Terry Gilliam's The Man Who Killed Don Quixote (Adam Driver / Jonathan Pryce)

[Akijama]

After nearly two decades of missteps and mishaps, filming on the latest iteration of Terry Gilliam’s ill-fated “The Man Who Killed Don Quixote” is due to start in October, with former Bond girl Olga Kurylenko added to a new cast that includes Adam Driver and Michael Palin.

Gilliam announced Wednesday that preparation on his pet project would begin next month and would be shot in Spain, Portugal and the Canary Islands, to be finished by Christmas. Portuguese producer Paulo Branco signed up earlier this year on the film, which is budgeted at $19 million.

“I want to get this film out of my life so I can get on with the rest of my life,” a jovial and relaxed-looking Gilliam told reporters in Cannes.

The project has suffered a series of misadventures worthy of the man of La Mancha himself. Disasters on set, unexpected illnesses and financial problems have caused production to be canceled or delayed several times since work first started on the movie 18 years ago. Gilliam has cast a succession of actors, including Johnny Depp, Robert Duvall and Ewan McGregor, in the film’s various incarnations.

In the new version, Driver is set to play Toby, a jaded young advertising executive who returns to the Spanish village where, as a student, he made a film based on Cervantes’ masterpiece. The consequences of that film have been catastrophic, and sweep Toby up in a fantastic extravaganza complete with damsels in distress, knights and giants.

Palin, one of Gilliam’s fellow “Monty Python” founders, plays a villager who believes himself to be Don Quixote. Kurylenko plays the wife of Toby’s boss.

Gilliam said he was adjusting the script to better suit his new cast, especially his new young leading actor.

“Thank God for ‘Star Wars.’ Adam Driver is bankable,” Gilliam said. “He’s the first actor involved in this project who’s actually reading the book….To be able to work with someone with that kind of passion, interest, and intelligence is really exciting.”

As for his old pal Palin, Gilliam quipped: “I thought I’d resurrect him. He’s not quite dead.”

The new version, scheduled for release next year, is expected to showcase the Gilliam-esque flights of fancy seen in the director’s previous films, such as “Brazil” and “Twelve Monkeys.”

The problems besetting Gilliam’s pet project were the subject of their own movie, the well-regarded 2002 documentary “Lost in La Mancha.” Flash floods and the illness of actor Jean Rochefort helped scrap the first attempt at making “The Man Who Killed Don Quixote.” A reboot announced last year was also suspended because of illness, after actor John Hurt received a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer.

http://variety.com/2016/film/news/te...ey-1201777804/