Netflix picks up Orson Welles’ last unfinished film

Citizen Kane director Orson Welles died before he could complete his swan song The Other Side of the Wind.

The film — produced from 1970 to 1976 — hit many obstacles during its creation. Welles incurred his first speed bump when the Iranian Shah who helped fund the film was overthrown. After his death in 1985, his daughter pushed for the rights to all his films, unfinished or otherwise. Battles waged for decades, but fans will finally be able to see The Other Side of the Wind — thanks, in some part, to Netflix.

In 2014, producers promised that they were going to screen the film the next year on Welles’ 100th birthday. Their financing plans fell through, though, and they were forced to opened a crowdfunding campaign with a goal of US$2-million. They pulled in US$400 000.

But the producers had fought for three decades and, according to The New York Times, they had one more card up their sleeve: streaming giant Netflix.

Netflix will be the main driver behind Orson Welles’ final film, The Other Side of the Wind

It took two years for the producers to finally renegotiate their rights agreement, but Netflix has now been granted permission to showcase the film on their service.

The Other Side of the Wind tells the story of a movie director in the 1970s who dies just after his 70th birthday party. The film is meant to look critically at Hollywood in the 70s, in a time when the studio system has collapsed, and auteurs are allowed more freedom than ever. Welles also allegedly wrote the protagonist to make fun of Michelangelo Antonioni — an Italian director he openly criticised.

The film, in all honesty, sounds like a snoozefest for anyone who isn’t an avid film history buff, but if you’re into that sort of thing, you’re going to have to wait a while longer.

The producers finally have what they didn’t before.

“We can now take our time,” a producer told The New York Times.

Featured image: amanda kelso via Flickr (CC 2.0, resized)