Terry Gilliam has been trying to get a Don Quixote film made for about as long as I can remember. He came close with Johnny Depp back in the late 90s before things fell through, and the details of that struggle were chronicled in the documentary LOST IN LA MANCHA. Now it seems as Gilliam is going to give it another go after Christmas of this year, although the story has become more meta than before
In Terry Gilliam‘s words:
I keep incorporating my own life into it and shifting it. The basic underlying premise of the version Johnny was involved in was that he actually was going to be transported back to the 17th century, and now it all takes place now, it’s contemporary. It’s more about how movies can damage people. Our main character actually made a Don Quixote movie a lot earlier in his history and the effect it had on many people wasn’t very nice. Some people go mad, some people turn to drink, some people become whores.
Some people DO become whores! In any case, as twisted as the story is becoming, it sounds right up Gilliam’s alley. There has been no word of who might be in the cast of this iteration, as everyone from Ewan McGregor to Robert Duvall has been attached at some point, but as Gilliam put it, “I’ll believe it when I see it!” In the meantime you can get you dose of Gilliam with THE ZERO THEOREM, which stars Christoph Waltz.
Terry Gilliam‘s latest, THE ZERO THEOREM, will see an On-Demand release on August 19 and a limited US theatrical release on September 19, 2014.