"The profile also explains why "Ambersons," while much less famous than Welles' first film "Citizen Kane," remains so tantalizing - Welles himself claimed it was a "much better picture" than "Kane," but after a disastrous preview screening, the studio cut 43 minutes from the film, added an abrupt and unconvincing happy ending, and eventually destroyed the excised footage to make space in its vaults."
"If nothing else, it helps explain why the startup Fable and its founder Edward Saatchi are pursuing it: It seems to come from a genuine love of Welles and his work. Saatchi (whose father was a founder of advertising firm Saatchi & Saatchi) recalled a childhood of watching films in a private screening room with his "movie mad" parents. He said he first saw "Ambersons" when he was twelve."
"Saatchi is the only latest Welles devotee to dream of recreating the lost footage. In fact, Fable is working with filmmaker Brian Rose, who already spent years trying to achieve the same thing with animated scenes based on the movie's script, photographs, and Welles' notes. (Rose said that after he screened the results for friends and family, "a lot of them were scratching their heads.")"
A startup plans to recreate lost footage from Orson Welles' The Magnificent Ambersons using generative AI, prompting skepticism about cultural backlash and limited commercial value. Edward Saatchi, raised in a film-centric household, first saw Ambersons at twelve and pursues the project from deep personal admiration. The original film lost 43 minutes after a disastrous preview, received a forced happy ending, and the excised footage was eventually destroyed. Saatchi called the missing material 'the holy grail of lost cinema' and believes some way might exist to undo what happened. Fable is collaborating with filmmaker Brian Rose and is filming live-action scenes with plans to overlay them.
Read at TechCrunch
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]