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

[Roger Ryan]

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

In a strange way, this timeline actually makes me a little more optimistic about the potential for an actual release; maybe it's the way all of the obstacles are compartmentalized instead of being heaped together in the same paragraph! I find it amusing that "1972" is often the year associated with this unfinished work when its lead actor wasn't even cast until '74.

I'm quite surprised to hear any news about THE DEEP. As some of you may know, I've been pretty disparaging of this effort after reviewing the rough cut. I hold nothing against the Munich Filmmuseum's efforts in compiling the footage, but what exists is pretty weak Welles, with only his own hammy comic performance to keep things interesting. It's true that Jeanne Moreau refused to loop her dialogue back in the late 60s which is one of the reasons Welles abandoned the project, but I was under the impression that the minimal audio that exists in the work print is all that survives. Given that no studio was involved, footage of THE DEEP stayed in Welles' possession before Kodar inherited it and it was eventually passed along to the Munich Filmmuseum. What existed as of five or six years ago was two work prints, neither in particularly good quality. Some of Harvey's looping was present although not particularly well-done (then again, I didn't find his overall performance to be that good either) and there was some wild audio where the dialogue was often obscured by a generator or wind. Obviously, if the looping audio exists for everyone except Moreau, then there is the potential for THE DEEP to exist in a more complete version; if the original negative could be located (thought to have been destroyed in that fire at Robert Shaw's house), then the film might even have a little commercial appeal. But I'm thinking that this news regarding THE DEEP is as false as THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND news.

[jaba4017]

Anybody have any info on Project Welles? http://www.projectwelles.com/behind-the-scenes

[RayKelly]

The names of the three OSOTW executive producers - Paul Hunt, Sanford Horowitz and John Nicholas - are unfamiliar to me, though one (Horowitz) is very similar to that of a producer listed on imdb.
Did they buy Mehdi Boushehri (the shah's brother-in-law') stake in OSOTW? There is a pdf of a search page for a 2007 copyright application document claiming transfer of copyright to Horowitz Hunt LLC of Renaldo Beach, CA from Mehdi Boushehri
Is it for real or just another hoax? I don't know.
If the website represents the majority owners, it's pretty sad/suspicious that the only OSOTW clips they have are links to YouTube. Also, a pdf of a search page for an application is not the kind of legal document that inspires confidence.
On the plus side, they are NOT asking folks to send them money and they have links to two articles on wellesnet.

[jaba4017]

I received an email from John Nicholas, saying that they were working on a big financing deal, and that they would make an announcement if successful. Not sure what to think about the project, though I hope it's legit. Perhaps more info will come out soon, maybe even a Kickstarter like approach to achieve completion funds(Welles probably would've dug such a model).

[ToddBaesen]

Paul Hunt may apparently have worked on THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND as an assistant editor to Welles and put forth a claim to Showtime that Welles's gave him certain rights to the film. This was the claim that stopped the Showtime deal from moving forward, right after they had set up a preliminary editing facility in Los Angeles. The claim that he and the two other "Executive Producers" now have a majority ownership of the film would seem rather dubious, to say the least, but if there is any truth to their claims, their "rights" would almost certainly have come from Mehdi Boushehri's half of the film. Which would mean the "minority" rights would be those held by Oja Kodar.

That, would apparently put the whole film back at the same spot it was at when Boushehri was still alive and wasn't willing to work with Oja on a plan to finish the picture! In any case, all the footage is still locked away in a vault in Paris and it appears nobody will get at it until the legal ownership details are worked out with the authorities in France. In the meantime, both Peter B. and Oja, the two people who know the film the best, are now older than Welles was when he died!

Here's the proposed plan listed by "Project Welles LLC" on their website, with notes by me (*) on some of their bizarre statements:

The Executive Producers of “The Other Side of the Wind” (Paul Hunt, Sanford Horowitz & John Nicholas) currently control the majority ownership of the film (* Very unlikely, it would seem. Isn't it quite strange that Paul Hunt would suddenly claim some kind of rights to OSOTW only after Gary Graver died?).

The initial goal of Project Welles LLC is to obtain the remaining minority ownership stake (* Given they have shown no proof other than a cut-rate website regarding their "majority ownership" one must wonder about their bizarre claims).

Project Welles LLC plans to: complete ownership transfer agreements (obtaining clear title to 100% ownership of the film), gain access to film negatives, complete post production, and prepare a wide theatrical release (*Highly commendable ideas, but where is the money to do this all going to come from. Certainly not for Sandy Horowitz, who declared bankruptcy to avoid losing his Malibu estate).

Due to the unique situation of releasing Orson Welles’ last major film, Project Welles has an opportunity to release two versions of THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND: a 50-minute Orson Welles edited original as he left it version (“Director’s cut” Direct to DVD release), and the edited and completed (from his extensive notes with full music score) theatrical release version. (*This last line shows how little knowledge the so-called "Executive Producers" have of the project. Clearly they have not seen the edited version Welles left, nor any of the unedited rough cut, but are relying on third party sources).

[RayKelly]

I recently conducted a Q&A with Joseph McBride for The (Springfield, MA) Republican. You can read it at http://www.masslive.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2011/10/film_historian_and_author_jose.html
I asked about OSOTW:

You co-starred in Welles’ unfinished film, “The Other Side of the Wind,” and labored to see it completed after his death in 1985. You are also one of the few people to see the rough cut edit of the film. How does it measure up to the rest of his work?

