"The Assassin" - Welles's unmade Sirhan Film (article)

[Wellesnet]

From Bright Lights magazine. A remarkable piece of research by Matthew Asprey Gear:
http://brightlightsfilm.com/orson-welle ... OefjLk5Cic

[tonyw]

Fascinating research and another nail in the coffin of the "lazy genius" concept. Let us hope more material will emerge from these recently explored archives.

[Wellesnet]

Here's an old Wellesnet thread from 2004 that also touches on the subject of Welles's unmade film of the RFK assassination:
http://wellesnet.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=786

[Wellesnet]

Part 2:
http://brightlightsfilm.com/orson-welle ... O-gW_nF_iU

[mido505]

Great article written by an informed and sympathetic author. As always, one wishes Welles was around to give his side of the story. A few observations/comments:

Welles later said he became seriously ill in this period and was hospitalised.

What was this about? First I've heard of it. Given that the problematic Spanish producer of TOSOTW, Andrés Vicente Gómez, once stated that, during this time period, Welles's health was so bad that he didn't have the energy to edit, I'd like to know more about this.

If anything I probably enjoy the comforting thought that I was maybe one of the few directors...to turn him down on a project. Because subsequently all the years since I’ve heard these horror stories of how he could be on the set. I thought, “My God, somebody’s up there looking after me.” I’m so delighted I never got involved in that project, because it would have cost me my health, I’m sure, with the indignities that he could suffer on people.

Wow, who knew Joseph Sargent was such a tool? His career after turning down SIRHAN SIRHAN is a wasteland of cinematic wreckage; absolutely, Joseph Sargent, thank God you kept your health in order to give us JAWS THE REVENGE and IVORY HUNTERS. After all, the impetuous and imperious Welles nearly killed Bert I. Gordon and Mike Nichols! Haven't you heard the stories?

Selsman believes Welles kept in contact on the project as a way of
"retaining me as his connection to the money, whether it was [the “lady producer’s”] or anyone else’s … Orson knew that none of the studios, aka “Old Guard,” would touch him because of his past, and that being in my thirties I was conversant with the alternate funding that was coming in to make movies in the ’70s."

Another bottom feeder with an attitude. So-called producer Michael Selsman evidently was not conversant enough with alternate funding to be able to finance SIRHAN SIRHAN, outside of the original $300,000 seed from the "lady producer". This is a guy who, when he wrote his memoir in 2009, had no idea that Welles had directed any films after CITIZEN KANE. Selman wants to blame Welles for the collapse of SIRHAN, but the obvious reason for the debacle is that there was no money. Did Welles ever get paid, outside of some expenses? He agreed to forgo his advance, and initially offered Oja Kodar's services for points instead of upfront payment. Much is made of Welles's reluctance to sign a contract but, given the parlous nature of the project, and Welles's obvious emphasis on control rather than money, this reluctance is neither surprising nor unwarranted. When Welles got what he wanted, he signed.

What seemed like a good idea at that particular moment, to continue on with the Freed story, minus Freed, most likely was short-lived. His next thought was probably about what restaurant he could con Henry Jaglom or Peter Bogdanovich into paying for in exchange for another spinning of yarns at dinner.

Why the need for the insults? It's obvious that Welles was committed to the project, to the point of being willing to move forward without the Freed component. It is also obvious that Welles took a hike because he realized he was being taken for a ride. There was no money, he was not being compensated for his work, and he was forgoing possible income by sitting around waiting for production to begin. Typically, the producers used Welles as bait for the money men, and when that didn't pan out, blamed him for their ineptitude. What a bloody shame.

[mido505]

Let's take a closer look at garrulous impressario Michael Selsman, the man who gave us EXECUTIVE ACTION, the film that blew the lid off the Kennedy assassination conspiracy. Here is the bio posted at his web page: http://mselsman.com/about-michael/

Selsman claims that he "has been an executive or producer at 20th Century-Fox, Paramount, MGM, Universal, and Samuel Goldwyn Productions, at Goldwyn Studios, as well as an independent producer and a theatrical agent with Artists Agency Corporation, now ICM"; but, outside of a couple of appearances in Marilyn Monroe documentaries, IMDB lists no credits for Selsman, nor is he credited as a producer on EXECUTIVE ACTION. Although Selsman portrays himself as the second coming of Darryl Zanuck, he was, for a good portion of his career, and at the time he worked with Welles, a press agent, probably similar to the character played by Tony Curtis in the scabrous SWEETS SMELL OF SUCCESS: a low-level hustler who doesn't even rise to the level of Sammy Glick.

Today Selsman says: “Naturally I was flattered that the great man wanted to work with me.

"Wanted" to work with him? "Willing" to work with him is more like it, given that Selsman, a self-glorified studio flack, sought out Welles, and not the reverse, as Selsman implies with this statement. One must ask, why seek out Welles, with his well-known reputation for chaotic intransigence? The answer is obvious, and an old story:

“Orson’s attachment to the film had become one of the chief fund-raising attractions and he knew it.”

Much is made of the calamitous effect of Welles's belated demand for a cut of the gross. In fact, this is the normal way to compensate a "name" when the budget is low. Steve McQueen, for example, waved his fee and took a percentage in order to get THE GETAWAY (1972) financed with Sam Peckinpah at the helm. Given that neither Welles nor Oja Kodar seem to have been paid for their considerable work on the script, this demand seems perfectly reasonable and, more importantly, despite Selsman's specious demurral that no distributor would accept such a deal, perfectly workable.

There is one final letter from Welles to Selsman in the files dated March 30, 1976. By this time Welles had moved towards redeveloping his original storyline for the Must and Helen characters into a new script independent of Freed’s components.
I asked Selsman about this development, and he told me: “Orson was always desirous of replacing everybody and their work with his own.”

More self-serving nonsense. Selsman recasts this as an attempt by a desperate and penurious Welles to remain, through him, connected to the New Hollywood money trough, but the more likely explanation, given that Selsman never figured out how to open the sluice gate, is that Welles, having invested considerable time and energy in SIRHAN SIRHAN, and having received no recompense, creative or otherwise, for the effort, still hoped to salvage something from the wreckage utilizing, quite sensibly, the elements that he and Oja Kodar had contributed. Selsman complains that Welles, once again, refused to commit to a deadline, but why would he? Once bitten, twice shy. Show me the money.

He was all alone, except for Oja, and the temporary acolytes, and he needed Oja to take care of him. Therefore, he had to keep her in tow by promising stardom under his tutelage.

Disgusting slander. Welles's relationship with Kodar was, by all accounts, abiding, affectionate, and mutually sustaining. She seems to have worshipped the ground that he walked on, and vice versa. MIchael Selsman was married for four years to actress Carol Lynley, who divorced him for "cruelty". Her career took off after the divorce.

"The latest date on draft pages for Assassin is May 6, 1976", roughly six months after Welles and Kodar resigned from the moribund production of SIRHAN SIRHAN. That is Orson Welles as I imagine him, still working, planning, hoping...