Papa Vinyard here, now here's a little somethin' for ya...
Story via The Hollywood Reporter.
For as long as I've been reading movie news on the internet, Terry Gilliam has been trying to mount his personal take on the Don Quixote legend, entitled THE MAN WHO KILLED DON QUIXOTE. That first attempt, with Johnny Depp and Jean Rochefort, got gloriously derailed by weather, Rochefort's health, and general financing difficulties, as depicted in Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe's excellent doc, LOST IN LA MANCHA. Then, back in '09, production was gearing up yet again, this time with Ewan MacGregor and Robert Duvall headlining, but once again, the funding fell through on Gilliam, and it was back to the drawing board.
Then, last year, Depp all but killed any prospects for the film eventually materializing when he signed on to a Disney-backed incarnation of Cervantes' source material. Even hope for a stitched together, decades-in-development version of QUIXOTE like the one we got out of Welles seemed pretty much out of the question.
But, as Frank Booth would say, "Fuck that shit!" A month ago, Gilliam revealed that he was still working on the project, and provided the above concept art. Then, last week, Terry Gilliam told Empire that details have been worked out, and that he's finally commencing shooting on THE MAN WHO KILLED DON QUIXOTE on September 29th in the Canary Islands.
Gilliam somewhat credits producer Adrian Guerra (BURIED, GRAND PIANO) for getting the production back up-and-running, with a combination of cost-cutting techniques and a young man's passion for cinema. In Gilliam's words:
He's really smart, loves movies. He's young enough to still love movies. But we've still got to cast it and get the money but other than that, that's the deal…It's obsessive…desperate…pathetic…foolish." It's this growth, this tumor that's become part of my system that has to get out if I'm to survive."
Gilliam has an opera on his plate, and then is reuniting with Monty Python for whatever lucky bastards scored tickets to their O2 gigs, before jumping onto this project in September (he also has to find time to provide voice work on Terry Jones' ABSOLUTELY ANYTHING). Given that he's one of the most unique visionaries to ever work in mainstream cinema, and that this has long been his passion project, I sincerely hope that this time, the planets are aligned, and, more importantly, the checks are cashed, and Gilliam can finally make his DON QUIXOTE movie.
If Gilliam starts shooting this September, we can maybe expect THE MAN WHO KILLED DON QUIXOTE as early as mid-to-late 2015.
-Vincent Zahedi
”Papa Vinyard”
vincentzahedi@gmail.com
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