The Brothers Grimm

[MacGuffin]

Gilliam on Grimm
An in-depth, one-on-one interview with the director of The Brothers Grimm.

One of the unequivocal truths of modern cinema is you can always identify a Terry Gilliam film. Like Kubrick, Ford, Capra, and Houston before him, he's a director who leaves a very identifiable mark – be it mood or visuals – that are as clear as a bell to many a film fan. Heck, even his so-called "flawed" films, like The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, are fascinating.

His new film is The Brothers Grimm, which stars Heath Ledger and Matt Damon as the titular fairytale scribes, Will & Jake Grimm, whose traveling con of duping locals by solving their "supernatural" problems for quick cash runs them smack dab into a real supernatural dilemma when the French press them into service to tackle a magical curse in an enchanted forest, where beautiful maidens are disappearing with alarming frequency. Opening on August 26th in theaters everywhere, you can find additional pics, the HD trailer, banners, and more over at the official site, GrimmFilm.com.

Today we've got an in-depth interview with the man himself – Director and co-Dress Pattern Maker (with Tony Grisoni), Terry Gilliam (and by the way, his next film – Tideland – premieres at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 9).

IGN FILMFORCE: I've noticed there hasn't been a tremendous amount of advertising push for the film…

TERRY GILLIAM: They're starting a TV campaign this week, so it's going to be a fairly heavy blitz for a few weeks, and hopefully that will get some attention. It's been pretty extraordinary how few trailers have been seen, and even fewer posters.

IGNFF: What kind of influence do you have over getting that situation rectified?

GILLIAM: Well, all I can do is say is, "Come on – people are saying they haven't seen any posters…" All I can do, basically, is complain at this point because it's in the hands of the Weinsteins and their selling machine.

IGNFF: It seems like there's a certain element of "spitting into the wind" at this point…

GILLIAM: There's a bit, but I think it's in their interest to make the film successful, but I don't know if they've really appreciated – or if they're still in denial about it – that the vast majority of their team is no longer there. I think they're used to being able to do incredible things very quickly, at the last moment, because there was a lot of people available to jump. But most of the place is cleared out, so it's going to be a very interesting time. I mean, as far as selling movies, these guys are the best. They've got a lot on their plate in a short time to achieve this.

IGNFF: You praise them in the selling phase of the process, but how were the Weinsteins during the actual production process?

GILLIAM: This is what I'm trying to avoid talking about too much (laughing)…

IGNFF: Does that mean we're no going to speak about Nicola (Pecorini, Gilliam's DP who was fired by Dimension halfway through production) at all?

GILLIAM: I think we ought to talk about it. He got the sack. He was the final straw as far as I was concerned, because he was doing a great job – it was beautiful work.

IGNFF: And you used him on Tideland…

GILLIAM: Yeah. It was very unfair. His take on it has always been that they were trying to cut my support team away so I would be more… I'm not sure malleable is the right word, but that's his opinion.

IGNFF: How would you describe your relationship with Dimension?

GILLIAM: There were several key disagreements at the beginning – casting, makeup, and ultimately Nicola. After that, things went smoothly, because I made sure they did.

IGNFF: Would you say it was one of the more tumultuous pre-production periods you've had?

GILLIAM: Yeah… But the good thing about the Weinsteins is that they're very hands-on guys – they're used to doing what they want to do when they want to do it. They're not like most of the producers in Hollywood, which are effectively bureaucrats at work – these guys really do get in there. I warned Bob (Weinstein) at the beginning of this thing – I said, "You're very independent, you're very successful, you do what you want to do, and so do I. It might not be the best of marriages." But at the end of it all, we've all ended up saying we like the film and everybody survived – there are no bodies lying around the place.

IGNFF: At least none you've found yet…

GILLIAM: (laughing)

IGNFF: As far as producers go, you've worked with Arnon Milchan in the past…

GILLIAM: I've been very spoiled. When I hear stories about other directors, I've always said, "Jesus! How do you put up with that stuff?" It seems to me that my experience on Grimm is closest to what most directors go through, but I've just been very lucky and privileged to be able to do what I want to do… Within, as always, the restrictions of the budget, which is always something that I'm pushing against. But that's it. I've always had that kind of freedom, and there are not that many directors who've had that. I think I'm just not used to people interfering with what I do – until it's finished, and then one starts arguing.

