An Orson Welles Annotated Script from "Heart of Darkness."...

Description

An Orson Welles Annotated Script from "Heart of Darkness." RKO Radio Pictures, 1939 (never made). Beige covers, ownership signature of "Welles" penciled in the upper right corner (not in his hand), no authorship noted (but screenplay by Orson Welles), dated "November 7, 1939," marked "Estimating Script," 193 pages, with a couple of colored script change pages throughout, with numerous penciled cross-outs in Welles' hand as well as other minor annotations by him; included with a letter from Beatrice Welles indicating she consigned this lot directly to Heritage Auctions. (Please note the front and back covers are unattached now and dirtied due to age; the interior pages are yellowed and slightly creased.)
11" x 9"

According to Wikipedia, "Welles toyed with various ideas for his first project for RKO Radio Pictures, settling on an adaptation of Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" which he worked on in detail, even planning to film the action with a subjective 'camera point-of-view' shot. When a budget was drawn up, RKO's enthusiasm cooled because it was greater than the agreed limit." Sadly, Welles' version never came to fruition, but his script gives us a small insight into what could have been. Famously (or infamously), Conrad's novel did make it to the big screen in the now-classic 1979 United Artists film, "Apocalypse Now," directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Marlon Brando, Martin Sheen, and Robert Duvall -- but it is fascinating to speculate what Welles' 1939 film would have been like.

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