Terry Gilliam - Lost In La Mancha

[MacGuffin]

Quixote Resurrected
Gilliam, Depp plot return to La Mancha.

Director Terry Gilliam is beloved by genre fans for films like Brazil, 12 Monkeys, and Time Bandits, but his pictures are often - and famously - plagued by production troubles. Never was that more true than with his doomed The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, the film that notoriously never came to be but the troubled and incomplete production of which was portrayed in the popular 2002 documentary Lost in La Mancha. Now, however, Gilliam says that he is on the verge of resurrecting the long thought dead project.

"We're in the final stages of getting the rights to Quixote back," the director told IGN earlier today. "I mean, I've been hearing this for the past six months, and I'm getting a bit impatient. But when we get that back, that would be the thing I would just dive in [on]. First thing I would do is make one phone call: 'Johnny, when are you available?' And that would dictate when I do it."

The Johnny in question is, of course, Johnny Depp, the planned star of the first version of Quixote. Gilliam says that the actor is still onboard the film. "He's on, he's on," the director said, before adding with a laugh, "He's the man… I hope he's still my best friend!"

As for how much of the original version of Quixote can be used for this new production, the helmer believes that there's little chance of actual footage being recycled from that shoot.

"We have to start anew," Gilliam confirmed. "We have to throw it all away. We do have things like costumes stored away. There's some work that's been done, but everything we shot is gone. It's such a dangerous thing, because the documentary was so good and people have got so many images in their own head of what the film will be like. Their imagination may be better than what I produce, so who knows."

[grand theft sparrow]

Does anyone know what movie he screened at the IFC Center last night?

[meatwad]

Terry Gilliam Visits the Daily Show






the rest of the pictures, with the whole story, here http://ccinsider.comedycentral.com/cc_insider/2006/10/terry_gilliam_v.html

[MacGuffin]

Terry Gilliam: "Will Direct for Food"
Source: ComingSoon

"From a very early age, whenever somebody says 'this is what the world is' I say 'wait a minute, what about this!' It's always trying to rediscover or redefine or shake people up in their idea of the world. I was brought up a nice Christian boy, I was gonna be a missionary, went to university on a Presbyterian scholarship, but I was always making jokes about God, Jesus, the community. People were taking offense at this and I was like 'what kind of God do you believe in that can't take a joke?'"- Terry Gilliam

On the corner of 11th Avenue and 51st Street in New York, a line of people stands waiting to see a taping of "The Daily Show with John Stewart" when from around a corner a panhandler appears. The beggar is a man in his 60s with a ponytail and baggy clothes, carrying a cardboard sign reading "STUDIO-LESS FILM MAKER - FAMILY TO SUPPORT - WILL DIRECT FOR FOOD". The man is Terry Gilliam, Monty Python alum and director of such classics as Time Bandits, Brazil, 12 Monkeys, and he is on a mission: to promote his new movie Tideland.

This being the age of the internet, word got out on the web about Gilliam's gonzo stunt the night before and thus a throng of loyal fans were waiting to greet the director and gladly put dollar bills into his plastic cup. "This is more lucrative than making movies!" he declared of the growing wad of cash, followed by his trademark giggle. An out of breath Carmiel Banasky was happy to get a Tideland postcard from the director, who autographed the back listing the film's October 13th release date. "I ran all the way from Central Park just to shake hands with Terry Gilliam," said Banasky, who added "The way I romanticize New York is how it is in 'The Fisher King'."

Another fan named Noah presented Gilliam with a small portrait he drew of the filmmaker and former animator looking like Rambo, a strip of film tied around his head for a bandana, undoubtedly a comment on his maverick reputation. Noah saw the panhandling as a perfectly Gilliam-esque stunt. "It's great, it brings a lot of attention. Everyone's waiting in line so they're kind of a captive audience for him."