IGNFF: For you personally, as a filmmaker, how much of a reaction against what happened with Quixote was your approach on Grimm?

GILLIAM: They're very different things, because with Quixote it was clearly God that I was dealing with…

IGNFF: Obviously not a Gilliam fan…

GILLIAM: Obviously not! It's pretty clear that there's some sort of karmic justice being meted out… There was something going on. But I was obviously dealing with forces that were beyond the norm.

IGNFF: I'm fascinated that you can look at Quixote being the ultimate expression of you, as a filmmaker, tilting at windmills…

GILLIAM: Yeah, definitely…

IGNFF: But in Grimm you return to the same kind of material that Jabberwocky and Time Bandits were rooted in…

GILLIAM: It was more back in that world, yeah… The world of fairy tale… I was always influenced by my childhood with Grimm's fairy tales. They kind of informed everything. Jabberwocky is, no question, a fairy tale. The form of the film is a fairy tale. What's interesting is that this is more a fairy tale about the Brothers Grimm, so it has very little to do with their reality, but it does have to do with a world that is very, very believable and then enchanting and magical things begin happening within that world. So it's familiar territory, in that sense…

IGNFF: I could get pathetically psychological – and you'll have to forgive me for doing so – but the basic premise of the film is that here's these two brothers staging these events as con men, but then are forced to confront and reaffirm belief in these things that they were merely staging. That makes for an interesting parallel to you recovering from Quixote and getting back some of that filmmaking magic…

GILLIAM: Yeah… I like that. That's very simple… I'm a simple guy.

IGNFF: I told you it was pathetically psychological…

GILLIAM: Admittedly, after Quixote went down I spent two years on various projects, and none of them seemed to come to fruition. I was really reaching a point where I thought, "Well, it's finished. It's over. I'm washed up. Nothing I can do gets off the ground." Chuck Roven, who produced 12 Monkeys, kept pestering me about Grimm, and I kept saying no. Eventually I succumbed, because at least I was moving back into a world I understood and felt at home in, and I knew I could make something magical out of it. So that's how I got lured into it.

IGNFF: From an outside observer, it appears to be more most commercial project since 12 Monkeys…

GILLIAM: I hope! But unless we get some publicity out there, it's going to be the least commercial project I've ever done!

IGNFF: At which point it will be known as the film that could have been the most commercial project since 12 Monkeys…

GILLIAM: Exactly! (laughing) The deal that Johnny Depp and I made after Quixote was that we were both going to go off and make commercial films so that we were in a stronger position to re-float Quixote, and he certainly went off and made a commercial hit! And it looks like he's made another one…

IGNFF: So he's wondering when you're going to live up to the deal…

GILLIAM: Yeah, it's my turn! I hope we do well, and at the end of this month we'll know.

IGNFF: Is Quixote still in play, in your mind?

GILLIAM: I just sits back there. It's an interesting situation, because for the last 2 ½ years I've been trying to get the script out of this legal nightmare that it's trapped in at the moment, between the German insurance company and the French production company…

IGNFF: It's always the Germans and the French!

GILLIAM: That's right! It's Grimm all over again! That's exactly what's going on… Those are the two teams in Grimm…

IGNFF: It always comes back to them…

GILLIAM: Yeah… I hadn't thought about that! (laughing) In Grimm, we've got French-occupied Germany – we've got the French being the occupying force… the aggressors, for once… Which the Germans are very pleased about. It is that French-German world, so I can't even afford, mentally, to think much about Quixote, but we keep marching forward trying to untangle this Gordian knot. There's been some activity just recently that gives me some hope, but I still can't even look at the script until I know it's back in my hands.

