by Connie Benesch (1997)

Although he died 11 1/2 years ago, the legendary filmmaker Orson Welles continues to make news in Hollywood.

The gifted writer-director-actor-producer--who was spurned by Hollywood during the last 20 years of his life and branded as uncommercial and profligate--is experiencing an uncanny case of posthumous demand.

"His career is far from over," says Joe McBride, author of two books on Welles and the newly published "Steven Spielberg: A Biography."

Indeed, scripts that Welles left behind are now hot Hollywood properties. Two of them--an adaptation of "The Big Brass Ring" and a slightly edited version of "The Dreamers"--are now being readied for production as feature films.

Both are low-budget projects (less than $10 million for "The Big Brass Ring" and between $5 million and $12 million for "The Dreamers") and are scheduled to go into production in July.

An American political drama that's considered among the best of Welles' 30 or more unfilmed screenplays, "The Big Brass Ring" will be directed by George Hickenlooper ("Hearts of Darkness") from a script he reworked with Matt Greenberg ("The Prophecy II"). Attached are Academy Award winner Sissy Spacek ("Coal Miner's Daughter"), Oscar nominee Nigel Hawthorne ("The Madness of King George") and Julie Delpy ("Before Sunrise"), with a male lead yet to be announced.

Meanwhile, "The Dreamers," a romantic adventure based on two stories by "Out of Africa" author Isak Dinesen about the life and loves of opera singer Pellegrina Leoni, is attracting interest from "a slew of A-list actors," according to director Andrzej Krakowski ("The Triumph of the Spirit").

Ironically, Welles had predicted just such a clamoring for his works. "He said, 'Just wait till I die. Everything will happen,' " recalls filmmaker Henry Jaglom, Welles' close friend and business partner.

"He said, 'They'll be coming out of the woodwork. They'll dig up old scripts that I had something to do with or they'll create stories about my life. These things will suddenly become salable.' "

For his part, Jaglom finds it "very depressing to see it all come true like this. These are the exact same properties that he could not get off the ground."

Indeed, as quoted in Barbara Leaming's biography, Welles bemoaned in 1983 that "for two years, I shopped around a very marketable, commercial project and no one would touch it," referring to "Big Brass Ring."

Curiously, it was Hollywood's rejection of "The Dreamers" that led to "The Big Brass Ring." After running into a discouraged Welles in 1979, Jaglom tried to line up financing for "The Dreamers" and other works. The poetic, fanciful Danish gothic fairy tale didn't go over with studio brass, who wanted a new, more conventional script.

"He said, 'I can't, I can't, I can't,' " remembers Jaglom, who tried to provide "badly needed ego building" to Welles, meeting with him almost daily to review his emerging script. "He'd bring a few pages to lunch every day. I would just encourage him."

"The Big Brass Ring"--which Welles penned in 1981 and '82--tells the tale of Blake Pellarin, a glamorous, womanizing, self-destructing Vietnam vet who's on the brink of becoming president (now governor of Louisiana in Hickenlooper's adaptation). The film also spotlights Pellarin's dealings with his mentor Kim Menaker, a former member of Roosevelt's inner circle (Hawthorne) and a closet homosexual who'd fallen in love with the younger man without telling him. It also explores Pellarin's relationship with his ambitious, unhappy wife (Spacek) and an inquiring journalist (Delpy).

Welles--who was to have played the Menaker mentor role--came close to making "The Big Brass Ring." Producer Arnon Milchan agreed to put up $8 million if one of eight bankable male stars was signed to do the $2-million, eight-week job. The A-list of actors considered included Robert Redford, Jack Nicholson, Clint Eastwood, Paul Newman, Warren Beatty and Burt Reynolds, according to insiders.

"One star felt it was politically too left wing," Jaglom recalls. "One star felt uncomfortable with the homosexuality of the subplot. One had political ambitions of his own. One said he's committed to doing 'real movies.' One wanted to produce it and have the final cut.

"To Orson's discredit, the one person who he could've gotten to do it, he rejected. Bobby De Niro was willing to do it, but Orson felt he was too ethnic and urban for the part of the senator."

'Big Brass Ring" finally is about to get made through the efforts of producers Jon Shapiro ("Richie Rich") and Marc Ezralow ("Freeway"), who optioned it from Croatian actress-sculptor-writer Oja Kodar, Welles' muse and companion for the last 20 years of his life. Kodar, who worked on this and other screenplays, inherited about half of Welles' estate (even though he was still married at the time of his death to his third wife, Paola).

Part of the allure of "The Big Brass Ring," producer Ezralow says, is that it's "a character drama in the vein of 'Citizen Kane.' It has the same morals and values. It's about the temptations of man and how far he'll go to attain his goals."

As for why they're shooting an adaptation, Shapiro explains, "We really think that what Welles left behind was an unfinished work. It wasn't our decision to adapt it. It was necessary, because most of it was on the screen of Welles' mind when he died," Shapiro says of the screenplay that Bernardo Bertolucci once called "a starting point from which to explode."

But isn't it daunting to tinker with the master's works? "I suppose people are going to perceive it as being arrogant," acknowledges "Big Brass Ring" director Hickenlooper. "Maybe it'll be my downfall. But I just feel you've got to make work that's meaningful to you."

Not surprisingly, "The Dreamers," intended as a starring vehicle for Kodar, also had some false starts. After writing many drafts, Welles and Kodar shot bits and pieces--about 30 minutes of the film--between 1980 and 1985.

"He never got the money, so he just started on his own money and did what he could," says Jonathan Rosenbaum, editor of "This Is Orson Welles" by Peter Bogdanovich, who had himself announced plans in 1994 to direct Welles' "The Dreamers."

Producer Andy Howard ("Hotel Colonial"), Welles' business manager for the last 2 1/2 years of his life, remembers "how emotionally tied" the filmmaker was to the project.

"He really dreamed that he would get this done," says Howard, who obtained the rights from Kodar six months ago, as Daily Variety's Army Archerd reported recently.

As for whether or not it's intimidating to tackle Welles' work, director Krakowski replies, "If somebody tells you to sit on the right side of God and maybe work on the Ten Commandments, wouldn't you do it? It's one of the last pedigreed scripts that you can find.

"We're trying to stick as close to his script as we can," Krakowski adds, noting that he's even including opening and closing narration recorded by Welles himself.

Another Welles-related project, "RKO 281," which Ridley Scott is hoping to direct, is in development. It is is based on the Academy Award-nominated 1995 documentary "The Battle Over 'Citizen Kane,' " which chronicles the war that William Randolph Hearst and his minions waged to quash Welles' 1941 masterpiece.

Madonna, Meryl Streep, Marlon Brando, George C. Scott, Bette Midler, Dustin Hoffman and Edward Norton are among the stars who reportedly have expressed interest or been approached.

"It's looked at as an art movie," says an insider, adding that that Scott met with potential funding sources recently at Cannes.

Meanwhile, director David Fincher ("Seven") is developing "Mank" with Propaganda Films about the career of Herman J. Mankiewicz, Welles' "Citizen Kane" co-writer.

All of this Hollywood activity flies in the face of the harsh, demeaning reality during the legendary man's lifetime.

"It's some kind of vast cosmic joke," Jaglom says. "If anybody would have understood the absurdity of his becoming posthumously popular, it would have been Orson. I just hope he's up there laughing at it all. I hope he gets the last laugh."