"Me and Orson Welles"

[Glenn Anders]

NoFake: We are discussing here a novel based on one of the watershed productions of the American Theater, which was put on seventy years ago. Given the "War of the Worlds" Radio sensation later in 1938, the subsequent history of the Mercury Theater Company, and the long careers of Welles and many of his company's members, I'm fairly certain that Lloyd's story was told and retold in books, newspapers, magazines and interviews over the years. Lloyd considered that tiny part of Cinna the Poet his big break. I heard him tell the story a couple of times on TV, myself.

This guy Kaplow is writing a novel, a work of fiction. He's under no obligation to stay strictly with "the facts," nor is he required to list sources, as if his work were a term paper.

Let's just hope that the movie makers dramatize the tale of that production convincingly, with care and respect.

Glenn

[NoFake]

You make some good points, Glenn. Those passages just leapt out at me when I read them, and being something of a scribbler myself, I froze.

We writers (as I hope you will agree, as an esteemed member of the band ) take pride in our authorship, and don't look kindly on those who lift something we worked our butts off to obtain, without at least a nod in our direction. And when it happens to one of the great Welles scholars, we want to raise the alarums.

And we (or at least I think we do) instinctively recoil from the moral vacuity of Jake, although we acknowledge its acceptance by many in the biz (what was that line about it being OK to borrow from others, "but we must never borrow from ourselves"?); we respect the efforts of others, and hope to receive the same regard from them in return.

I share your hopes for the film!

[tony]

Isn't all art stolen?

[Glenn Anders]

Peter: Here is a late edition, which tells us that ME AND ORSON WELLES will have a special showing at the Toronto International Film Festival, in September. A few stills are included including one showing various actors depicting members of the Mercury Theaer, including Christian McKay as Welles. Another shows Welles in costume as Brutus before an audience.

http://flawedhollywood.com/2008/08/21/m ... irst-look/

And here is another site, which contains a more impressive shot of McKay as Welles:

http://twitchfilm.net/site/entry-images/category/C189/

Glenn

[Alan Brody]

Thanks Glenn, nice pics, and McKay definitely looks Wellesian in at least one of them. Funny, Me and Orson Welles gets announced just this past January, and less then nine months later it's already complete and ready for release. Meanwhile, Fade to Black has been in limbo for - what? - about three years now?

[RayKelly]

The LA Times has an informative piece on the showing at the Toronto Film Festival. See http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/the_big ... nklat.html

Here is a portion:
Full of wonderful historical detail, it captures Welles at the height of his youthful incandescence, both as a brilliant theater director and as a hilariously imperious and mercurial showman. A year before his "War of the Worlds" radio play shocked the nation, four years before "Citizen Kane" transformed modern-day cinema, Welles is already an epic presence, riding around New York City in a rented ambulance, siren blaring, so he can make a speedier commute between his radio work and stage rehearsals.

[Note: Sounds a bit like Welles' own script of The Cradle Will Rock, doesn't it]


Played by the young British actor Christian McKay, Welles is both arrogant and completely magnetic, knowing when to flatter, when to cajole and when to humiliate. The story takes the form of a cautionary tale, involving an aspiring young actor (played by Zac Ephron of "High School Musical") who lands a bit part in the Mercury production, giving him an up-close view of all the madcap energy and tribulations of a Welles production. He also gets the opportunity to fall for Welles' production assistant, played by Claire Danes, who turns out be nearly as ambitious as Welles in her own way. Danes informs the young actor that he may have a part, but money will not be changing hands. "You're not getting paid," she says. "You're getting the opportunity of being sprayed by Orson Welles' spit."

[RayKelly]

For those who may have missed it, there is a minute-long clip from the film on youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcTi-WixEP4

[Glenn Anders]

Thank you, Ray and Peter.

Back in 1939, when Merle Oberon complained to Director William Wyler about the above problem, during her intimate scenes with Laurence Olivier [by then, incidentally, well acquainted with Orson Welles], the stage-trained Olivier is said to have dismissed the criticism with:

"What's a little spit between actors!"

If the new film has all the verisimilitude and energy of your YouTube clip, Ray, it may be a very good, very entertaining film, indeed. Such films are often done in by the fact that the events and historical context are within the memory of people still alive. Klinkers really stand out. But that operatic treatment of the Wheaties radio commercial is just great, and McKay certainly appears to inhabit Welles.

Good work.

Glenn

[Alan Brody]

That clip looks promising, but I have a feeling the film is gonna need alot of help from the critics. That LA Times piece is a good start.

[Glenn Anders]

The odds, I suppose, Alan, are always against a film like ME AND ORSON WELLES. It is about a figure fairly well trashed in the public mind, in what must be regarded now as a far off time, and it's about The Theater.

But what ME AND ORSON WELLES does have is something the critics could not give it. The picture has Zac Efron. This young fellow, barely 20, is the new James Dean. If the work is good, Efron will make it seem better to young audiences. If the film needs help, Efron will sell it.

Let's await distribution, and if ME AND ORSON WELLES gets into theaters, the box office receipts.

But trust me on this one.

Glenn

[Harvey Chartrand]

Glenn,
Calling a young actor "the new James Dean" is like the kiss of death, career-wise. Witness Michael Parks, Christopher Jones, Heath Ledger, Michael Paré. The list goes on and on. Might as well finish the job and call Zac Efron "the new Orson Welles."
An aside: why didn't anyone ever call James Dean "the new John Garfield"?

