1999.

Glenn

[Nepenthe]

How can the Wellesnet article on the prospective release of 'The Other Side of The Wind' not have a chilling effect on building interest in TOSOTW running in theaters or on video this year?

The Wellesnet article, despite its headline, gives no new facts to indicate that Ken Sidle's story is 'A Hoax'.

Nevertheless, the next time a journalist or film buff researches the truthfulness of the claim that the film may be released, the information that will come up (from the Wellesnet headline) will be:
The story is bogus.

- Result: Stories killed.
- Next Result: less internet buzz develops because people "know" that the story is fishy.
- Further Result: when the film actually comes out, there will be lessened public enthusiasm.

Other than The Guardian/Observer, I don't see that many periodicals actively trying to run stories on Orson Welles.

And the reference to Patti Smith was unrelated to the subject which is 'When are They Going To Complete The Other Side Of The Wind'?

[The Night Man]

Writer David Ehrenstein, in comments posted at David Cairns' wonderful film blog Shadowplay, had this to say regarding the TOSOTW brouhaha:

Just off the phone with Bill Krohn. Not only is [the Guardian story] full of misinformation but it's coming from representatives of the Shah’s brother-in-law, who had invested in the film.... The claim in the article that Oja wants to sell her interest in the film is a COMPLETE LIE.

...

The Guardian article has kicked up a whole lot of interest in TOSOTW. Bill talked to Oja who said they didn’t even so much as ring her up for a comment. The deal to have the project premiere on Showtime is still a very good possibility.

Also The Deep may be on its way to completion now that Jeanne Moreau has elected to loop her dialogue. ...Everyone else did their looping — including Laurence Harvey. So that means yet another Welles may FINALLY see the light of day soon.

It occurred to me that the Guardian piece might have been designed to generate controversy and buzz about TOSOTW. Whatever the intention, that it has surely accomplished.

Assuming the info is accurate, it's good to hear that the Showtime deal is potentially still in play, but this bit about The Deep is even more intriguing. How funny it would be if that project were to reach completion before TOSOTW. I wonder if the negative for The Deep ever turned up.

[Glenn Anders]

Todd Baesen and I saw the Munich Film Museum rough cut of THE DEEP, several years ago in San Francisco. The story was quite coherent, with few holes, but most of the sound track was missing, and at that time, some doubt was expressed whether or not certain elements of the track could be found or restored. The film held a nice shape, beginning with the death of a child, following on to the father (Michael Bryant) taking his wife (Oja Kodar) sailing in the Adriatic on a chartered yacht to heal her grief. Laurence Harvey, the villain, is taken on board from an abandoned schooner, and the plot kicks up into high gear when Bryant finds evidence aboard the derelict of crime on the high seas; at the same moment, Harvey takes off with Bryant's wife. A sea chase ensues. Orson Welles and Jeanne Moreau are involved as disreputable "secret sharers," Welles particularly in the guise of a humorous counter-villain.

The film, as it stood, suggested to me the makings of seafaring thriller, with Michael Bryant, sadly, standing out in the kind of role which made Sam Neill a star in DEAD CALM, essaying the same role. Oja Kodar is fetching in a bikini, and seems competent in her part. Welles appears to be in his Long John Silver mode. And one can imagine that with appropriate music, some of the magic of THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI's sailing sequences could be elicited.

Though these things are hard to judge for people who are not real pros, I thought that THE DEEP might make an enjoyable, not necessarily groundbreaking seafaring thriller. The amount of time elapsed should lessen comparisons between Welles' THE DEEP and Phillip Noyce's DEAD CALM, which starred both Neill and Nicole Kidman. Strangely, one of the shots which our host pointed out was missing from his collected footage was a climactic explosion on the water. In that fact, THE DEEP shares a similar omission with THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND.

I might add that my inclination is to agree with you, Nightman, that the purpose of Kenneth Sidle's releasing this information about a proposed deal for THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND may have been to shake the tree. If so, as you observe, he did it successfully. Unfortunately, as Nepenthe observes, Wellesnet took the extreme position that The Observer, the reporter, and Mr. Sidle were engaged in "a hoax." Sidle's firm, after all, is a large, successful International operation, currently taking on the Chinese Government about intellectual property rights. They have no need to perpetrate hoaxes as such.

Something's afoot.

Time will tell.

Glenn

[Alfred Willmore]

Here's a Timeline:
http://www.movieline.com/2011/01/timeli ... e-wind.php