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

[Glenn Anders]

Ray: You have put an enormous feather into Wellesnet's cap by bringing us Josh Karp and the promise of his fabulous book, An Adventure Shared By Desperate Men (That Finally Came to Nothing). I hope he keeps this title because it says so much. May Mr. Karp only be able to change one or two words in that title -- the last ones!

Meanwhile, just as Colonel Viktor Kleinhaagen has gone on assignment to Brazil with Todd Baesen, his chief secret agent, my old friend Major Dino M. Christiansoni, has sent me a report I'd not come across. No doubt others here have, but if Mr. Karp has not seen the following anecdote, he may find it amusing, ironic perhaps:

According to Major Christiansoni, a keen student of Orson Welles, a DVD has recently been released of START THE REVOLUTION WITH OUT ME, a film directed by Bud Yorkin, starring Donald Sutherland and Gene Wilder, and narrated by Welles. According to a commentary track provided by Yorkin, Sutherland, and Wilder, the 1970 French Revolution parody was originally to have been narrated by Laurence Olivier. An elaborate set had been prepared on an I8th Century French estate (or a facsimile thereof), consisting of a library where Olivier, reading from a massive journal, would open the picture, flanked by two large wolfhounds. As Olivier walked around the aristocratic formal grounds, providing a ponderous context for the comic goings-on, the dogs trotting ahead of him, he would constantly have to interrupt himself by having to wipe dog excrement off his shoes.

Olivier supposedly fell ill just before the shoot (or perhaps, had just read his part in the film, aforehand). In any case, Orson Welles, who was gathering money and ideas for his own projects, including perhaps, THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND, had two days to spare, and agreed to step in for Olivier, then possibly the most distinguished stage and screen actor in the English-speaking World. In full costume, props in hand, letter perfect, Welles entered onto the set. Director Yorkin and the other stars were ready to go. "And . . . ACT -- " Suddenly, Welles put down his cigar, raised in one hand the tome from which he was to be reading, and waved with his other a silk lace handkerchief reprovingly at the Director and Company.

"Ladies and Gentlemen," he supposedly announced, "Orson Welles does not step in dog [bleep]!

Subsequently, there was a quick re-write of the script and a redressing of the set. Hence, we have the film we see today.

I tell this story as it was recounted to me from Shawnee Camp, near Tulsa, Oklahoma, by Major Christiansoni. The story may be apocryphal, but the point of the anecdote might be germane to the thesis of Mr. Karp's book! Let's hope we all, one day, find the treasure of THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND is only pure cinematic gold. . . .

HURRAH!

Glenn Anders

[RayKelly]

File this under more bad news:

Michael Duda, the executive vice president of Program Acquisitions, Planning and Distribution, at Showtime, is retiring after 31 years with the cable channel.

He has been working to bring OSOTW to Showtime for many, many years. It was under Duda, that One Man Band was re-edited and shown on the channel.

Wellesnet opined in 2009 that "the executives at Showtime are to be thanked for standing by the project after so many years, despite all the setbacks they have encountered. If the film finally gets completed ... Matthew Duda will have a lasting legacy behind him."

Duda was instrumental in the launch of the Sundance Channel in 1996.

He was described by Matthew Blank, chairman and CEO of Showtime Networks, as "the leading voices in our programming group."

Showtime Entertainment president David Nevins called Duda a “person of talent and integrity, and a true expert in his field."

I think we all wish him well in the future.

[mteal]

You should see if you can get an interview with him, Ray. I'd like to hear his thoughts on the TOSOTW/Showtime matter.

[RayKelly]

I made two attempts to reach him a few years back. I might try again. I hope Josh Karp tracks him down for his OSOTW book.

[RayKelly]

In the latest issue of NOW, Peter Bogdanovich talks about OSOTW, says he did some re-edits last year, and makes another prediction (I know, I know):

Bogdanovich: My most important performance, probably, is in a film nobody’s seen: Orson Welles’s The Other Side Of The Wind.

NOW: I’d love to see that.

Bogdanovich: (laughing) So would everybody.

NOW: It’s been regarded as one of the great lost Welles projects for decades. What happened there?

Bogdanovich: Legalities, ownership, ego, confusion...

NOW: Is there any chance it’ll make it to a screen somewhere?

