Thousands of film projects are proposed and seriously considered every year at studios around Hollywood. Often, it only takes a big name to get the project off the ground. Sometimes even that doesn’t work to get a film approved. One of the biggest names attached to a seemingly endless number of unmade projects is Orson Welles.
Welles had an unheard of clause inserted into his contract with RKO- total creative freedom on any project he chose to undertake. At the time, most projects were put together by studio heads. A mogul like Louis B. Mayer would choose the scripts, the talent and lastly, the director. In the Studio System, the director was just another cog in the machine. Orson Welles wanted to be more- and RKO gave it to him. His first film under the contract was Citizen Kane. The film would become a masterpiece, widely believed to be the greatest ever made. It was a dazzling sign of things to come. What else would this visionary talent accomplish?
Sadly, Orson’s name would become synonymous with unmade projects and missed potential. Since Citizen Kane was seen as a thinly veiled and unflattering biography of William Randolph Hearst, the media titan put his entire organization behind the ruination of Orson Welles. Hearst’s catty gossip columnists spread lies about him and Hearst tried to discourage theaters from showing the film. Despite all this, the film went on to gain much acclaim, though many booed the very mention of the film’s name at the Academy Awards.
While Orson’s contract with RKO gave him one more film to make unfettered from studio meddling, RKO had to approve it first. The studio was skittish about giving Orson another blank check. Orson, on the other hand, felt that he had proven himself with Citizen Kane and wanted to finally make the film that he had originally intended to be his first- an adaptation of Heart of Darkness. RKO had already turned the film down as being too dark, too costly and too risky. Orson Welles thought Citizen Kane would be his ticket to getting Heart of Darkness made. It wasn’t. It would sadly be the first of many unrealized Orson Welles projects- casualties of a war with an insecure newspaper magnate.
