Terry Gilliam's The Man Who Killed Don Quixote (Adam Driver / Jonathan Pryce)
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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.
I have the distinct feeling this is going to be a very scaled-down version of his original concept. I don't like the complete change in story, nor the change from an "authentic" Quixote like Rochefort or Hurt to instead Michael Palin as some guy who thinks he is Quixote. Driver is no Depp, either.
I'd like to be optimistic, but I don't feel great about this. Back with Fisher King, 12 Monkeys, and Fear & Loathing, Gilliam was poised to become one of my favorite directors, but it's been almost 20 years since he made a good movie.
Last edited by cinemaphile; 05-18-2016 at 05:20 PM.
I have the distinct feeling this is going to be a very scaled-down version of his original concept. I don't like the complete change in story, nor the change from an "authentic" Quixote like Rochefort or Hurt to instead Michael Palin as some guy who thinks he is Quixote. Driver is no Depp, either.
I'd like to be optimistic, but I don't feel great about this. Back with Fisher King, 12 Monkeys, and Fear & Loathing, Gilliam was poised to become one of my favorite directors, but it's been almost 20 years since he made a good movie.
Those were all superb, but I liked Doctor Parnassus quite a bit too. Missed out on much of his work post-Fear and Loathing though.
Terry Gilliam Has Begun Shooting ‘The Man Who Killed Don Quixote,’ For Real This Time
Andrew Lapin
Mar 9, 2017 6:48 pm
The film stars Adam Driver and Jonathan Pryce. We're afraid to say more in case we jinx it.
Terry Gilliam has finally begun filming on his very, very long-gestating passion project, “The Man Who Killed Don Quixote.”
A source close to the production confirmed to IndieWire that shooting began this week. There’s also the first photos from the set in the form of two Instagram posts, one from actress Rossy de Palma (who was to be part of the movie’s original production in 2000) and one from makeup artist Sylvie Imbert.
De Palma’s post, dated Feb. 27, is a photo of the cover of the film’s screenplay captioned, “FinallyHereWeAre.” Imbert’s post, dated March 6, shows her poring over a production grid for the film and is captioned, “Final touches last night.”
The original 2000 production was infamously delayed and waylaid by a variety of disasters, which were captured in the 2002 documentary “Lost In La Mancha.” In October 2016, Gilliam was supposed to go into production with leads Adam Driver and Michael Palin, but the shoot was delayed again, days before filming. At the time, Gilliam explained to BBC Radio 2’s Jonathan Ross that “a Portuguese chap” failed to get the money together in time.
“That Portugese chap” may refer to Paulo Branco, a producer who stepped in to finance the 2016 production. However, a representative for Blanco told IndieWire that “Paulo Branco won’t produce Terry Gilliam’s ‘The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, ‘ due to disagreement with Terry Gilliam.”
Terry Gilliam signed a deal with Amazon Studios back at Cannes 2015, the same time that Jim Jarmusch made the deal that led to last year’s “Paterson.” However, it’s unclear if “Don Quixote” is part of that arrangement. Amazon has never announced its association with the project, although in a 2015 interview with The Playlist Gilliam clearly believed they were on board:
“Amazon and the like are interesting because they are all still in their formative stages,” he said. “They’re not a bureaucracy that has been around for years like the studio system, and so they’re full of people that are open to new and fresh ideas. So it’s a good time to be working with people like that.”
According to IMDB, Driver remains cast as the lead, an arrogant advertising exec who comes home to his Spanish village and somehow becomes entangled with the legendarily insane would-be knight. Jonathan Pryce is set to play Quixote, with Olga Kurylenko and Stellan Skarsgĺrd in supporting roles.
John Hurt, who died in January, was briefly attached last year to play Quixote.
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Terry Gilliam's The Man Who Killed Don Quixote (Adam Driver / Jonathan Pryce)
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