When a dozen or so of his followers posed for a picture with their hero, he turned the cardboard sign around to reveal a poster for Tideland, a little girl sitting on and upside-down tree. The striking image perfectly encapsulates the film, and his street-promotion tactics exemplify how difficult it has been making it to American screens. Since premiering at the 2005 Toronto Film Festival, the movie has deeply polarized audiences and critics who find it either revelatory or profoundly unpleasant. Unable to secure a major US distributor, boutique company THINKFilm is now releasing the movie in limited engagements over the next month. Of course, given the disastrous fate that befell his Don Quixote film, documented in the famous post-mortem documentary Lost in La Mancha, it's a minor miracle that Tideland exists at all.

Based on a cult novel by author Mitch Cullen, Tideland tells the story of 9-year-old Jeliza Rose (Jodelle Ferland) living with her two junkie parents, who she routinely prepares heroin injections for. After her mother, a grotesque Jennifer Tilly, dies of a methadone overdose, her musician father Noel (Jeff Bridges) takes Jeliza to the now-abandoned farmhouse where he grew up. When Noel also ODs, Jeliza escapes the bleak reality of her abandonment by exploring the vast surrounding prairies with four detached doll heads who talk to her. Along the way she meets a deranged taxidermist named Dell (Janet McTeer) and her retarded brother Dickens (Brendan Fletcher), who thinks he's a submarine commander.

Earlier in the day, Gilliam sat down in the THINKFilm offices to discuss how the film came to be and how the cardboard sign reading "STUDIO-LESS FILMMAKER", while a joke, is not entirely inaccurate. "There was the book sitting on a pile of things, submissions. I read it and thought 'f**k, this is great, this'll wake up a few people.'" One of the people the book woke up was producer Jeremy Thomas (The Last Emperor), who managed to secure Tideland's modest $12 million dollar budget through several independent companies in Canada, where the film was ultimately shot.

Said Gilliam, "We had a very short prep period, the shortest I've ever had. The joy was I had to make instant decisions. I couldn't double think, which I always do. Things just started falling into place. Dickens, Brendan Fletcher, is the first time I've ever cast somebody without meeting them in the flesh. He sent this tape in that he and his girlfriend had done. 'Jesus this guy's good!' I said 'he's got it', again because of this time thing. I couldn't piss around. I said 'great, move on.' I wish I could force myself to do this more often cause I really like working that way.

"The most terrifying thing was Jodelle because we were in pre-production and I still hadn't found her. I was right at the edge of telling Jeremy Thomas 'I know we've spent a bit of money but we have to pull the plug' 'cause the girls I'd seen up to this point just weren't up to it. Then this tape came in from Vancouver and there was this little creature with these amazing eyes and this incredible energy. I thought 'hello'. Brought her to Toronto and did a little test and said 'you got it'."

Jodelle Ferland's role of Jeliza would be daunting for any actress, since she is in every scene and has to carry the majority of the film by herself, essentially playing within her own headspace and often doing multiple voices. When she's not by herself, Jeliza is forging a playful if unsettling friendship with the twenty-ish Dickens, leading to a scene where the two kiss that has caused many audience members to walk out. "I don't know where they're gonna start leaving, but I know a lot of people will not connect to this film, they refuse to allow themselves to connect to this film, that's the problem. You have to submit!

"Shooting it I knew what we were doing was completely innocent and it had to stay that way. There's even a scene later on where she's in his bedroom. In the book, he's sort of getting on top of her, his hand going up her thigh and I said 'we can't do that'. It's a really fine line we're treading here and if we go over it we're completely f**ked. I know audiences are gonna be squirming because adults come with all their pre-conceptions and fears, but at the end of that scene c'mon folks, nothing happened. But then they'll probably be more terrified. 'If he's done that for openers what's he gonna do next!' (laughter)"

As for what Gilliam's next film will be, things are a bit dubious at the moment. Aside from "the big white elephant in the room", his abandoned film The Man Who Killed Don Quixote which is still set to star Johnny Depp as soon as the rights to the script are out of litigation, he has his sights set on The Defective Detective, a project he's been developing with "Fisher King" scribe Richard LaGravenese for over a decade. The film, at one point to star Nicolas Cage before he left to make Snake Eyes, revolves around a burnt-out NY cop who enters the elaborate fantasy world of a children's book in order to find a missing girl. Featuring many elaborate set-pieces, including a never-ending traffic jam in which people have taken up residence in their cars as well as a battle between good and corporate evil, the film is seen as a risky proposition in need of a major star. However, according to Gilliam a new tactic could get it off the ground yet.