IGNFF: It's interesting – and here I go, being pathetic again – but if Grimm were a success, it parallels the success of Time Bandits getting Brazil made…

GILLIAM: Yeah. I mean, that's kind of what you do… The ones you really want to make, hopefully you can springboard off a surprising success. (laughing)

IGNFF: But you've also been a director who seems bent on avoiding signing on to the kind of blockbusters that would afford you that kind of freedom…

GILLIAM: I know! I'm really dumb, aren't I? (laughing) It's pathetic, as you pointed out earlier…

IGNFF: See, now I feel bad… and I'm sure you'll make me pay for it again later!

GILLIAM: (laughing) Nooo! But yeah, I avoid them because I don't think I can make them. I mean, when you see some of these scripts and you know some of the people you'll be working with, and the constraints, I just run away from them.

IGNFF: Is it that you don't think you can make them, or just fundamentally that you don't want to make them but you say it's because you can't? You're not the most unoriginal filmmaker out there, you know…

GILLIAM: Yeah, I know… To be honest, it's such hard work. It's so painful that I've really got to believe in it to do it. I'm not interested in going out and just making a living making movies. Even just the process – the technology of making a film – doesn't interest me that much. It's got to be something else that moves me and gets me excited. Most of the scripts that I've said no to just haven't done the job. But in the past I've probably been in a stronger position, so ultimately Chuck Roven took advantage of my depressed state and got me to do Grimm. (laughing)

IGNFF: Isn't that a recurring theme in your career, though? You look at Fisher King and 12 Monkeys, and it's just people taking advantage of your weakened defenses…

GILLIAM: Yeah. It's really boringly repetitive, my life! I get going, and I think now I'm going to be able to do everything I want to do, and then things grind to a halt, and I start slipping into the long slide into depression, and then I have to do something to dredge myself out of it – and then off we go again.

IGNFF: Has there ever been a point where you've felt in control of that process, or has it always been people taking advantage of your periodic depressive states?

GILLIAM: No.. Sometimes I feel like I'm running the show… Most of the time I'm there. And usually if I'm dragged into it kicking and screaming, eventually I convince myself it's what I really want to be doing.

IGNFF: Do you think that would have been the case if you'd done something like, let's say, Harry Potter?

GILLIAM: Now that, I knew, was never going to happen, number one. I sat in a room with the people that I'd be working with, and I just knew this was not going to work out.

IGNFF: Well, there's seven of them – there's still time…

GILLIAM: (laughing) I suppose… Seven – that'd be the one to go for. The last one… Put the nail in the franchise! (laughing) In the third one, I think Alfonso Cuarón's version was the first one that really felt like Harry Potter. It had a much better grasp of the whole thing, in its energy. I look at Forrest Gump, which I passed on, and Zemeckis did a fantastic job. He believed in what he was doing – and I never did believe in that script.

IGNFF: Maybe it's because you have more faith in the idea of the man-child that he did…

GILLIAM: Maybe, yeah… I do trust that child within without – the one that's running around… The weird thing is that, on the other film I did, Tideland, I found out that the child within me was a girl! (laughing)

IGNFF: For the second time!

GILLIAM: I know! (laughing) Even more, I got to play with dolls!

IGNFF: What does that say about you, in your advancing age?

GILLIAM: I'm 64 years old, and playing with dolls! (laughing)

IGNFF: You've always been about playing with toys…

GILLIAM: I know, but there's a difference! (laughing) Well, there really isn't a difference – that's what's wonderful about it. There's nothing more fun than to try and get into the mind of a child…

IGNFF: And you return again and again to either a child protagonist or a childlike, innocent world that adults are existing within…

GILLIAM: Yeah…

IGNFF: Even the world of Hunter S. Thompson has that sort of wide-eyed aspect to it…

GILLIAM: Yeah, because I think drugs make you free! (laughing) So you can behave like that, spontaneously, without any sense of responsibility. But on the other hand, there is the battle that's going on, which has to do with the adult side – so every one of those films has got an adult struggling to get out, as well.

IGNFF: It's almost like the brutal occupation of the child world by adults.

