Orson Welles started filming The Other Side of the Wind in 1970. But after decades of financial issues, missing footage, legal difficulties, and, um, editing lesbian porn, the fabled film will finally make its world premiere at the Venice International Film Festival on August 31, 30-plus years after the Citizen Kane director died, before a Netflix and select-theaters release on November 2.
Starring John Huston, Peter Bogdanovich, Susan Strasberg, Bob Random, and Oja Kodar and described as a “satire of Hollywood,” The Other Side of the Wind is about a legendary filmmaker who’s trying to make one last masterpiece, called The Other Side of the Wind, before he passes away. Sound familiar? The campaign to save the meta-satire was spearheaded in part by producer Frank Marshall, who called piecing together 1,000 reels of film negatives (which were locked in a Paris vault) “a long, agonizing journey, obviously,” but he’s “so very grateful for the passion and perseverance from Netflix that has enabled us to, at long last, finally get into the cutting room to finish Orson’s last picture.”
Here’s the official plot synopsis.
Surrounded by fans and skeptics, grizzled director J.J. “Jake” Hannaford (a revelatory John Huston) returns from years abroad in Europe to a changed Hollywood, where he attempts to make his comeback: a career summation that can only be the work of cinema’s most adventurous filmmaker, Orson Welles.
Watch the trailer above.
