The Other Side of the Wind will debut this fall, though where is still uncertain.
The late Orson Welles’ satirical swipe at Hollywood in the 1970s was to have debuted at the Cannes Film Festival in May. But a dispute between distributor Netflix and the French film festival prompted the streaming giant to pull it from the lineup.
“We’re still regrouping after Cannes to decide where we’re going to premiere the film, but it will be this fall, somewhere,” producer Frank Marshall told IndieWire.
There is no shortage of prestigious fall film festivals from which to choose: Venice Film Festival (August 29 – September 8); Telluride (August 31 – September 3), Toronto Film Festival (September 6-16) and New York Film Festival (September 28 – October 15). The Venice festival is the only one of the four located outside North America, while Marshall and Wind executive producer Peter Bogdanovich have both served on Telluride’s Council of Advisors.
In speaking with IndieWire, Marshall praised Netflix, which bankrolled the completion of what was intended to be Welles’ Hollywood comeback in the mid 1970s.
“This has been a long, agonizing journey, obviously,” Marshall said. “Finally, when we were able to get into the lab in Paris with the agreement with Netflix, did we really know what we’re up against. They were very flexible with adjusting things to give us what we needed to really finish the movie and that was really great.”
The Other Side of the Wind will have a theatrical release and be streamed to 125 million Netflix subscribers in 190 countries.
Post-production work was completed in April on the reportedly 117-minute film, which Welles shot between 1970 and 1976.
The Other Side of the Wind takes place at the 70th birthday party of maverick director Jake Hannaford (John Huston), who is struggling to complete his comeback film during the rise of New Hollywood. Attending the party are successful young directors, like Brooks Otterlake (Peter Bogdanovich), hangers-on and critics. Hannaford dies at the conclusion of the party. Welles’ movie recounts Hannaford’s final hours using a mix of 16mm and 35mm color and black-and-white film shot at the party, along with scenes from his unfinished movie.
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