I generally share baxter's optimism something is coming eventually. There just seems to be too much smoke for there to be absolutely nothing to it (the Telegraph article actually did a nice job of summing up the rumor mill). Not sure it'll come together quickly enough for Venice but I'm cautiously optimistic.
BUT...and this whole experience has been listening to the optimism angel on one shoulder and the pessimism devil on the other...on the other hand I keep coming back to...why? Why keep denying and saying there's nothing if there eventually will be? At least in the relatively near future, ostensibly? It makes sense really early when the canthaveit/Production Weekly leaks come out, to create more of an air of mystery. But if it's true there's something resembling a working cut somewhere out there, it's surely pretty late in the game to reasonably convince people it doesn't exist? Even when Lynch and crew denied up and down more Twin Peaks was coming that was in the weeks leading up to the Return being announced, not shot and edited. Even for INLAND EMPIRE, a film notoriously shrouded in mystery, he still talked about it and making it before it was released. I believe he had interviews in 2005 talking about loving the shooting process of digital video. He literally said:
""I've never worked on a project in this way before. I don't know exactly how this thing will finally unfold ... This film is very different because I don't have a script. I write the thing scene by scene and much of it is shot and I don't have much of a clue where it will end. It's a risk, but I have this feeling that because all things are unified, this idea over here in that room will somehow relate to that idea over there in the pink room."
That was pre-release, before it dropped at Venice and the NYFF. I think there would be a tipping point where you earn more buzz and goodwill by at least confirming something exists, especially this close to the finish line. Every time I find myself being too assured something is coming for sure I remind myself that it would be an awfully weird look to outright lie this close to it seeing the light of day. The only thing I can think of if is there's some legal/distribution woes behind the scene that are effectively putting strong gag orders/NDAs in place so nobody can talk about it even if they wanted to.