Tuesday, March 03, 2009

The Other Side of the Wind blowing into Cannes?

It's still alive. In a recent Variety article about Frank Marshall's work on The Other Side of the Wind, there's a quote from Peter Bogdanovich about the film buried at the bottom:

"'It's going to happen in the next month or so,'he says. 'We're aiming for Cannes. Everybody wants it. It's film history. It will be something for it to finally be seen after all these years.'"

Bogdanovich has been sounding this horn for years, ever since Oja Kodar secured a deal with Showtime in 2002 for financing to complete it. A handy timeline at Wellesnet details the tortured history of the project, ever since Welles' daughter Beatrice sued over her rights to the project. Beatrice has long suppressed much of Welles' late work, much of which he produced together with his partner Oja. Beatrice's suit was settled in March of '07, but then the work was put on hold in late '08, perhaps due to the fact "that the negative is still unavailable for inspection in the Paris film vault where it is being held by French Officials", as Wellesnet opines.

Did Bogdanovich finally get access to the vault? Who knows? But we can still dream that a version of Welles' final feature could soon hit screens, 45 minutes of which were already edited by him. It could be the film story of the year, or another over-optimistic tease from Bogdanovich. Let's hope for the best.

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