The Other Side of the Wind producer Filip Jan Rymsza restated his commitment to seeing the Orson Welles film released on Blu-ray and DVD, but stressed there are no definitive plans in the offing.
In an interview with The Film Stage to promote Hopper/Welles, Rymsza and editor Bob Murawski spoke about their support for a physical media release.
Acknowledging a concern of many fans, Murawski noted that “film lovers still want to have something they can put on the shelf and know that two months from now, suddenly it’s not going to just disappear from the internet, and they won’t be able to see it again.”
As for a Blu-ray release, that decision rests solely with Netflix, which funded the bulk of the completion of The Other Side of the Wind, Rymsza said. The streaming giant has recently released titles like Roma and Marriage Story with The Criterion Collection.
“That’s a Netflix decision and my role at this point is just to check in with them every few months just to see where those conversations are at,” Rymsza said.
In terms of possible extras and special features on a future release, Rymsza noted, “there’s some more material, there’s more things that we’ve prepped. Assets that felt like supplements that could go on a physical media release, there’s other stuff that we can still do. There’s nothing planned, but there’s reason for hope.”
He said he would like to have some of the surviving crew take part in a commentary track.
In the past, Rymsza has said he would like the Morgan Neville documentary They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead and the short A Final Cut for Orson included on a home video box set release of The Other Side of the Wind. It is possible Hopper/Welles could also be part of that release, he said,
During the interview, Rymsza revealed that Welles’ longtime companion, Oja Kodar, 79, has transferred her rights to The Other Side of the Wind to her nephew Sasha Welles. He was involved in the talks that led to the film’s completion in 2018.
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