Terry Gilliam, Miguel de Cervantes And The Curse Of Don Quixote
Recalling the sheer hell endured by the former Python and all manner of other moviemakers in trying to do justice to the Don.
In the land of the unmade movie, Terry Gilliam is king. Leaving aside the pictures he's turned down - Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Forrest Gump, The Truman Show - the former Python's raft of unrealised projects is equal parts long, tantalising and frustrating.
Watchmen, A Scanner Darkly, The Defective Detective, A Tale Of Two Cities, Theseus And The Minotaur, Good Omens, A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court - Terry Vance Gilliam has sought to bring all of the aforementioned to the big screen. As you might notice, some of these projects have been realised by others. However, those familiar with Gilliam's unique cinematic vision might agree that, as excellent as HBO's Watchmen and Amazon's Good Omens undeniably are, we're poorer for being denied the opportunity to see the director of Brazil and 12 Monkeys translate these literary masterpieces.
And then there's Don Quixote. Or rather, The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, an ambitious blend of Cervantes and Mark Twain's Connecticut Yankee that Gilliam has been working on for the better part of 30 years. When he first tried to set up the picture in 1989, he was significantly hampered by the fact that his most recent movie, 1988's The Adventures Of Baron Munchausen, was among the biggest flops in the history of film.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to As Luck Would Have It to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.