RKO 281

“What went on the screen was nothing compared to what went on behind the scenes.”

In 1939, Orson Welles (Liev Schreiber) leaves New York, where radio and theater have made him a name, and takes a deal at RKO Pictures to make his first film. Writer Herman Mankiewicz (John Malkovich) and cinematographer Gregg Toland (Liam Cunningham) join the effort, while William Randolph Hearst (James Cromwell) becomes part of the story. Benjamin Ross keeps the film on the production itself, the making of what was then only number 281 at the studio.