Xanadu (film) actual order in the film: The plot of the 1947 film "Down to Earth" was used as the basis for "Xanadu". In the film, Rita Hayworth played Terpsichore, opposite male lead Larry Parks, who played a producer of stage plays. The film was originally conceived as a relatively low-budget roller disco picture. As a number of prominent, A-list performers joined the production, it evolved into a much larger project, while retaining rollerskating as a recurring theme, especially in the final scenes of the club's opening night. Earlier versions of the story established that Sonny was the artist who created the
Project Xanadu Web began to see large growth that Xanadu did not, Nelson's team grew defensive in the supposed rivalry that was emerging, but that they were losing. The 1995 "Wired" Magazine article "The Curse of Xanadu," provoked a harsh rebuttal from Nelson, but contention largely faded as the Web dominated Xanadu. In 1998, Nelson released the source code to Xanadu as Project Udanax, in the hope that the techniques and algorithms used could help to overturn some software patents. In 2007, Project Xanadu released XanaduSpace 1.0. A version described as "a working deliverable", OpenXanadu, was made available on the WorldWide Web