If ever there was a film project that was cursed, plagued and troubled all in one, it has to be Terry Gilliam’s The man who killed Don Quixote. The former Python has been attempting to get that film made for years now, but has been hit with everything from natural disasters to his cast contracting illnesses, effectively scuppering the movie.
And it looks like the seventh time is the charm, as Gilliam will be going back to his cursed movie project after he finishes up on the Zero Theorem.
“I’m going to try to do ‘Don Quixote’ again,” Gilliam said to Coming Soon.
I think this is the seventh time. Lucky seven, maybe. We’ll see if it happens. This is kind of my default position, going back to that. I actually just want to make it and get rid of it. Get it out of my life.
Depending on which script he happens to be using, The man who killed Don Quixote focuses on an advertising executive who finds himself transported from modern day London and into the Spain during the 17th century, where the infamous mad knight Don Quixote believes the luckless time traveller to be his trusty servant Sancho Panza.
Gilliam first tried to make the film way back in 2000, with Johnny Depp and Jean Rochefort cast as his main leads. Mother nature had different plans though, and filming fell prey to several disasters. Gilliam then turned that misfortune into a documentary, Lost in La Mancha. SInce then, Gilliam has attempted several times to make the film once more, before these new productions were cancelled.
The man who killed Don Quixote is pretty much the Alan Smithee of films in Hollywood. And I’d dig to see Gilliam finally complete it.
Last Updated: November 19, 2013
RinceandShrubbery
November 19, 2013 at 11:06
Me too. Would be really cool, just for the legend’s sake!