[Glenn Anders]

Well, Harvey, James Dean and John Garfield were two very different kinds of actors.

But I suppose you are right about the long list of successors to James Dean. It's the old line, "There's a new one born every minute."

But Zac Efron is the new one of THIS moment, and ME AND ORSON WELLES does not need him in the perspective of thirty or seventy years from now to make the film a modest hit.

Anything that counters present public perception of Welles (assuming there is one) should be a plus.

Glenn

[ToddBaesen]

The word from Toronto seems to bode quite well for ME AND ORSON WELLES. What looks to be especially interesting is the reproduction the film features of Welles's stage version of JULIUS CAESAR, very closely modeled on Sam Leve's 1937 sets. Christian McKay even seems like he might have a shot at a nomination for best supporting actor. Disney's Miramax Films will likely pick the film up for distribution... but if they don't, somebody else certainly will.

Here's the review from THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER:


ME AND ORSON WELLES

Christian McKay's impersonation of young Orson Welles is sensational in this enjoyable, though slight, historical fiction about a teen who spends a memorable week with the legendary wonder
______

Production companies: CinemaNX and Isle of Man Film in association with Framestore Features present a CinemaNX and Detour Filmproduction

Cast: Claire Danes, Zac Efron, Christian McKay, Ben Chaplin, Eddie Marsan, Kelly Reilly.


By Kirk Honeycutt - Hollywood Reporter


TORONTO -- At the heart of "Me and Orson Welles" is an uncanny impersonation of the young Orson Welles by English actor Christian McKay. He does resemble the "boy genius" a bit but more crucially his voice is perfect. He's nailed every vocal nuance that contributed to Welles' acting performances and larger-than-life personality. McKay has previously done a one-man show as Welles and, in a way, this movie is a continuation of that show.

Not that the always surprising Richard Linklater doesn't surround McKay's Orson with a memorable cast that plays real and imaginary characters who were a part of Orson's Mercury Theatre production of "Julius Caesar" in 1937. All spark to life quite nicely. Yet you get the feeling that if Orson were to vanish, their life lights would dim precipitously.

There is an audience for this film. Fans of two indie mavericks, Linklater and Welles, for one. The film is a must for lovers and students of the theater. Ditto that for admirers of terrific acting. But this all adds up to an art-house audience. Any distributor that bites must hope that McKay gets recognition with year-end awards to help boost what will otherwise be a modest boxoffice.

The film, written by Holly Gent Palmo and Vince Palmo, derives from Robert Kaplow's carefully researched historical novel about the legendary 1937 New York stage production. Shakespeare's play was pared down to 90 minutes and performed on a bare stage, covered with platforms at various heights, with the actors all wearing Fascist uniforms. It was a critical triumph.

Kaplow and now Linklater's story imagines that a high school student, Richard Samuels (Zac Efron), who loves theater and music, wanders by the restored 41st Street theater and is hired by an impetuous Welles for a minor though key role.

Through Richard's eyes we watch the show take shape in its last week, moving from near catastrophe to artistic victory while its director and star (Welles played Brutus) throws off brilliant though often contradictory ideas, sneaks off to trysts with willing actresses and assistants, continues the radio show that pays the bills and never apologizes for his raging ego.

Richard becomes romantically involved with Welles' ambitious assistant Sojna (Claire Danes), rubs shoulders with the likes of Mercury co-founder John Houseman (Eddie Marsan), future movie star Joseph Cotton (James Tuper) and Mercury star George Coulouris (Ben Chaplin) and sees how art involves a certain amount of artifice. Or B.S., as Sonja puts it.

The film gets off to a halting start with too many talky scenes setting things up. The movie hits its stride as the Richard-Sonja romance heats up and Welles buckles down to business. Efron ("Hairspray," "High School Musical") holds his own against Welles/McKay, which is no easy task. He seems a bit mature for a high school student though. He's more a college sophomore.

Danes plays a potentially off-putting role with charm and verve. Other standouts include Kelly Reilly as the show's female star Muriel Brassler and Al Weaver as designer Sam Leve, whose original stage design for "Julius Caesar" was copied by the filmmakers to insure authenticity.

In the end though, Linklater's film is about Orson Welles, not the Me. The film does analyze his artistic process and his perhaps already damaged psyche with a degree of hindsight, giving him a speech of self-assessment the real Orson would have been incapable of in 1937.

That the boy wonder became an old-age parody of himself as much through his own self-destructiveness as the misdeeds of others informs every moment of McKay's great performance. The film ends on a note of supreme happiness and hope though, both for Orson and for Richard. After all, the future still lies ahead.

Director: Richard Linklater.
Screenwriters: Holly Gent Palmo, Vince Palmo.
Based on a novel by: Robert Kaplow.
Producers: Richard Linklater, Anna Carli, Marc Samuelson.
Executive producers: Steve Christian, John Sloss, Steve Norris.
Director of photography: Richard Pope.
Production designer: Lawrence Dorman.
Costume designer: Nic Ede.
Editor: Sandra Adair.
Sales: Cinetic Media, Odyssey Entertainment.
No rating, 107 minutes.

[tony]

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/the_big ... nklat.html

[Alfred Willmore]

cliphttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kteUGbN9CD4