Terry Gilliam to try again with ‘The Man Who Killed Don Quixote’
Fraught with years of on-again/off-again attempts to bring his vision to the screen, it looks like Terry Gilliam (Brazil, Fisher King, Twelve Monkeys) is finally set to get underway on his long-gestating The Man Who Killed Don Quixote. Based on the classic novel by Miguel de Cervantes, The Man Who Killed Don Quixote offers a “modern and satirical twist” on the novel where an advertising executive jumps back and forth in time between 21st century London and 17th century La Mancha, where Don Quixote mistakes him for Sancho Panza.
The history surrounding Gilliam’s film dates back to 2001 when the acclaimed director announced he had secured the services of Johnny Depp and Jean Rochefort to star in the film when it began shooting in 2001. After numerous on-set problems, including a flood that destroyed equipment, production was shut down a story retold in the 2002 documentary Lost In La Mancha.
In a more recent effort, John Hurt (Elephant Man, Doctor Who, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) and Jack O’Connell (Unbroken, Money Monster) were set to play the leads but both roles have now been re-cast prior to filming begins in September with fellow ‘original Python member’ Michael Palin and Adam Driver (Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens) in the lead roles. Palin has been tapped to play Don Quixote while Driver is expected to play the lead role of Toby, a once-idealistic film student turned jaded, arrogant publicist. But when he rediscovers his old student film based on Don Quixote, he is horrified by the effects it had on the quiet village where it was set.
There’s a good chance that we will be seeing a lot of Michael Palin in 2016 as he is rumored to be involved in Armando Iannucci’s (The Thick of It, In the Loop, Veep) new satire Death Of Stalin. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Steve Buscemi will play Nikita Khrushchev in a cast that will also include Jeffrey Tambor, Timothy Dalton, Simon Russell Beale, Paddy Considine and Andrea Riseborough.
In: Drama