Film archivists from France, Spain, and Italy, along with the Munich film museum, are collaborating to complete Orson Welles's unfinished film, Don Quixote. Oja Kodar, Welles's partner and collaborator, has approved the archival project to reconstruct the film.

Esteve Riambau, a former head of the Catalan film archive, is leading the team responsible for reconstructing the film. Approximately 30 hours of footage for Don Quixote are held across archives in the three countries. Riambau stated, "We're not going to invent anything or use special effects to fill in the gaps."

Welles began filming Don Quixote in 1957 as a television project with backing from Frank Sinatra. This initial production plan was canceled. Welles continued to work on the film until his death in 1985. Filming took place between 1956 and 1976 in various locations, including Mexico, Italy, and Spain.

The Cineteca Nazionale in Rome holds 50,000 meters of negative film for Don Quixote that requires digitalization. Spanish archives contain 50,000 meters of both 16mm and 35mm film. French archives hold 80 minutes of 35mm footage. Riambau explained, "Half the material is in the form of a negative in Rome which has to be printed before we can see it." He added that the team has enough material to reconstruct the film, stating, "We don't have a complete script but enough to reconstruct it. It would be surprising to discover that every scene has been shot but I think there's enough."

Welles provided the voices for the characters Don Quixote and Sancho Panza in the existing footage. While some scenes were shot in color in Andalucía, most of the footage is in black and white. Riambau noted that some opening scenes are faithful to Miguel de Cervantes's novel, first published in 1605, while others are "enhanced." Regarding the timeline, Riambau said, "I think we'll need at least until 2028." Welles referred to the Don Quixote project as his 'bambino'.