The new book on iconic filmmaker Orson Welles looks at his infamous unreleased final movie

Considered one of the greatest artists of all time, Orson Welles is best known for his legendary work as an actor and director on Broadway - scaring the country with his fake "The War of the Worlds" radio broadcast and then going to Hollywood and creating masterpieces like "Citizen Kane," for which he won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay in 1942.

But his later years brought financial turmoil and were marked by a stubborn obsession with having creative freedom on anything he touched. He ended up living in exile in Europe for more than a decade.

Then in the summer of 1970, Welles returned to Hollywood with dreams of a comeback - but on his own terms.

He prepared to self-finance and direct a film he "wrote" (it's still uncertain if there ever was a complete script) titled "The Other Side of the Wind."

The story would take place during a single day in the life of a legendary, self-destructive filmmaker named Jake Hannaford (played by John Huston) who returns to Hollywood after years of a self-imposed exile. Despite the obvious similarity to his own life, Welles always insisted that the film was not autobiographical.

Like all things in Welles' life, the proposed eight-week shoot on a micro-budget did not go as planned. The film would consume the maverick's life until his death in 1985. And to this day, the unfinished film has been tied up in legal and financial battles that you'd think would only have been possible in a sensational story penned by Welles.

In the new book, "Orson Welles's Last Movie: The Making of 'The Other Side of the Wind,'" author Josh Karp looks back on the turbulent making of the film, to help pay for which Welles took on commercial work, and the bizarre happenings related to the film following his death.

In a related note, just this week (which happens to fall on Welles' 100th birthday) it was announced that a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo had begun to raise the finishing funds needed to get the film closer to being released to audiences (Welles completed shooting, but never finished editing).

Here are excerpts from the book, which is currently on sale.

Orson Welles always loved telling a good story. It didn't matter if it was for the screen or at a dinner party. As Karp writes below, one of those stories, about Welles' fistfight with Ernest Hemingway, led to the inspiration for "The Other Side of the Wind":

In the early years of shooting "The Other Side of the Wind" (1970), Welles was able to rent time on the MGM studio backlot at a cheap rate because he had his crew pretend they were UCLA film students. On the dilapidated sets of old Westerns shot there, Welles and his team filmed scenes that didn't involve Hannaford (Welles hadn't cast Huston yet; when they needed a shot of Hannaford's back or a line said off-camera, Welles would play him). Though the crew quickly learned that Welles' methods were unorthodox and volatile.

Most of the crew were obsessed with pleasing Welles. That was evident by 1974, when the production moved to Carefree, Arizona and Welles was in need of a few props for a scene.

The bizarre stories on set only increased when John Huston came on the film.

At the time of Welles' death of a heart attack in the fall of 1985, "The Other Side of the Wind" was still in post production and Welles was in battles with his financiers over its completion. The drama around the film only increased in the following years. But Welles' longtime mistress and star of "Wind," Oja Kodar, was determined to hand the film over to another iconic filmmaker for completion. She first tried John Huston in 1986, but petty matters led to that not going forward. Kodar then tried to reach out to some of the filmmakers that made up New Hollywood.

NOW WATCH: How a legendary rock band ended up influencing the 'Game of Thrones' books

Please enable Javascript to watch this video