RKO 281

This absorbing HBO docudrama tells the story of the making of what is considered by many to be America’s greatest film, Citizen Kane., Drama telling the behind-the-scenes story of the making of Orson Welles’s ‘Citizen Kane’, written by John Logan. Orson Welles arrives in Hollywood hailed as a young genius with a deal from RKO that gives him unprecedented artistic control over anything he makes. But Welles chooses William Randolph Hearst as his subject and, inevitably, the great man uses his power to try to suppress the movie., When RKO Pictures began work on production number 281, no one could have imagined that they were making perhaps the greatest American film of all time. But the moment Orson Welles (played by Liev Schreiber) announced that he intended to make a film based on the life of tyranical multi-millionaire publisher William Randolph Hearst (James Cromwell), they knew that they had trouble on their hands. Welles, the enfant terrible of American theater and a household name thanks to his infamous radio adaptation of H.G. Wells’s “+The War Of The Worlds,” was signed to direct films for RKO, and he was given an unusually free hand to make whatever sort of film he wanted. But what Welles didn’t count on was the power of Hearst to keep his film from being seen. RKO 281 is based on the true story of the making of Citizen Kane and the war of words between Welles and Hearst. It also stars Melanie Griffith as Hearst’s mistress Marion Davies, John Malkovich as screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz, Brenda Blethyn as Hearst’s movie columnist Louella Parsons, and Roy Scheider as George Schaefer., Dramatised account of the making of Citizen Kane – the classic Orson Welles film widely considered to be the best film ever made., Newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst (James Cromwell) and young director Orson Welles (Liev Schreiber) clash over the latter’s “Citizen Kane,” a thinly veiled and none-too-flattering film biography of Hearst. Herman Mankiewicz: John Malkovich. George Schaefer: Roy Scheider. Marion Davies: Melanie Griffith. Louella Parsons: Brenda Blethyn. Louis B. Mayer: David Suchet. Directed by Benjamin Ross. Ridley Scott is the executive producer.