GILLIAM: Yeah, it is that. And that's where the friction starts and where the battle is. In the case of Grimm, the child in that one is Jake, the Heath Ledger character. He's very child-like, a dreamer, and he buys all the stories. The adult is Matt Damon, who is the pragmatist, the cynic, so they're both there in that one. It's interesting – in Tideland, we end up with a child who is in many ways older than the adult, because there is a retarded 20 year-old who in many ways is younger than this 9 ½ year-old girl. So that gets interesting…

IGNFF: How much of Tideland was a reaction to what was going on with Grimm? Because it was certainly an interesting scenario, where you walk away halfway through Grimm and go shoot Tideland…

GILLIAM: It was. It was an escape. It was my tunnel out. (laughing)

IGNFF: What was the breaking point that made Tideland what you had to go do at that period, walking away from Grimm?

GILLIAM: Well, I had been trying to do it before Grimm – it was one of the projects the we didn't get off the ground. We couldn't get the money at the time. In the middle of Grimm, Jeremy Thomas finally got the money, and we had to go in September in Canada, before the weather hit us. So there was a real tight deadline. We reached a point on Grimm where there was a pretty definite serious disagreement about what the movie was and what it should be, and rather than just fighting to the death over it, it seemed to me the more intelligent thing for everybody to go back to their respective corners, and I would go off and make Tideland and them come back and see where we were. And that's basically what happened. We came back and I basically finished the way I wanted to finish it – everybody had come to the agreement that my way was the best way, in the circumstances, and consequently I was having to edit both films at the same time.

IGNFF: You'll probably never do that again…

GILLIAM: I don't know… Probably not. There are certain advantages, because obviously I have a tendency to become very obsessive about whatever I'm doing, but if I've got two things, I can alternate between these two worlds, and escape one and go into the other. In many ways it was actually liberating to work like that.

IGNFF: So you're not burning out any one gear…

GILLIAM: Exactly. Because there's a point inn the middle of them film – there's a point where you just don't know anymore. You're too close to it. And then you start hating it. So I could leave and go to the other film, which is virginal and beautiful and young and wonderful…

IGNFF: And despoil that…

GILLIAM: And then when I'm fed up with that one, I go back to the other one!

IGNFF: You're an evil parent! But I want to go back to a comment you just made… You used the caveat "under the circumstances" when you talked about finishing Grimm the way you wanted to finish it – what percentage of Grimm would you say is the film you originally wanted it to be?

GILLIAM: It's a really hard one… To be honest, I don't know. It's been a long, interesting, difficult journey and… I don't know.

IGNFF: Maybe in a more politically delicate way, are there any lessons that you've learned off of your experience with Grimm that you can use to avoid repeating certain situations in the future?

GILLIAM: Not really. It's what has always been my concern, which is "Who are you working for, or with?" (laughing) I've even been very lucky in the past. It's just… It doesn't matter. It has to do with personalities and people, and it's been a very interesting experience. You clock one of these up in your career and you move on. (laughing).

IGNFF: But you've come pretty close to that situation in the past…

GILLIAM: There's a difference in this one, in that the fights were at the beginning of the film as opposed to at the end of the film.

IGNFF: So instead of them initially trusting you and then learning to regret it… (laughing)

GILLIAM: Exactly! (laughing) Exactly! Well put.

IGNFF: They figured they'd cut you off at the pass…

GILLIAM: And so you start thinking, "Well, are we talking about two different films here?" But then you proceed, and then you find out at the end of the day that maybe you were talking about two different films! (laughing)

IGNFF: But at the end of the day, the trailer always says, "From Acclaimed Director…"

GILLIAM: (laughing) Yeah! I actually want that to read, "From Reclaimed Director…" What's interesting now is that everybody loves the film, so somehow – like a good fairy tale – you go through dark and strange times and then there's a happy ending. At least there's a happy ending amongst all of us involved in making the film. Now, the trick is will the public let us down! (laughing)

IGNFF: It now becomes a public reclamation project…

GILLIAM: (laughing)

IGNFF: So how does this affect what's on the drawing board next?

