‘Me and Orson Welles’ and Patrick Goldstein and You
Zac Effron and Christian McKay in Me and Orson Welles
Richard (Slacker) Linklater’s Orson Welles bio Me and Orson Welles unspooled at Toronto this evening, but the LA Times anti-blogger turned bloggy-blogger Patrick Goldstein got a sneak preview last night and he loved it.
The film takes place in 1937, a year before the Mercury Theatre Company’s infamous radio production of War of the Worlds, and Goldstein says that it is “full of wonderful historical detail,” and that “it captures Welles at the height of his youthful incandescence, both as a brilliant theater director and as a hilariously imperious and mercurial showman.”
In the clip above, Christian McKay is kind of uncanny as the young Orson Welles, but Sasha Stone (through whom I landed on this story) rightly wonders if that’s the real Orswon Welles or just the famous director when he was ‘on.’
Goldstein also spoke with Linklater by phone about finding McKay, paying for the film and his thoughts on working with Orson Welles. “I know we have people who are big personalities today, but no one like Welles. He’s a once-a-century kind of a guy. Imagine one man conquering theater, radio and film, all by the time he was 25. That’s pretty breathtaking.”
Filed under: Buzz, Film Festivals
Tags: Christian McKay, Me and Orson Welles, Richard Linklater, Toronto International Film Festival, Zac Ephron
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Impossible to make any kind of even minor judgment of a whole performance based on a 60-second clip. I’m quite interested in this, though.
The clip kind of got me jazzed, short as it was.
You know, a lot of people were being exceptionally harsh on this over at AD.
Everyone’s entitled to their own take.
But I was rather intrigued.
Never heard of this Christian boy. But I have yet to see a realistic portrayal of ORSON that’s completely believable that pulls me in…and he had the mannerisms, the voice and the look DOWN COLD.
I am very impressed…and my head isn’t easily turned.
But then again, it’s not like RICHARD LINKLATER doesn’t know how to make terrific films.
Could conceivably be one to watch out for.
I’m with you on this Miranda. I think the harshness was also premature. I was taken by the performances as Orson as well, at least in this small chunk.
It seems to be getting good reviews at toronto as well.