"Shekhar Kapur (director of 'Elizabeth') started a comic book company in India, and Richard Branson of Virgin is putting money into it. Shekhar's trying to get me and John Woo to take any of the scripts that aren't going anywhere and make comic books out of them. Then we'll get Hollywood excited and Hollywood will then want to make a movie out of the comic book. Somebody suggested to me that I do 'Defective Detective' as a comic book or even an animated film, and maybe that's what should happen. It's just sitting there and it's not going anywhere."

Another commercial project that has languished in development hell is Good Omens, based on the popular novel by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. A satiric fantasy in the vein of Douglas Adams, the story of a bookish angel and a wild demon who band together to save the earth from the Anti-Christ does to the Bible what "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy" did to science fiction. Gilliam tried to get the film off the ground in 2001 with Robin Williams and a pre-Pirates Johnny Depp, but studios weren't anxious for an apocalyptic comedy in the wake of 9/11. Now the problem is finding another set of bankable stars who can fit the roles and a studio willing to roll the dice on the director's quirky visions.

"It's costly, that's the problem. What worries me now is the atmosphere out there is so frightened and timid and when you're doing expensive films they seem to be wanting very safe expensive films. This is just a wonderful book, and I think our script is good too. I want to do my own things. 'Good Omens' and 'Defective Detective' are wondrous and I can't seem to get them moving. I'm actually trying to find the producer of my dreams who has great power and likes what I do and will help me! I've never stayed with one producer, I'm kind of all over the place with producers, which is a bad thing because I never built up the kind of Brian Grazer-Ron Howard relationship.

"I wish I could do a few more films before I kick the bucket. We'll see. (laughter)"

In the end, Gilliam's New York panhandling career lasted a bit over an hour, in which time over 100 people came by to greet him. The highly approachable director chatted with all of them, even taking time to talk to one girl's boyfriend on a cell phone for 5 minutes. If the film he's made can generate the kind of interest he aroused today through the sheer force of his personality, then Tideland could one day have a devoted fanbase of its own. As the crowd began to scatter and the sun began to set, a passing soccer player pointed out the figure with the cardboard sign to a friend. "Terry Gilliam, good director… if that's really him."

Tideland opens for an exclusive engagement October 13th at the IFC Center in New York City, then October 20th in Los Angeles and Chicago.

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Gilliam Hopes For Good Omens

Director Terry Gilliam told SCI FI Wire that he doesn't yet have a project lined up to follow his latest film, Tideland, but that he's still hoping to direct a big-screen version of the fantasy novel Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. "I've been working on it for quite a while, but it's a big budget," Gilliam said in an interview. "I was doing this before The Brothers Grimm, before Tideland, but it needs A-list stars to work—to get the money is what I mean—and none of the A-list stars are right for the part. That's what's frustrating."

Good Omens is a satirical book that deals with the appearance of the son of Satan heralding the End Times and the efforts of an angel and a demon to thwart them to preserve their comfortable positions on Earth.

"It's an angel and devil and the Antichrist and the Apocalypse," Gilliam (Brazil) said. "It's a comedy. Neil and Terry wrote it together years ago, and we've adapted it, and it's really good. It's fantastic. Here's my beef with Hollywood. Before The Brothers Grimm, we went out to Hollywood to get [Good Omens] made. We had raised $45 million from the rest of the world, and we needed $15 [million] out of Hollywood. I had two actors, Johnny Depp and Robin Williams. I couldn't get $15 million out of Hollywood with those two people. They said, 'Johnny, nah, he does those European art movies, Chocolat, The Man Who Cried, Robin. His career is finished.' And now there's Pirates of the Caribbean. The world turns just like that. I'm waiting to see the [new] Barry Levinson film [Man of the Year] with Robin. I'm told it's really sharp. I hope it works, because Robin's brilliant; he's just made some bad choices, that's all. ... I can't stand that place [Hollywood] because of that. I need their money, though."