It may not be another “Citizen Kane,” but what is? It is an utterly fascinating experiment told in two separate styles, neither of which is Welles’s own style, as Jonathan Rosenbaum points out. Welles is parodying cinema-verite in the framing story and Antonioni in the film-within-the-film. The cast is rich and eclectic. John Huston gives a great performance. Other actors, such as Norman Foster and Mercedes McCambridge, are also wonderful. The film’s satirical look at what we now call “The ‘Easy Rider Era” of Hollywood is incisive. It’s hard to assess the material because no one – not even Welles or his late cinematographer, Gary Graver – has ever seen all 10 hours of footage that are still in a Paris vault. The rough cut is missing some key scenes, and in some places is very rough indeed. Difficult artistic questions need to be dealt with about how to balance the framing story with the film-within-the-film.


I am no longer directly involved, since I was fired from the project after Gary Graver and I made the original deal with Showtime to finish the film in 1999; Peter Bogdanovich and (Welles’ collaborator) Oja Kodar dumped me because they thought they no longer needed me, and the project soon fell apart. I think it would have been out by now if they hadn’t made that unwise move, but I decided not to fight it so I wouldn’t disrupt the film. Now I am pessimistic we will ever seen it finished, but some people are still trying to do so. Let us hope — but it’s 41 years since we started shooting!


If it ever has a premiere, I may need a walker to get to the theater.

[Jay]

Ray,

Great piece on the forthcoming book by Josh Karp. Can't wait to read it. I hope that its publication will lead to more pressure to finish a cut and release the film.

I will say, though, that my heart skipped a beat when I read the headline, because I didn't initially see the first line and only read "Orson Welles's THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND due out in 2013." If only...

[RayKelly]

Thanks for the kind words Jay.
And thanks to Josh Karp for taking the time to answer the questions.
In a perfect world, this book would be the movie tie-in.

[ToddBaesen]

Given the fact that Paul Hunt recently passed away, who I regret to say was one of the big problems in terms of the project going forward, maybe the long in the works SHOWTIME deal can now also move forward. Given that Welles shot from 1970 to 1975 on the film, it appears from all reports that there is a huge amount of film to go through that nobody has seen, since it was locked away in a vault in Paris after the Iranian revolution. So just looking through all the footage would take at least six months, and then the final editing and other sound work would easily take another six.

Ironically, I wonder if Rich Little can do a decent Orson Welles voice? If he can, he might even be able to come back and narrate the film's opening narration that Welles planned to speak, as he did in THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS, the only other film Welles directed that he did not appear in.

So 2013 might be a lucky year for seeing THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND, with the bonus of a tie-in making of book!

[RayKelly]

I really don't have all the facts on the Paul Hunt group, Project Welles LLC, and their ownership claim.
A few people have suggested to me that they have only an option to buy Boushehri's stake. I would have to see the documents.

BTW, I have felt that Peter Bogdanovich -- in character as Brooks Otterlake -- could to the Welles opening narration for OSOTW.

[Jay]

Bogdanovich seems like a logical choice. But he's not getting any younger, so get him in the sound studio ASAP.

Speaking of aging, that's one of the things that I've been thinking about as it relates to this film. PB is over 70, and Oja Kodar is 70. They seem to be a couple of the key players in relation to this film getting (PB) or not getting (OK) released. I'm not trying to come across as callous, but what happens if one or both of them passes away before this film gets completed and released?

[RayKelly]

Jay,
I don't know if you have read the OSOTW script, but the narrator is talking about Jake Hannaford in the past tense and the footage shot at his birthday party.
The narration could be tweaked a little. Maybe it took Brooks Otterlake decades to untangle the mess <g>
As for Oja. I would hope she has a will and made plans as to who inherits what was left to her.
Likewise, Beatrice Welles has no children and hopefully has made the proper plans.

[Glenn Anders]

Within the last few days, over at the IMDb, the indefatigable "nickbadseed" (who some say is really "rm rilke") has posted a four minute video clip (with sound) from THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND. The sequence covers some of the screening room conversation of the young Robert Evans-like Producer and Jake Hannaford's agent Billy Boyle, shot in b&w and blue filter, intercut with color shots from Hannaford's film. If my ragged memory serves me, this rough cut has not shown up in the voluminous material we have compiled in this section; nor, aside from a couple a couple of quick shots of Oja Kodar and Robert Random, was this particular edit (if that's what it is) included in the rough assemblage that Stefan Droessler showed Todd Baesen and me at Larry French's apartment, several years ago. It was first shown at the 1975 AFI tribute to Welles, we are told.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewC7f_RKTAQ

Could someone be sending up smoke signals again?

Glenn Anders

[Lance Morrison]

Thank you for posting this, Glenn -- I certainly hadn't seen it. I enjoyed the quiet discomfort the scene evokes. I'm reminded a little of the screening scene with producer (Palance) and director (Lang) in Godard's Le mépris. The use of color and black & white is great.

[RayKelly]

Josh Karp, who is working on the forthcoming OSOTW book "An Adventure Shared By Desperate Men," has set up a Facebook page.
Check it out at http://www.facebook.com/pages/An-Adventure-Shared-By-Desperate-Men/151466371589828

We will be talking more with Josh as the publication by St. Martin's Press nears.
Until then, read our October 2011 interview with Josh at http://www.wellesnet.com/?p=1421