7. Orson Welles’s Don Quixote
What the film was about:
Another famous director known for starting several films without finishing them, Welles began his Quixote project in 1955 and kept talking about it until his death four decades later. Welles’s idea was to transport the Don Quixote character from the 16th century into present-day Spain, where the knight’s chivalry would be juxtaposed with modern mores. Welles filmed on and off again in Mexico, Spain, and Italy, assembling actors and crew members whenever he could along the way.
Why the film didn’t get made:
Schedule restraints and financial woes ultimately thwarted this film from coming to completion. All that remains is 300,000 feet of footage from scenes shot in various locations. In 1992, director Jess Franco used some of this extant footage to slap together a film titled Don Quixote de Orson Welles, which demonstrates some of Welles’s genius, but is far from exemplary of the pioneering director’s body of work.
Below is some rare footage of Welles’s Don Quixote set to a soundtrack by the Velvet Underground’s Nico.
Comments (10)
Great feature – can’t wait to watch all the clips. There were a few I was unaware of, like Hitchcock’s Kaleidoscope. Frenzy is highly underrated!
The book The Front Runner, by Patricia Nell Warren, was optioned to death, and a movie which never was made…homosexuality and or homophobia plus terrorism just made people crazy… Paul Newman had the rights to it and sat on them… so to speak. And I quote,
“In 1975, Paul Newman’s agent, Hugh French, negotiated a one-year option on the Front Runner film rights. The script had to come first. How would the relationship be handled? The love scenes? Two men kissing? These are still big questions for actors today — and they were even bigger in 1975. The contract gave Ms. Warren the right to look at the screenplay, though not to approve it.”
More options, more nothing happened.
And more of that story at:
http://thefrontrunner.com/thefilm.html
I think The Front Runner is a possible # 11 for Great films never made. It probably still can’t be made even after Brokeback Mountain seemed to break the barrier.
awesome. really awesome. thank you!
I thought this was a great list, and a fun exercise! The only thing that saddens me is that all 10 imaginary films were films by men, about men. Do all the great films by women make it to the big screen? Or are female directors just not destined make great films? Something to think about.
maybe woman directors actually finish their projects while men of couse never quite finish any of their chores.
Don’t forget the screen adaptation of Patricia Nell Warren’s 1976 novel, The Front Runner, about a gay runner and his coach. At various times, such names as Paul Newman, Robert Redford, and Tom Cruise have been bandied about as associated with the project, but nothing ever came to fruition. You’d think after Brokeback Mountain, there might be more interest, but as to why it never got made, the answer is simple: Gay! Gay! Gay! Gay! Gay!
Really great feature…
Fletch by Kevin Smith would have been awesome. He was staying true to the original book and not making a vehicle for the star to ham it up for the camera.
How is Jodorowsky’s Dune not on this list? Really? Featuring Salvador Dali, Orson Welles, Pink Floyd?
Or even Jodorowsky & David Lynch’s King Shot, featuring Marilyn Manson and Nick Nolte?
[...] what would have happened if the unfinished dream projects of several legendary directors — namely Alfred Hitchcock’s Kaleidoscope, Stanley Kubrick’s Napoleon, David Lean’s Nostromo, and Orson Welles’s Don [...]
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