By RAY KELLY
PBS fund drives have their coffee mugs and umbrellas, but the Indiegogo campaign to finish Orson Welles’ The Other Side of the Wind has its share of popular perks for donors too.
Amid the movie posters, books and DVDs, the #OrsonsLastFilm campaign has found a winner with a “special thanks” credit for $750 donors. So far, 19 of the 20 available spots in the end credits have been claimed.
Today, #OrsonsLastFilm upped the ante for serious benefactors with deep pockets by offering Associate Producer, Executive Producer and Co-Producer screen credits for The Other Side of the Wind.
Three spots are available in each category with contributions of $25,000 (Associate Producer), $50,000 (Co-Producer) and $100,000 (Executive Producer). The producer credits will appear in the finished film and IMDB.
Producers told Wellesnet that Indiegogo first approached them in December and offered to help fund completion. Crowdfunding, producers said, will allow them to retain control over the project and partner with a suitable distributor.
Producers Filip Jan Rymsza, Frank Marshall and Jens Koethner Kaul secured the partial ownership rights for The Other Side of the Wind that were held by Les Films de l’Astrophore and the late Mehdi Boushehri. Agreements were reached last year with Beatrice Welles, who heads the Estate of Orson Welles, and Oja Kodar, who inherited the late director’s ownership.
Affonso Gonçalves has been tapped to edit The Other Side of the Wind. Gonçalves is best known as the editor of Beasts of the Southern Wild and Winter’s Bone. Recently, he earned an Emmy Award for his work on HBO’s True Detective.
Principal photography wrapped on The Other Side of the Wind in 1976. The film takes place at the 70th birthday party of director Jake Hannaford (John Huston), who is struggling to complete a youth-oriented comeback during the rise of New Hollywood.The party is attended by young directors, like Brooks Otterlake (Peter Bogdanovich), hangers-on, critics and movies freaks – many of whom are patterned after people in Welles’ life. Hannaford dies at the conclusion of the party. His final hours are recounted in footage shot at the party, interspersed with scenes from his unfinished comeback movie.
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