GILLIAM BACK IN THE SADDLE WITH “DON QUIXOTE”
Director Terry Gilliam is set to bring his long-held dream of The Man Who Killed Don Quixote to the screen, producer Jeremy Thomas announced today.
Gilliam, former Monty Python star and maverick director of Brazil, Twelve Monkeys and The Fisher King, has teamed with Thomas to bring his iconoclastic vision of Don Quixote to life. Screenwriter Tony Grisoni (Red Riding Trilogy, In This World, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas) has worked with Gilliam to re-imagine the legendary adventures of the idealistic Spanish knight. The new film will revolve around a filmmaker who is charmed into Don Quixote’s eternal quest for his ladylove, becoming an unwitting Sancho Panza.
This is the latest twist in one of the most remarkable stories in cinema history. The filming has been a saga as epic as Cervantes’ 17th-Century classic on which it is based. Nine years ago, the original shoot suffered a series of setbacks captured in the documentary Lost In La Mancha, which became a hit in its own right.
Terry Gilliam averred: “DON QUIXOTE RIDES AGAIN.”
Jeremy Thomas said: “I’m delighted to be working with friends again on this irresistible project.”
Tony Grisoni added: “There's no escaping some pacts. Nearly ten years on I find myself lending a hand to get that crazed, giggling bedlamite back in the saddle. I'm talking about Don Quixote. In spite of God and the Devil, he shall ride again!”
RPC’s CEO Peter Watson was in charge of the complicated task of reassembling the rights. “I’m thrilled we now have the ability to put this film into production.’
The Man Who Killed Don Quixote has been re-developed by Thomas’ Recorded Picture Company, and is scheduled for a Spring 2010 shoot.
Gilliam’s latest film The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus premieres in Cannes on Friday 22nd.
Recorded Picture Company’s previous films include nine-time Academy Award winner The Last Emperor, Sexy Beast, Crash, Young Adam and The Dreamers. Recent films include the upcoming Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly-starrer Creation, written by John Collee and directed by Jon Amiel.
That's... oh, goodness. Lost In La Mancha is just about the most engrossing tragedy I've ever seen, the surreal absurdity reaching mind-boggling heights. Were it written as a dramatic script, the improbable sequence of ill-fortune that befalls Gilliam's production would be dismissed as unbelievable, even for so accomplished a fantasy filmmaker.
No, the irony of Gilliam continuing to tilt at this particular windmill being Quixotic in the extreme has not escaped me. After the struggles and setbacks Gilliam's endured this past decade, he's due for a run of success with both Dr. Parnassus and Quixote. I just hope that this time he doesn't decide to film on a desert flood plain near a NATO bombing range. That'd be a good start.
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