[MacGuffin]

Gilliam and Gorillaz?
Source: JoBlo 

Brendon Connelly of film ick has pointed out on his site an interview article from Uncut magazine in which Damon Albarn, co-creator of virtual band The Gorillaz, unfortunately suggested that fans of the group may not see any more albums from them before fortunately dropping a possibly redeeming tasty little nugget: "[It's] been a fantastic journey which isn't over because we're making a film. We've got Terry Gilliam involved." Gilliam has apparently been speaking as of late of some sort of "quickie" project and this Gorillaz movie could very well be what he's been referring to. Of course, to what capacity Gilliam is actually involved in the project and, come to think of it, what kind of movie this will be remain unclear. At any rate, it all sounds very cool. Head HERE to check out the magazine page in which Albarn discusses the film.

[MacGuffin]

Loving it down the rabbit hole
Whatever you think of them, Terry Gilliam's films are rarely mediocre, writes Garry Maddox.
Source: Sydney Morning Herald

MICHAEL PALIN makes travel documentaries and Eric Idle created the hit musical Spamalot. But Terry Gilliam believes that his former Monty Python colleagues have not been creative enough since they went their separate ways.

"As a member of that group, I just thought there was such an extraordinary amount of talent there, in particular John Cleese," says the visionary filmmaker behind Brazil, The Fisher King, Twelve Monkeys and Fear And Loathing in Las Vegas.

"When you think of Fawlty Towers and how utterly brilliant that was, then what has John done subsequently? Very little. He did A Fish Called Wanda, which was brilliant. Then he just got into a lifestyle where he doesn't really like making films. A great creative voice has not been heard."

Gilliam, talking from London while a cappucino machine froths loudly in the background, is saddened that so many creative talents lack the thick skin necessary for survival in the film business.

"Mediocrity tends to be the voice you hear more than not," he says.

Gilliam's films are many things - imaginative, inventive, visually intense, and sometimes chaotic and bewildering - but they are rarely mediocre. The only American in the famous comedy troupe, he co-directed Monty Python and the Holy Grail and The Meaning of Life before a wild filmmaking ride that has gained him a cult following.

Lately, Gilliam has been surprised by the success of Spamalot, a musical version of The Holy Grail.

"We all thought, 'What a stupid idea', and said, 'OK, Eric, go ahead'. But it's hugely popular. It keeps the Pythons alive in a surrogate way. And it helps to pay some of the electrical bills."

Gilliam's latest film, Tideland, is a modern reworking of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland that centres on a young girl, Jeliza-Rose, who prepares fixes for her junkie parents. It features four severed dolls' heads that talk, a one-eyed woman with a taste for taxidermy, and her simpleton brother who believes the wheat fields are being patrolled by a monster shark.

Tideland has not been treated kindly by US and British reviewers.

"You noticed," Gilliam says with a cackle. "What's been interesting is I go on the web and look at Rotten Tomatoes and see that 70 to 75 per cent of the critics don't like it. Then you read the public comments and it's just the opposite - 70 to 75 per cent of the public who write in like it. So I'm not sure who's out of touch."

Gilliam says all his films have had very mixed reactions.

"Too many reviewers like neat films. I like making films that are more like life and are complex."

The writer Mitch Cullin originally sent Gilliam a copy of his novel Tideland hoping for a quote for the cover. He did not expect a filmmaker he calls "this god" would want to adapt it.

"I loved the characters," says Gilliam. "I loved the situations. I thought: 'What is going on here?' I couldn't make sense of it. It really was like Alice in Wonderland. You head down a rabbit hole and you don't know what you're going to experience. And I loved the character of Jeliza-Rose. So I said: 'Let's make this; this looks like fun. This'll get a few people talking."'

