Terry Gilliam had been working on THE MAN WHO KILLED QUIXOTE on and off for so long, everyone was starting to wonder if he was as mad as the movie’s central character. But after so, SO long, Gilliam finally got the financing together, got his cast and shot the thing to completion. Now you can watch the first international trailer for the now finished movie starring Jonathan Pryce as a man who believes he’s the literary hero Don Quixote and Adam Driver as a hot-shot business person who “Quixote” thinks is his trusty sidekick, Sancho Panza. Seriously, this movie is real and it’s done and we should all just take a moment to reflect on that.
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The Man Who Killed Don Quixote tells the story of a deluded old man who is convinced he is Don Quixote, and who mistakes Toby, an advertising executive, for his trusty squire, Sancho Panza. The pair embark on a bizarre journey, jumping back and forth in time between the 21st and magical 17th century. Gradually, like the infamous knight himself, Toby becomes consumed by the illusory world and unable to determine his dreams from reality. The tale culminates in a phantasmagorical and emotional finale where Toby takes on the mantle of Don Quixote de la Mancha
Now then, the movie may be done and basically ready to see, but that doesn’t mean we will just yet. After the years of production hell this movie has had to go through over the years it has one last legal battle to hurdle. The movie’s once producer Paulo Branco is claiming he still has rights to the movie and is threatening legal action should it be released without his permission. This may amount to nothing, as the movie is rumored to be playing at Cannes this year.
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As for the trailer, the movie looks…odd. I know, it’s a Terry Gilliam movie, and you don’t expect normal from the guy who made BRAZIL, 12 MONKEYS and THE IMAGINARIUM OF DOCTOR PARNASSUS. Still, this looks off in a rushed, cheap sort of way. Perhaps it’s just the trailer, which barrels through footage and ends on simple gags. This is only a little over a minute, and other trailers will probably seem more coherent, and there does seem to be some inspired lunacy and visual flair. Look, after 20 years of him making this thing and us following it for about as long, I would see it if it looked like Gilliam made it in his backyard for $200.