Last year when Richard Linklater’s “Me and Orson Welles” landed at the Toronto film fest, as you know, it seemed a bona fide awards prospect for Christian McKay but likely to be picked up by a distributor if nothing else. Until a few weeks ago, the film didn’t have a pick-up, but the Frankenstein strategy is an unusual approach that Parick Goldstein thinks could be the beginnings of a new paradigm:
…for me, the reemergence of “Me and Orson Welles,” accompanied by a tie-in with a major studio DVD release and a revenue-sharing deal with a major theatrical exhibitor, offers a fascinating glimpse into the future of independent cinema. If the film finds an audience later this year, it could provide a template for success for the untold thousands of films that play film festivals around the world but never find any real theatrical distribution. If there is a real lesson behind this film’s new lease on life, it is that in today’s overcrowded marketplace, it takes a village — a village of like-minded, entrepreneurial talents — to nurture a film that appeals to a specialized audience.
John caught up with the film last year when he was covering the fest for us and had high marks — as did most — to offer McKay:
McKay is miraculous in the role of Welles. I have never seen an actor portray this character with such confidence and authenticity. Christian McKay is gone…he IS Welles, capably capturing the laser intellect of the man. And yet it as though we were meeting the young Welles for the first time.
Perhaps the season is in the cards for McKay now, perhaps not, but regardless, it’s exciting to see the industry navigating the tough current financial waters and finding a system that could yield a result and allow films like “Me and Orson Welles” the opportunity to reach their audience. “Lovely, Still” is still waiting…
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One response to “‘Me and Orson Welles’ and its new lease on life”
On top of that NyTimes Sunday Arts section gave McKay some nice notice.