Numerous reviewers have been troubled by the apparent sexualising of the relationship between Jeliza-Rose and the simpleton Dickens. Gilliam rejects these concerns, insisting Tideland looks at childhood in an unsentimental and unromantic way.

"It's totally innocent," he says. "What's interesting about it is all the reviews I read that use the word pedophile. I think, 'What are they talking about?' They're not talking about what's there on the screen. They're talking about how they've been brainwashed by the media."

Gilliam shot Tideland while editing the patchy The Brothers Grimm in 2005. They were his first films since Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas in 1998, though not for want of trying.

"There was that little episode with Don Quixote," he says. "That took up several years of my life."

The disastrous attempt to make The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, which ran into problems including a flash flood and an injury to a key actor, Johnny Depp, was chronicled in the documentary Lost in La Mancha. The legal fallout between the German insurers and the French production company was messy.

"I've spent the last five years trying to get the rights to the script back," Gilliam says. "We're very close to getting them and then we'll make the film again."

Depp would again play an advertising executive who travels back in time and is mistaken by Don Quixote for Sancho Panza.

"We can't make it without him and we can certainly make it a lot more easily now with him," Gilliam says. "It's quite extraordinary because at the time, Johnny meant nothing to the studios. Now they'll kill to have him there."

But first - finance permitting - comes The Imaginarium of, set in a travelling show which has an attraction that allows patrons to go inside a man's mind.

Dr Parnassus Gilliam says his wife is convinced he keeps making the same film. "They're all about imagination and reality and the battle between the two things. And I think that will always continue because I don't know what the answer is. I know you need both reality and you need imagination, and the balance is something I guess I've spent my life trying to work out. I don't think I'm capable of making just a realistic film. My ideas are hyper-realistic."

As his idiosyncratic output suggests, Gilliam is no fan of Hollywood's conservatism.

"The cost of marketing a film is so high now that they'd rather gamble on a $US150 million [$180 million] film that they can market well than four, say, $US40 million films. Because the gamble, if it pays off, goes gangbusters. If it doesn't, you lose your shirt. But you can lose your shirt more slowly and more painfully by doing smaller films.

"The people running the studios are not even film people any more. They just want success. They want security. So they play it safe all the time."

But Gilliam has a solution that would allow him to make everything in his fevered mind, including such long-planned films as The Defective Detective and Good Omens. "If I could keep Johnny Depp on the payroll then I could do all these films."

[MacGuffin]

Gilliam Says He Will Make Don Quixote
Exclusive: And Good Omens Too
Source: Empire
 
While chatting with the quite delightful Terry Gilliam recently, Empire asked about the fate of a couple of projects that have long been on his dance card. First of these was The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, his take on Cervantes' novel about the titular Quixote, a man who reads so many fantasy books that he becomes convinced he is a knight errant and sets of for adventure with his righthand man, Sancho Panza.

The film, starring Jean Rochefort as Quixote and Johnny Depp as a man who accidentally goes back in time and is mistaken for Panza, went before cameras but suffered such a disastrous shoot that it was abandoned and became the subject of the documentary Lost In La Mancha. Gilliam says the project should now get going again.

"[Producer] Jeremy Thomas is very close to getting all the pieces of paper signed from all the people who you gotta get signed," Gilliam told us. "He’s been on it for a year now, and he’s come the closest to getting it untangled from the legal swamp it was in. And, um, I don’t see why, I don’t see anythying that’s gonna stop it now. He’s just gotta get all the paperwork done and then I call Mr Depp and see which pirate film he’s still on".

Depp is (we hope) now done with the Pirates movies and could have a space in his schedule, since The Rum Diary and Shantaram both seem to be shelved due to the writers strike. Don Quixote's script is presumably ready to go, since it was shoot-ready before. One man who won't be back is Jean Rochefort. "Physically, he can't do it," says Gilliam. "It's a real tragedy, but he can't. His arse is broken".

So that's good news, aside from the broken arse. But in other good news, Gilliam says there's also a chance that he'll make Good Omens, Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett's novel about an angel and demon coming together to prevent the apocalypse.