GILLIAM: Well, I don't know what's on the drawing board, to be honest. I mean, Quixote springs eternal, but until we get that one sorted out, I don't know. I've dredged up a couple of my old scripts – Defective Detective and Good Omens, which I've got floating around out there to see if there are any bites. Honestly, if Grimm is successful, there'll be bites.

IGNFF: I spoke with Neil (Gaiman) earlier this year, and he talked about how a lunch with you while he and Dave (McKean) were working on the MirrorMask script in London was the catalyst that made that project click together for them…

GILLIAM: I'm very curious to see how all of that has gone.

IGNFF: They're basically fighting the same fight that you're fighting, in regards to public awareness and a studio that isn't putting the big guns out…

GILLIAM: Have they been screening it, do you know?

IGNFF: I know they've done the festival circuit…

GILLIAM: Right…

IGNFF: But Sony is still playing games about doing a staggered release, but not wanting to put any money into promotion…

GILLIAM: It's terrible. Again, that was a very inexpensive film to make, so there's less pressure on Sony to gamble any more. The only time a lot of the studios will move is when they've spent so much of their money that they have to throw more money at it to get back whatever they can.

IGNFF: Do you see yourself being able to get back into a position that you were originally at with Quixote, where you had managed to secure that external financing?

GILLIAM: I don't know… That I don't know, because the world is a bit different right now. I mean, the German tax funds are not as strong as they used to be – there's only a couple still going. Canal Plus in France has been practically destroyed by Messier and his buying Universal, and all that that went on. So the money outside the States is not great right now.

IGNFF: And I hear Talkback Thames is starting to implode…

GILLIAM: Ughhh, god… It's terrible. I'm beginning to think maybe I have to relocate Quixote to China and get some Chinese money, because there's money out there.

IGNFF: Well, it's either you or an oil company…

GILLIAM: Yeah! (laughing). I've actually bumped into a couple of people, producers and directors from China, and that may be where the future lies.

IGNFF: Second to Quixote, which unrealized project would you say is closest to your heart?

GILLIAM: Probably Defective Detective, because Richard LaGravenese and I wrote that right after we had made Fisher King, and it's good stuff. We looked at it a few months ago and combined some of the drafts that we had at our fingertips. I don't know… we'll see how it goes. Unfortunately, that and Good Omens are quite expensive movies, and that's why I look at MirrorMask – that's why I want to see it, because I want to see if there's ways I can approach these movies differently and do much more digital CG work. I was looking at Sky Captain. I just looked at it the other night – I hadn't seen it – and visually it's fantastic, it's just that we've seen the movie a million times before.

IGNFF: But visually, it made you buy into that world straight-off…

GILLIAM: Yeah. I got into it more and more – at first I was like, "Ehhhh…" It's so much like a 1940's film, and it's so stylized – but then I started enjoying it. But ultimately, you're slightly distanced from it. I was also really intrigued with Sin City, and I thought graphically it was fantastic stuff…

IGNFF: And that was one of the reasons you cited that adapting Watchman would be such a pain in the a**…

GILLIAM: Yeah. The thing about Watchman was that it was never stylized, as far as a comic book – it was always fairly banal, in a sense. And that was what was so fantastic about it. You really do need a real world that's believable. In a case like Defective Detective, there is the real world, and there is the child's fantasy world – so once you're in that, I keep thinking, "Well, maybe I can do half the movie digitally," which would save a lot of money and get the budget down to something that might be more tempting for financiers.

IGNFF: What about the rumors and repeated mentions of a Time Bandits 2?

GILLIAM: That was for Hallmark. We did the script and we had it all there, and then 9/11 occurred. And it was interesting, because Hallmark was joining up with not only Chuck Roven's company, but another company, and the Hallmark board – you know, greeting cards – decided that after 9/11, they didn't want to put money into entertainment… Which was really a smart move, I thought. (laughing) And everything kind of collapsed, and then nothing has really happened. I was actually talking to Charles McKeown – who I wrote the script with – just yesterday, and we haven't heard anything from them, so it seems it's pretty dead.