Bogdanovich: Yeah, I think so. I think The Other Side Of The Wind will be available within a year or two, I hope. Knock wood – somebody was here before and said that I predicted it would be shown at Cannes in 2010, what happened? I said, “Well, I was wrong.” But we got into the vault last year and I actually re-edited some scenes that he had shot but hadn’t actually cut together; there’s some great stuff there. That’s the main job, completing the cutting.

[ToddBaesen]

It's nice to know that Peter Bogdanovich is still trying, but with Matthew Duda leaving Showtime, one of the projects biggest longtime backers is gone.
Given all the headaches the project went through at Showtime, I doubt if Mr. Duda's replacement will have the same kind of commitment to the project .

[mteal]

Someone on Facebook raised a good question: how could Peter Bogdanovich actually get into the (Paris?) vault to do work on the film unless there was some kind of signed contract?

[ToddBaesen]

I don't think he could. I think why Peter wants this to happen most of all, is because he would get a at least a million dollars in the contract that was made with Showtime. Now that Mr. Duda is gone, I doubt if that will ever happen. Let me also say, I think he should get his fee, if someone was willing to offer it to him, but now that Mr. Duda is gone, I doubt anyone will be willing to pay that amount to both Peter and Oja, who is also asking a cool million to finish the film.

And these are Orson's friends...

[mteal]

A million dollars ain't chicken feed, but those two would seem to be the logical ones to complete the film, now that Gary Graver is gone. I think it’s good to see anyone doing some work on the film, and the fact that Bogdanovich actually got into the vault sounds like some kind of progress, anyway. This is the first I’ve heard of anyone working with vault materials.

[Glenn Anders]

When Larry French and I interviewed Peter Bogdanovich, he told us that, at the time, he had been able to see the entire footage taken from the master negative in the Paris vault, he felt that, with the material he was then working with in LA, the finished film was only a year or two away, and only a couple of legal questions stood in the way of the Showtime deal. But of course, French, Baesen, and I talked to Bogdanovich was years ago now.

Todd, do you remember that? Or had you gone up to the Twin Peaks for a break? You have that endearing, enigmatic habit of being THERE and then, not being there.

Glenn

[Jay]

I know that the legal issues surrounding this film are no doubt complicated, but can someone sum up whatever legal issues still remain that are keeping PB from finishing the editing work and getting this film released? I'm not sure if this is possible, but it would be nice to know what exactly is holding up the process of putting it together and releasing it.

[RayKelly]

Jay,
Alfred Wilmore posted this timeline link earlier in the thread. It answers a lot of questions.
http://www.movieline.com/2011/01/28/timeline-the-long-tortured-history-of-orson-welles-lost-film-the-other-side-of-the-wind/

[RayKelly]

More from Peter Bogdanovich in this April 9, 2012 interview in Toro magazine http://www.toromagazine.com/features/talking-to/6fdb4174-ebe9-e6d4-e5a6-a19a65658c24/Peter-Bogdanovich/

Speaking of Welles, is there any update on his incomplete final film The Other Side Of The Wind that you were going to finish?

Everyone always asks that and I wish I had good news. The update is that we got stalled again and now I think we’re going to get unstalled finally. Every week it’s something different.

Have you managed to get a rough cut?

No. We’ve looked at the footage and it’s great. I cut two scenes together that hadn’t been finished. There are a few scenes that Orson already cut together and then for the scenes that I cut, he had picked takes but just hadn’t assembled them. So we just used his takes and I could tell what he had in mind. It’s very different than anything else he made and quite strange. I don’t think any of us will know what it is until it’s done. I don’t know when it will come out, but I think one day it will.

[Roger Ryan]

I was actually at the TIFF Light Box Theater in Toronto the day before the Toro story claims Bogdanovich was there to promote THE LAST PICTURE SHOW; oddly, I saw no mention anywhere (not even in the schedule) that the Bogdanovich film was going to be shown or that the director would be present the next day. Are we sure this story is from this year?!

One thing I can say is that Bogdanovich is an eternal optimist. I guess the slim promise of something happening in the future is better than giving up all hope.

[Roger Ryan]

Peter Bogdanovich was listed on the online schedule with Last Picture Show for March 31, 2012. The Toro article ran April 10., 2012.

Yeah, I was being rhetorical. The event happened. I'm just a little ticked that I saw no promotion at the theater at all the night before...and I spent about an hour and a half there looking through the bookstore and reading the schedule. We had no plans for the following evening so I would have checked out the screening instead of walking around the nearby mall. Perhaps the event was sold out which is why the theater saw no reason to acknowledge it as an upcoming attraction.