The Man Who Killed Don Quixote is surely one of the greatest films never made. Visionary director Terry Gilliam, whose style of storytelling is absolutely perfect for a film about Don Quixote, has tried and failed to film his version of the landmark novel since 2000 due to a variety of mishaps. At the very least a wonderful documentary, Lost in La Mancha, was released in 2002 about Gilliam’s first attempt.
However, successive attempts have not been fruitful. Various actors have been attached to lead role of Don Quioxte, with Robert Duvall being the last name in the mix for the past few years. Johnny Depp originally filmed scenes as the second lead, which is a time-displaced present day executive named Toby Grisoni whom Quixote mistakes for trusty sidekick Sancho Panza. However, in the ensuring dozen years-plus Depp has backed away from the role. His massive success and ascent to A-lister in the meantime might have had something to do with it, but one could argue that Depp has worn out his welcome as “trusty sidekick” after the debacle of The Lone Ranger. Regardless, in 2010 it was announced that Ewan McGregor was cast in the role.
The script was written by Terry Gilliam and co-writer Toby Grisoni (the obvious source for the second lead’s similiar name), who worked with Gilliam on the scripts for Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, The Brothers Grimm, and Tideland. Gilliam has alternately been hopeful that he’d be able to finish the film someday to dismayed that the project itself was “cursed.” However, after a screening of his next film The Zero Theorem in Poland, ComingSoon.net asked Gilliam about his next film. According to the site Gilliam responded, “I’m going to try to do ‘Don Quixote’ again. I think this is the seventh time. Lucky seven, maybe. We’ll see if it happens. This is kind of my default position, going back to that. I actually just want to make it and get rid of it. Get it out of my life.” However, he also pointed out, “I don’t know if it will be good or bad. The dangerous thing is that a lot of people are waiting for it, so I can disappoint a lot of people maybe.”
Still, don’t get excited just yet — there’s even more. Various news outlets announced earlier this morning that Gilliam would be reuniting with his iconic Monty Python comedy troupe for a stage-based project, which will reportedly be announced this Thursday at a London press conference. If true, it will be the first time that the five surviving members — John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Michael Palin and Terry Jones — will perform together since a 1998 appearance at the Aspen Comedy Festival (the group last appeared together in public at an anniversary event in New York in 2009). There’s nothing else about the project known yet, but it’s an amazing possibility that we might see Gilliam revisiting two different eras of his past in the near future.
Which project are you more excited about?
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