IGNFF: But if you'd like to go back to them with a pitch for a greeting card…

GILLIAM: Exactly!

IGNFF: And I do have to make sure that I get you to renew your vow to do no more Python work…

GILLIAM: I'm sticking to that one! Actually, to be honest, we've just done something. Each of us has done sort of an hour-long show, our "personal best," for DVD, and I had to do that last week, so I'm waiting to see the result.

IGNFF: You sound thrilled…

GILLIAM: It was great. It took me about half a year to get into it, because I'm the last to do it. I really didn't want to go back and even look at the Python stuff. I prefer to keep the memory of Python than the reality, and I was quite shocked at how cheesy the shows are! (laughing)

IGNFF: Cheesy in which way?

GILLIAM: Just cheesy! They're cheap, and there are no sets and no lighting, and even the animation is just covered with dirt and scratches and you can see the splices!

IGNFF: I did hear the animator was a bit of a bum, so…

GILLIAM: Yeah, I think that must have been it! (laughing) It was sort of an instant classic, because the stuff looked like it was 60 years old when it was made.

IGNFF: Well, you're getting pretty damn close to it being that!

GILLIAM: (laughing) I saw a bit of what Mike did and I saw a bit of Terry Jones's, and I think what will be intriguing about it is how each of us approaches it, because I think they're all going to be very different.

IGNFF: But that's essentially what it's become – it's now, more than ever, 5 disparate voices doing their own thing and cashing checks…

GILLIAM: Well that's it. Luckily, Eric has pulled off the success of Spamalot, so it's been interesting to see how that's been reinvigorating Python, at least as far as the media is concerned.

IGNFF: I was looking back through some of your old quotes, and in '98 you said that you thought you maybe only had 15 years of good filmmaking left in you…

GILLIAM: Did I? (laughing)

IGNFF: And if you made movies beyond that, you'd feel damn lucky…

GILLIAM: Oh Jesus! I've always been very prescient. (laughing)

IGNFF: Now that we're almost 10 years into that quote, do you still feel the same about your longevity as a filmmaker?

GILLIAM: Well, I don't know. I keep looking – 65 this year, I don't know how many years I've got left. How many films I've got in me, I don't know anymore. That's why I like the idea that I got two out in one year, sort of thinking I can do this every couple of years and get two films out.

IGNFF: When you say "films in you," is it the actual physical production process, or do you feel you'll have ideas beyond that that maybe you won't realize?

GILLIAM: I'm sure there's a desk drawer full of ideas and some of them will never get fleshed out…

IGNFF: Until you're gone and your family has to make some quick cash…

GILLIAM: (laughing) Yeah, exactly! But I don't know. I can't tell. At this stage, finishing a couple of films and starting to promote, there's one side that thinks "I've got to get back into doing something," and there's another side that says, "It's time to take a break." So I really don't know. I have to be possessed by ideas before I'm going to make them into films. What I do know is that, in the instance of going from Grimm to Tideland and doing the Tideland rush, was kind of invigorating, because it was a bit like being a youngish filmmaker again. And that was just fun, because it was very distinctive, what we were doing. One day we had this set, and we had to shoot something the next day, and it's after they'd cleaned up the place – and I just thought cleaning it up wasn't going to be sufficient, so I thought that maybe they didn't just clean it up, but they painted it as well. So the poor art department, overnight, had to paint the set white – including the furniture, and the floor, and the windows… Everything. It was fun doing that… Just having the ability to say, "Let's do that!" and enough good people who would work hard enough to achieve it. So that was a great escape from Grimm, where you couldn't move quickly like that. It was too complicated. You had to have everything planned in advance.

IGNFF: Do you think the key, in future projects, is artificially creating that restrictive scenario?

GILLIAM: Well, they've always been like that. I haven't had to do it artificially. I've luckily never had the money I've wanted to! It just happens that way. That's the difference, because in Grimm we had to build these huge sets, and it was complicated to make things look easy. On Tideland, we didn't have that – it was just four people in a real world.

