Pages tagged “terry gilliam”

In the middle of his busy shooting schedule for The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (which, honestly, looks like it will be a lot better than its name might imply), Terry Gilliam spoke to Empire about his upcoming projects, and it looks like he's going back to finish some of the films he's been forced to abandon in the past. The first of these is The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, the failure of which was documented in Lost in La Mancha.

"[Producer] Jeremy Thomas is very close to getting all the pieces of paper signed from all the people who you gotta get signed," Gilliam said. "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 anything 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."

The film is Gilliam's take on Don Quixote, where Depp plays a character who accidentally goes back in time and gets mistaken for Sancho Panza. Depp worked with Gilliam on Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and was part of the Quixote film originally before things fell apart. With him still part of the project, production on this may start up again after Gilliam finishes up on Imaginarium later this year. The main change is that Jean Rochefort, the perfectly cast original Don Quixote, won't be part of the project this time. As Gilliam said, "It's a real tragedy, but he can't. His arse is broken."

Gilliam also discussed another project he's long been circling around, an adaptation of Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman's novel Good Omens. "I’m the only one who can make it, 'cos that's what Neil and Terry have said. I’m the only one," Gilliam said. "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!"

Considering Gilliam was more or less ignored by the studios for a few years, it's nice simply to see him working again. With a little luck, some of these projects will follow through, and he'll be able to stay off the streets for a while.

Related links:
Paste: Gilliam linked to Gorillaz project
IMDB: Terry Gilliam
Senses of Cinema: Terry Gilliam

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