Sounds like Terry Gilliam hasn’t given up on the dream to get his fantastically plagued film of The Man Who Killed Don Quixote made. Production is back on track with a revamped script, solid funding, and is in the process of procuring a cast. Rather than the original plot of a modern man thrown through time and meeting Quixote, the script is now apparently something more meta about a man who made a Don Quixote movie that ruined everyone’s lives. Gilliam obviously has a lot of experience with this in his attempts to get his long time passion project off the ground and knows better than anyone what can go wrong while filming a movie.
The notoriously troubled production history of The Man Who Killed Don Quixote is thoroughly documented in the acclaimed film Lost in La Mancha. The filming, which included French actor Jean Rochefort as Don Quixote and Johnny Depp as the man out of time Toby Grisoni, was immediately beset by a number of disasters that eventually halted production. First, sound recording was made impossible by the practice flights of military fighter jets from the nearby air base, then a flash flood destroyed equipment and changed the color of the scenery, and finally Rochefort sustained a double herniated disc that prevented him from continuing with the production. A second attempt nearly ten years later was made with Robert Duvall as Quixote and Ewan McGregor as Grisoni, but funding fell through before filming could begin.
As many times as this seemingly cursed production has fallen through, it looks like Gilliam is determined to get it made one way or another. While Gilliam is cautiously optimistic that filming will start shortly after Christmas 2014, he knows better than anyone the trials and tribulations that have continuously befallen his attempts to make his dream film. “I’ve done it so many times — or not done it so many times — I’ll believe it when I see it,” Says Gilliam. “However, I’m behaving as if it’s all going to happen as planned.” Perhaps the third time will be the charm. If nothing worth doing is ever easy, this should be one of the worthiest movies of all time.
Source: The Wrap
