Netflix To Restore Orson Welles’ Unfinished Film ‘The Other Side Of The Wind’

Netflix has announced their plan to restore and release Orson Welles’ last, unfinished film The Other Side of the Wind. Originally directed by Welles, the film was shot from 1970 to 1976, and was halted after encountering legal problems, followed by Welles’ death in 1985.

Since then, there’ve been multiple efforts to revive the production of the film, but all were stymied and eventually ceased. In 2014, there was finally a breakthrough. A producing team that included Filip Jan Rymsza and Peter Bogdanovich secured the rights to 1,083 reels of footage to the film.

Unfortunately, those efforts fell through due to financing problems. The producers then went silent, much to the dismay of fans anticipating the arrival of the completed film.

Netflix Takes On Finishing Welles’ ‘The Other Side of the Wind’

Now, two years later, it appears like Netflix is swooping in to save the day. It now appears like Rymsza and his team had been talking to Netflix. Netflix, which has been moving aggressively to expand its film offerings, has now committed to making The Other Side of the Wind available to its 90 million subscribers worldwide.

“Like so many others who grew up worshipping the craft and vision of Orson Welles, this is a dream come true,” said Ted Sarandos, the chief content officer at Netflix. “The promise of being able to bring to the world this unfinished work of Welles with his true artistic intention intact, is a point of pride for me and for Netflix. Cinephiles and film enthusiasts around the world will experience the magic of Orson Welles once again or for the very first time.”

“This is a labor of love and a gift to the legacy of one of history’s greatest directors,” Sarandos continued.

The producers are still keeping some mystique to the production though; Rymsza teased that there were other elements of the Netflix deal that have yet to be announced.

One thing that Rymsza has taken away from this whole ordeal is to not promise a completion date for Welles’ final masterpiece.

“That’s the beauty of Netflix,” Rymsza said. “We can now take our time.”