In Oliver Parker's period drama, Danny Huston plays a young Orson Welles turning up in Rome to star in a film. He's recovering from a failed marriage to Rita Hayworth at the time and agrees to direct a B-movie called Black Magic which his heart is not in.

During the course of the shoot, he gets involved with the leading lady (played by Paz Vega), gets drawn into intrigue following a murder on set and then gets inveigled into a dangerous, tangled web of skullduggery, plotting and politics. Any spare time left, Welles is busy putting together his next project, the staging of Othello.

This is a reasonably engrossing thriller mixing film and politics which will be of most appeal to cinema buffs who enjoyed European filmmaking of the late 40s/early 50s and fans of Welles.

It's a fictional tale built around certain truths and with a reasonable cast. Fade to Black was shot two years ago and you might be wondering why it's taken until now to come to the screen. In truth, Parker was hoping it would have been sooner, but there were one or two complications along the way. It deserves its release though and while you won't think this is the greatest film in the world, it's nicely shot and some of the industry in-jokes contained in the script are fun.