"I’m the only one who can make it, 'cos that's what Neil and Terry have said. I’m the only one", Gilliam insists. "And I thought with Neil, with Stardust and with Beowulf and there’s another one – an animated film, a Henry Selick thing he’s written [Coraline], I was thinking he’s really hot now, so maybe there’s a chance. I mean it’s such a wonderful book. And I think our script is pretty good, too. We did quite a few changes. We weren’t as respectful as we ought to have been. But Neil’s happy with it!"

Both of these have the potential for awesomeness, so fingers crossed they both happen. Or even just one of them. We're not greedy.

[MacGuffin]

Pandora: Don Quixote rides again, says delighted Gilliam
Source: Independent.co.uk

Ever since Johnny Depp and Terry Gilliam were forced to abandon filming on The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, eight years ago, fans have speculated about the project's recovery.

Last week they were given hope when rumours of a revival surfaced.

Now Gilliam tells me the resurrection could be closer than we think.

"As far as we're concerned, it's on," he confirms. "When Johnny's ready, we're ready. We're just talking about dates to film. Basically it all depends on his schedule but otherwise we're set. It will be next year some time, before next summer anyway."

Filming first began way back in 2000 but was blighted by an eerie sequence of accidents. Military fly-overs drowned out the dialogue, flash floods washed away the set, and then one of the film's stars, the French actor Jean Rochefort, was taken ill, having to be airlifted to hospital after suffering a hernia. Insurers decided to pull the plug, making it one of the most costly – not to say notorious – cinematic projects of all time.

In spite of a recent legal decision to award Gilliam rights to the script, he has decided to start the project afresh.

"We're going to completely reshoot it," he says. "The intervening years have taught me that I can actually write a much better film. I'm so excited it's going to get done at last."

[MacGuffin]

Gilliam Back To Work On Don Quixote
Exclusive: new script underway
Source: Empire Online
 
As Empire’s old man used to say, “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.” Evidently it was the kind of cheesy maxim bandied about in the Gilliam household too, because, fresh from wrapping Doctor Parnassus, Terry Gilliam has started work on a new script for The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, a reprise of his ill-fated 2000 production.

Now, as anyone who’s seen Lost In La Mancha will testify, Gilliam’s original attempt to film Cervantes’ novel spiralled into ‘the movie that didn’t want to get made’, with flash floods, injuries to key cast-members and the Spanish Air Force all intervening to end the shoot after just five days.

Much legal wrangling with the insurers ensued, before rights to the script were eventually ceded back to Gilliam and writing partner Tony Grisoni (Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas). “Tony and I have started rewriting Don Quixote just this last week. [We] finally got the script back. I re-read the greatest script ever written and realise we gotta get rewriting! I really wanna knock that one out in the next month or so.”

Gilliam was vaguer on details, saying only that he had “some very different ideas” for the movie, but he has not lost any of his enthusiasm for the lance-wielding Spaniard. “[I’m] starting to think I was lucky, because maybe the film will be better seven years later. It will have matured a bit longer.”

Shooting on The Man Who Killed Don Quixote is likely to begin later this year. Hopefully it won't end shortly afterwards with the on-set appearance of a locust plague and a 100-foot Marshmallow Man.

[MacGuffin]

Gilliam Preps Zero Theorem
Former Python set to direct Billy Bob Thornton.
by Chris Tilly, IGN UK

While we all patiently await the release of his The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Terry Gilliam has announced plans for his next film, which is set to shoot as soon as May.

Zero Theorem will revolve around a reclusive computer genius plagued with existential angst who is hard at work on a project designed to discover the meaning of life, according to Screen Daily.

Billy Bob Thornton is apparently starring, while Richard and Dean Zanuck are producing.

Gilliam is still in post-production on The Imaginarium, which stars Johnny Depp, Jude Law, Colin Farrell and the late Heath Ledger.

[MacGuffin]

Gilliam gives 'Quixote' another try
Director revives passion project
Source: Variety

Terry Gilliam is getting lost in La Mancha all over again.