IGNFF: So would a Gilliam film with all of the money and time in the world ever be finished?

GILLIAM: Uhhhh, no. And it would probably be really bad, too. I'm saved from myself constantly by budgets.

IGNFF: Now that you've got a couple more under your belt, which film do you think fully encapsulates what you're capable of as a filmmaker?

GILLIAM: (laughing) Clearly none, since I'm such a monumental genius! Put them all together, and they still don't even give a glimpse of what a genius I am! (laughing)

IGNFF: And of course, it's merely a reflection at a distance…

GILLIAM: These are merely Plato's shadows on the cave wall!

IGNFF: If only they could get within your mind, maybe for a moment they would experience the majesty!

GILLIAM: What's interesting, though, is that my mind is really emptying out. I mean, it's leaking all the time… Thoughts, memories… They're all just leaking out.

IGNFF: Well, I hope someone grabs a saucer…

GILLIAM: Yeah! Did you ever read One Hundred Years of Solitude?

IGNFF: Yes…

GILLIAM: I'm thinking I should put names on things just so I can remember what they are!

IGNFF: You know, in the middle ages you could have had a Mind Boy that would have followed you around and collected the leakage…

GILLIAM: Exactly! (laughing). I mean, Samuel Johnson had Boswell – I NEED A BOSWELL!

IGNFF: I think you can put an ad on Craigslist to fill that…

GILLIAM: (laughing) It's a strange one! Life gets stranger as you get older. It doesn't get any less interesting. It gets a bit repetitive, but luckily there are surprises along the way.

IGNFF: What was the last surprise that you had?

GILLIAM: Being shocked that I was looking at the fabrics that the women were wearing as they displayed their starving children on the news the other night, from Niger. Have you seen any of the footage of Niger and the famine there?

IGNFF: Yes, I have…

GILLIAM: First of all, poverty – I thought – was supposed to be dusty and dirty and torn clothing…

IGNFF: That's the Geldof brand of poverty…

GILLIAM: Exactly! These women are beautiful, they're clean, their clothes are absolutely fabulous, darling!

IGNFF: This is coming from the guy who recently inhabited the mind of a doll-playing girl…

GILLIAM: I know! I actually had to write down in my little notebook that "I'm looking at the fabrics that these women are holding their starving children in, and saying, 'That's a beautiful pattern, there.'" I think that's very sick, or the news is getting sick… I think that's what it is. But it's interesting that, to me, the most interesting image that I've seen in a long time is that these people are beautifully dressed, they're clean, and their kids are dying. And that's not the way it's supposed to look.

IGNFF: Well, when the network brings a designer with them to dress up the poverty…

GILLIAM: That's it. I just blame the women. I think they're spending all their money at the Laundromat, and these kids are starving because of that.

IGNFF: That wouldn't be the first time…

GILLIAM: The world does keep throwing up wonderful things, if only you can get through the news media. Television has become maya – the illusion of the world – and the world is something constantly surprising if you can get out there to see it.

[squints]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1556570,00.html

this makes me very sad. when will the critics/acts of God stop shitting on Terry Gilliam?

[Pozer]

Who cares about all that?  I'm still looking forward to this movie.  It looks like fun and even if it is flawed, I know that Terry has provided moments of interest, so I'm in.
And that link is full of crap.  For one, I've already read a sling of decent reviews mostly giving it three stars which includes Rolling Stone and Premiere which they listed a comment from making it sound like they gave it a bad review.
Fuck the naysayers, everybody support Terry and go see it this weekend!

[Ravi]

41% positive reviews at Rotten Tomatoes.

[The Red Vine]

I'll probably skip this one. I'm not a huge fan of Terry Gilliam and I've heard this is one of his worst anyway.

[Pozer]

Well... I enjoyed it for the most part.  Purely entertaining mostly due to Gilliam and Heath Ledger.  I liked Damon too, but his character was a bit bland at times.  And I also thought the story was better than I imagined it would be- not just the brothers scamming folks.  

