“Keep Ted Turner and his g*ddamn Crayolas away from my movie.”

Hope and Stephen discuss some Orson Welles adjacent news including an upcoming Parisian Welles retrospective, the death of one of Orson’s proteges, and the encroaching spectre of AI on the art and legacy of Orson Welles.

Read the articles we reference here:

• BREAKING NEWS: ‘Rare’ Welles BBC interview on his infamous War of the Worlds broadcast: https://nerdist.com/article/rare-orson-welles-war-of-the-worlds-interview-resurfaces/
• Welles retrospective at Cinémathèque Française: https://www.cinematheque.fr/my-name-is-orson-welles.html
• RIP Henry Jaglom: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/sep/25/henry-jaglom-fiercely-independent-director-and-friend-of-orson-welles-dies-aged-87
• The attempt to reconstruct The Magnificent Ambersons: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/orson-welles-lost-movie-ai-1236361881/
  • The Welles estate response: https://variety.com/2025/film/news/orson-welles-estate-blasts-ai-magnificent-ambersons-ending-1236509523/
  • Tilly Norwood, AI actress: https://variety.com/2025/film/news/ai-actress-tilly-norwood-talent-agents-zurich-summit-1236533454/
    • The SAG-AFTRA response: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/sag-aftra-slams-ai-actress-tilly-norwood-xicoia-union-1236388942/

Follow us on our (admittedly limited) socials to keep up with assignments and other exciting Welles-related news:

• @wellesupod on Bluesky and YouTube
• Email us at wellesupod@gmail.com to let us know how we’re doing!
• Rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify!
• Read Hope’s blog at highimhope.com
• Listen to Hope’s other podcasts - High on Cartoons Presents DuckTakes!, The Matrix Reclamations, and The Lanes Between
• Follow Stephen at @chewywalrus on Bluesky and Letterboxd
• Listen to Stephen’s other podcasts - Disenfranchised Podcast and The Pod and the Pendu

“It was a send-up, Peter – a charade. Sunday-afternoon fun out on the lawn.”

Get ready, class, because we’ve brought in our first guest lecturer - amateur filmmaker and technical director for The Department of Menial Humor, Samuel Dumas - to discuss Welles’s first foray into filmmaking with the 1934 short film The Hearts of Age. We discuss this film’s surrealist influences, the parallels with Welles’s later work (especially his final film The Other Side of the Wind), and finally get into the details of Stephen’s fabled Wellesian bachelor party!

Homework for next week - ‘Voodoo’ MacBeth - https://youtu.be/9wmWBki06yc

Find our guest lecturer, Samuel Dumas, and his work in the following places:

• @iamyourpallbearer on Instagram
• Follow The Department of Menial Humor on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube
• Watch Sam’s short films Epochs of Love and Eyes on You

Follow us on our (admittedly limited) socials to keep up with assignments and other exciting Welles-related news:

• @wellesupod on Bluesky and YouTube
• Email us at wellesupod@gmail.com to let us know how we’re doing!
• Rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify!
• Read Hope’s blog at highimhope.com
• Listen to Hope’s other podcasts - High on Cartoons Presents DuckTakes!, The Matrix Reclamations, and The Lanes Between
• Follow Stephen at @chewywalrus on Bluesky and Letterboxd
• Listen to Stephen’s other podcasts - Disenfranchised Podcast and The Pod and the Pendulum
• Check out Stephen’s novel - Check In, Check Out - on Amazon, now available in paperback or ebook: https://amzn.to/44idk8y

“Shakespeare said everything. Brain to belly; every mood and minute of a man’s season… He wrote it with tears and blood and beer, and his words march like heart beats. He speaks to everyone.”

This week, we’re taking our first deep foray into the work of William Shakespeare as we take a look at Welles’s first actually published work (with Roger Hill) - Everybody’s Shakespeare! We’ll be discussing our histories both with the work of Shakespeare and the plays covered - The Merchant of Venice, Twelfth Night, and Julius Caesar.

Orson Welles as AI? Miss us with that: https://variety.com/2025/digital/news/orson-welles-ai-voice-storyrabbit-audio-storytelling-app-1236406112

Homework for next class - The Hearts of Age: https://youtu.be/pXKIMag5hHE

Follow us on our (admittedly limited) socials to keep up with assignments and other exciting Welles-related news:

• @wellesupod on Bluesky and YouTube
• Email us at wellesupod@gmail.com to let us know how we’re doing!
• Rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify!
• Follow Hope at @hopelichtner on Bluesky, Instagram, and Tumblr
• Read Hope’s blog at highimhope.com
• Listen to Hope’s other podcasts - High on Cartoons Presents DuckTakes!, The Matrix Reclamations, and The Lanes Between
• Follow Stephen at @chewywalrus on Bluesky and Letterboxd
• Listen to Stephen’s other podcasts - Disenfranchised Podcast and The Pod and the Pendulum
• Check out Stephen’s novel - Check In, Check Out - on Amazon, now available in paperback or ebook: https://amzn.to/44idk8y