The director is reviving his passion project "The Man Who Killed Don Quixote" nearly a decade after his first attempt was derailed.

Gilliam's first stab at adapting Miguel de Cervantes' classic 17th century romantic tale was blighted by everything from freakish bad weather, which destroyed the sets, to lead actor Jean Rochefort's chronic back problems.

That experience was memorably captured in Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe's 2002 doc "Lost in La Mancha."

Now Gilliam is teaming up with Brit producer Jeremy Thomas to bring his long-cherished project to the bigscreen. Thomas' Recorded Picture Co. will produce after successfully obtaining the rights following lengthy negotiations.

Hanway Films will handle international sales.

Gilliam and screenwriter Tony Grisoni, who also wrote the first version, have rewritten and updated the script. The new film will revolve around a filmmaker who is charmed into joining Don Quixote's eternal quest for his ladylove, becoming an unwitting Sancho Panza.

"I'm not so much a filmmaker as someone who gets possessed by an idea and it doesn't leave me until I make the film," Gilliam told Variety. "I commit myself to it so fully."

Gilliam is also in talks with Johnny Depp, who had been set to star in the first ill-fated attempt as a modern-day ad exec who travels back in time and is mistaken for Sancho Panza by Don Quixote. Scheduling concerns are seen as the biggest obstacle to Depp's participation this time.

Depp also stars in Gilliam's "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus," which preems in Cannes May 22. Depp, along with Colin Farrell and Jude Law, stepped in to save Gilliam's fantasy pic after lead actor Heath Ledger's death during pic's production.

Gilliam is hoping to start shooting "The Man Who Killed Don Quixote" next spring. The main role of Don Quixote has yet to be cast.

[SiliasRuby]

Make it happen Terry. So we can stop reporting about the film.

[MacGuffin]

Terry Gilliam May Do ‘The Man Who Killed Don Quixote’ Without Johnny Depp, Pass On ‘Zero Theorem’ Completely
Source: MTV

Terry Gilliam still wants to return to his long-suffering dream project “The Man Who Killed Don Quixote,” but he appears to have accepted that the show will have to go on without former leading man Johnny Depp. The man who almost directed “Watchmen” will finally release his delayed film “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” (starring Heath Ledger) in October and plans to then turn his attention back to “Quixote,” even if that means abandoning his other film “The Zero Theorem.”

“I’m about to sit down this evening with Tony Grisoni and see if all the bits we’ve been doing in this last couple of weeks are enough to keep us happy and say that’s it,” Gilliam told his online fanzine Dreams. “Basically, we are pretty much there on the script and then Jeremy Thomas and I have been moving ahead on different deals.”

The “Brazil” director acknowledged that shooting would begin on “Quixote” in 2010, as soon a cast can be assembled. Gilliam also explained that he had “pulled the plug” on his sci-fi flick “The Zero Theorem,” which he didn’t believe would be viable. And though he still hopes Depp will become available for the title role in “Quixote,” Gilliam admitted that he would like have to move long without the “Public Enemies” star.

“Neither Jeremy nor myself feel we can wait until Johnny’s available,” he said. “Nevertheless, he gets first choice, and we’ll see if anything changes on his dance card.”

Depp was originally on board before a funding fiasco with Gilliam’s insurance company derailed the film. Now, with an overflowing slate of new projects, including “Pirates of the Caribbean 4″ and “Dark Shadows,” even his strong ties to Gilliam probably won’t be enough to part the shooting dates on his calendar and bring him back in time. Anything is possible until the cameras start rolling though, and no one knows that better than Gilliam.

[Gold Trumpet]

OK, this would be amazing if it happened....

Robert Duvall as Don Quixote?
Source:Cinematical
by Monika Bartyzel
Dec 3rd 2009 // 9:03AM



At the beginning of the year, we heard what many thought was impossible: Terry Gilliam was able to get the rights back to The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, and he was going to do some rewrites and get the project back on track. Some Quixote nibbles hit here or there, but there wasn't a lot of buzz even with Gilliam back at the reigns.