However, there was definately something big missing.  It's one of those movies where you can't quite put your finger on why parts of it fall flat.  I think it largely has to do with the humor and the weak scirpt- the scenes that fail stick out like a sore thumb.  Some of the quirky traits flow unevenly even for a Terry Gilliam film.  And when the writing begins to turn really sour, the CGI only puts more pounds on the flaws.  I was thinking of The Princess Bride at times and wishing they would have steered into that route effects wise.

But he has fun with the majority of it, giving us those eye candy Gilliam visuals.  And the Gilliam music always puts a smile on my face.
Overall, 'twas a nice little pre-Tideland treat.

[Gold Trumpet]

Dissapointing movie. Even if Gilliam had little control over the casting, he must have had control over the writing. This was a hopeful answer to the Harry Potter series, but a lackluster movie of story and imagination that feels second rate compared to even the worst of the Potter films. Gilliam had the chance to learn from the Potter series, but doesn't. The story felt hardly fleshed out and over depending on bad situation comedy of two macho leading men going priss. The only thing that would have saved this beast if the Potter series never existed. Just wait for the next Potter film.

[Pozer]

I don't understand the point of comparing it to Harry Potter.  If...the Potter...series...never existed....this would be...a good.....movie?

[modage]

i wasn't disappointed cause i knew it wouldn't be very good and it was exactly as 'meh' as i expected without being any better or worse.  which is unfortunate, but i only went to support gilliam though i had a hard time convincing myself to go spend $22 on something i was pretty sure would not rule, i found 2 emergency (free) passes from 2 years ago that fit just such an occasion.  the 30 second trailers on tv are horrendous and i'm not sure i ever saw a full trailer for this, or it wasn't very memorable.  yeah so it was just kind of flat, nothing REALLY terrible about it, but nothing REALLY great about it either.  it felt like a compromise, so it is what it is.  i didn't see a harry potter comparison at all though.  it felt to me more like Sleepy Hollow meets The Frighteners, but you know... not good.

[matt35mm]

The Harry Potter reference was made, I think, because Gilliam was one of the names tossed around to direct the first Potter film.  Rowling wanted him, I believe.  There were meetings.  It's all in the latest Entertainment Weekly interview with Gilliam.

He ended up thinking that Chris Columbus did a very pedestrian job, but he liked the third one.  This relates to Brothers Grimm because this was supposed to sorta... be the new wild fantasy with a vision to blow away the Potter films, a chance for him to show that he had what it took to make the Potter films from the beginning.

But I guess it didn't happen like that.

[modage]

yeah i read that article.  i just don't get why GT is comparing the two when they are hardly similar.

[Pozer]

This relates to Brothers Grimm because this was supposed to sorta... be the new wild fantasy with a vision to blow away the Potter films, a chance for him to show that he had what it took to make the Potter films from the beginning.

Where has he said this?  I don't believe (even sorta) that this is why he made this.  We all have read, I'm sure, that he gave in to making this movie, but where has it been stated that this would "be the new wild fantasy with a vision to blow away the Potter films."  

I don't believe that he made this film to show that he had the chops to start the Harry Potter franchise.

p.s. Brothers Grimm was better than the first two Harry Potters combined.  Yeah I said it.

[matt35mm]

This relates to Brothers Grimm because this was supposed to sorta... be the new wild fantasy with a vision to blow away the Potter films, a chance for him to show that he had what it took to make the Potter films from the beginning.

Where has he said this?  I don't believe (even sorta) that this is why he made this.  We all have read, I'm sure, that he gave in to making this movie, but where has it been stated that this would "be the new wild fantasy with a vision to blow away the Potter films."  

I don't believe that he made this film to show that he had the chops to start the Harry Potter franchise.

p.s. Brothers Grimm was better than the first two Harry Potters combined.  Yeah I said it.

Oh my no.  He never said this.  This was just the people's hope.

[Pozer]

Oh, my bad.  Gonna be another hot one today huh Matty.

[matt35mm]

Oh, my bad.  Gonna be another hot one today huh Matty.

Scorcher.