 Director  Nicholas Ray  (qv) is eager to complete a final film before his imminent death from cancer.  Wim Wenders  (qv) is working on his own film _Hammett (1983)_ (qv) in Hollywood, but flies to New York to help Ray realize his final wish. Ray s original intent is to make a fiction film about a dying painter who sails to China to find a cure for his disease. He and Wenders discuss this idea, but it is obviously unrealistic given Ray s state of health.