But at least we now know who will (we hope!) star. While talking to Robert Duvall about Crazy Heart, Collider learned that the actor is set to play Don Quixote de la Mancha. Don't believe it? It's on video, with Duvall saying that it would be "totally amazing to work with Terry Gilliam. But, once again, the money. It's so difficult to get the money. He saw me play a Cuban barber one time with Richard Harris and that's what gave him the idea to cast me as Don Quixote."

It would be Gilliam's luck -- just as the steam picks up, the coffers recoil in the cinematic world, leaving little chance for an epic and plagued project. Someone cough up some dough for Terry already, okay? I'm sure that I'm not the only one who would love to see Duvall dig into the project. Blockbusters and sure bets are good and all, but Hollywood is only as great as the films it dares to make against

[MacGuffin]

Terry Gilliam To Make Opera Debut In London, 'Man Who Killed Don Quixote' To Shoot This Summer?
Source: The Playlist
 
Terry Gilliam is set to cause a real stir in making his opera debut with Berlioz's "The Damnation of Faust" at the English National Opera in London next year, as is Mike Figgis ("Internal Affairs," "Timecode") who's going to be directing the rarely-performed "Lucrezia Borgia" by Donizetti

Berlioz's opera centers on the titular Faust as he sells his soul to Mephistopheles, so there's a direct parallel with Gilliam's 2009 effort "Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus" which saw Tom Waits playing a Satanic figure named Dr. Nick. Gilliam clearly has pacts with the devil on his mind — but then again, making a film for the Weinstein Brothers will do that to you.

Gilliam's films have always had an operatic quality to them, and we'd expect some opulent visuals in the production which opens on May 6th next year, and will run for ten performances. Acclaimed theater designers Hildegard Bechler and Katrina Lindsay will be collaborating with Gilliam.

Interestingly, ENA artistic director John Berry also adds that the pre-production on Gilliam's play is going to be "a long process [as] he is making a film in the summer." This seemingly confirms a number of reports in the Spanish media a few weeks ago which had noted Gilliam's interest in shooting "The Man Who Killed Don Quixote" later this summer.

The director visited the country in March with newly-found producing company Kanzaman Madrid working out deals and scouting locations with lensing to reportedly take place in the streets, squares and monuments of Valencia for four weeks starting in August before moving to the Alcázar of Segovia and its gardens in September. Other locations set to house Gilliam's production include the Ciudad de la Luz film studios in Alicante and Toledo.

Production on 'Don Quixote' has been a long time coming for Gilliam after the previous attempts tragically and famously fell apart, as documented in "Lost In La Mancha." This time around, Gilliam has Robert Duvall attached to play the titular role of Quixote previously held by Jean Rochefort with no actor has been announced for the lead role. Gilliam has previously hinted that he knows who the actor will be, wouldn't reveal his identity, but said he would not be an "A-lister" nor Johnny Depp, who played the lead role in the aforementioned disastrous first attempt at 'Quixote' which never got off the ground.

In the last few years, opera directing seems to have become the hobby of choice for many film directors; the likes of Baz Luhrmann, Abbas Kiarostami, William Friedkin, David Cronenberg, Woody Allen and the late Anthony Minghella have all directed work in recent years, joining the likes of Sergei Eisenstein, Luschino Visconti, Roman Polanski, Franco Zeffirelli, and John Schlesinger in embracing the form.

Figgis' production, which opens earlier, in January, focuses on a member of the infamous Borgia family, who ruled Venice in the 15th and 16th centuries. Figgis has frequently combined theater, music and film together, and we've heard rumors that his production will contain some kind of filmed element to it. He'll be working with another top theater designer, Es Devlin, who also designed a recent tour by Kanye West.

While we've been disappointed in most of the recent work by both filmmakers, we're excited about this; Gilliam's films have always had an operatic quality to them, and we'd expect some opulent visuals to the production, while we imagine that Figgis will come up with something that'll be a polar opposite, but should prove equally interesting. Booking for the season opens later in the year.