An example of misfortune

Cordon Press

Terry Gilliam has resurrected his long frustrated attempt to makeThe Man Who Killed Don Quixote,a film inspired by Miguel De Cervantes’ 17th Century Spanish classic Don Quixote.

In 2000 he took cast and crew north of Madrid and underwent a series of bad luck probably unprecedented in film history. Military jet flyovers that destroyed all the audio recordings, a leading man who struggled to speak English, who suffered a herniated disc rendering him incapable of either sitting on a horse or tilting at windmills. Finally the production succumbed to flash floods in a notoriously dry area of Spain, which washed out the set and Gilliam’s dreams of realising his adaptation of one of the most compelling novels in world literature.

Now, the latest attempt will begin filmingin January 2015. The original version was to have starred Johnny Depp as a contemporary SanchoPanzawho is whisked back in time and meets Quixote. This latest versionis more about that character with just a hint of the director troubles…

“I keep incorporating my own life into it and shifting it,” Gilliam says. “The basic 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.”

The finance is in place, John Hurt has been mentioned as a likely Quixote, the location is hopefully nowhere near an airbase and the film Gods are going to give one of the most visionary of directors a lucky break. Meanwhile, avid film fans can keep our various appendages crossed in the hope that it finally happens.

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