Orson Welles's final incomplete film to get another life

Los Angeles: The decades-long efforts to complete Orson Welles's final film "The Other Side of the Wind" have got a boost with Netflix joining the rescue mission. Netflix has bought the rights of the movie that was left unfinished due to Welles' death in 1985, according to the New York Times. "I'm not going to be defeated here. We're going to get this made," Frank Marshall, who was a line producer on the film in the 1970s and has been among those on a quest to finish it, told Times.

"This is a labor of love and a gift to the legacy of one of history's greatest directors," Ted Sarandos, Netflix's chief content officer, said in a statement. Multiple attempts to see the film through the finish line have failed though there was a breakthrough in 2014. A producing team that included Marshall, Filip Jan Rymsza and Peter Bogdanovich, who acted in "The Other Side of the Wind" secured the rights to 1,083 reels of footage stored in a warehouse outside Paris. However, things fell apart due to lack of funds.

The producers tried to raise up to USD 2 million but they could only manage USD 406,605. The producers decided to approach Netflix after renegotiating the agreements with various rights holders. Netflix now plans to make "The Other Side of the Wind" available to its roughly 90 million subscribers worldwide.

With its backing, the footage has been brought to Los Angeles and Marshall and Bogdanovich will oversee editing based on handwritten notes that Welles left behind and their own memory of the production. Welles, considered one of the greatest filmmakers in cinema, left an impressive legacy behind in theatre, radio and movies. His film "Citizen Cane" is constantly ranked as one of the best films of all-time.