Terry Gilliam is going to make The Man Who Killed Don Quixote dammit! And if not, then Mr. Vertigo

November 22nd 2011, 6:44am

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Filmmaker Terry Gilliam appears briefly in the recent (and terrific) Martin Scorsese documentary GEORGE HARRISON: LIVING IN THE MATERIAL WORLD, and he seemed so happy despite the fact that he’s had such crushing bad luck getting his films made. That thought made me sad.

But “F*CK YOU, BAD LUCK!” says the visionary director. According to Italian site Altarimini, during a press conference where Gilliam was awarded the annual Fellini Foundation Prize, the filmmaker stated that he wants to make THE MAN WHO KILLED DON QUIXOTE next year, which still has Robert Duvall attached to play Quixote himself. (It’s unknown if Ewan McGregor is still on board, though.)

In talking to Empire Magazine, Gilliam stated: “There’s somebody new come along with a new bit of energy… a person who can get money.” However, “it’s at a very early stage. And I’ve been around this one so often. Because what’s happened is that the business is very superstitious. It’s been around too long, it’s tainted, it’s cursed.”

You gotta admire the man’s tenacity, even as he realizes he’s fighting God himself to get this movie made. As you probably know, THE MAN WHO KILLED DON QUIXOTE has had a black cloud hovering over it for years, as time and time again one disaster (financial) or another (flood) has kept the film from ever being completed. In fact, the disastrous production spawned the fantastic documentary LOST IN LA MANCHA which chronicles Gilliam’s filmmaking woes.

But Gilliam’s not putting all his eggs in one basket. Should DON QUIXOTE go belly up again, the man’s already at work on another project called MR. VERTIGO, an adaptation of the book by Paul Auster which sounds very Gilliam (via Wikipedia):

“[MR. VERTIGO] tells the story of a young orphaned boy from St. Louis, Walter Claireborne Rawley, who happens upon a mysterious traveler known only as Master Yehudi. Master Yehudi trains Walter to fly and they begin traveling across the United States performing this feat at circus sideshows. Many times they are faced with hardships such as the Ku Klux Klan, the Chicago Mob, and Walter’s drunken uncle, Slim.”

Let’s collectively hope MR. VERTIGO doesn’t… explode, or something. Keep your head up, Terry!