Terry Gilliam is Back to Work on 'Don Quixote'
By now, we're all used to potential cinema disappointments. The Internet makes it ridiculously easy to learn about projects as they happen, but it also means getting excited for features that drown in development hell. For a while, Terry Gilliam's Don Quixote was one of those doomed projects. (You can follow some of the struggle right here.) Now, it's happening? It's really, really happening?Empire reports that Gilliam has started prepping a new script for The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, after finally getting the rights back. Partner Tony Grisoni said: "I re-read the greatest script ever written and realize we gotta get rewriting! I really wanna knock that one out in the next month or so." But it won't just be some script polishing -- Gilliam says that he has "some very different ideas" for the film, and that this whole, almost decade-long mess could be a blessing: "[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."
I'm not sure how "seven" fits in to a production that dates back to 2000, but regardless, this is excellent news topped off with the fact that he wants to get shooting later this year. Finally, after all this time, the famous Spaniard will get his moment to shine, and it looks like patience will be a wonderful virtue.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1-19-2009 @ 4:44PM
Kurt said...
What's this about "I re-read the greatest script ever written and realize we gotta get rewriting!"? Do these people think about what they're saying before they say it? Not "best script ever--let's shoot it"; no, it's "best script ever--let's change everything!"
This screams "train-wreck" to me. I remember watching Lost in La Mancha and thinking that Gilliam can't have an interesting idea without trying to shoehorn it into whatever movie he's working on. Also, based on LiLM, The Man Who Killed Don Quixote was pretty over-the-top convoluted to begin with. How is the addition of new ideas going to help this? It's not.
This will join the litany of sub-par work that he's put out lately. Brother's Grimm was insipid. Tideland was so awful he started out the DVD with a message to the viewer, telling us that critics obviously didn't understand the film. And nothing I've seen about Imaginarium is inspiring me to feel good about it. (What's that? the leading man is dead? Well, we can easily work around that by working some Dr. Who into the plot!)
Even his genuinely good films (like Fear and Loathing or 12 Monkeys) take some serious warming up to.
Maybe I'm just biased, but perhaps Don Quixote should have just stayed "killed".
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1-19-2009 @ 11:25PM
Laura said...
I firmly believe that it wouldn't be a true Gilliam film without being amazingly over-the-top. He is the man who, after all, ran off with a significant portion of the budget for "Meaning of Life" but also managed to create one of the greatest musical concept segments ever in film. Perhaps re-writes are needed because what they thought would work 10 years ago, won't work now. Or there were some lessons learned the first time out that they're now looking to correct. I know I'll be one of the first in line for "Parnassus" and "Quixote."
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