Terry Gilliam’s fantasy/adventure movie THE IMAGINARIUM OF DOCTOR PARNASSUS starring the late great Heath Ledger will make its debut next week at the Cannes Film Festival. There were concerns that distributors find the story a bit too complex but that’s not the case anymore and if all goes well, we should see it arrive in theaters here later this year.
So what would be Gilliam’s next project? According to Variety, it appears to be that he’s going to dig out his old passion project that he didn’t get around to finish the first time around. A decade ago, he was set on filming the new take on of THE MAN WHO KILLED DON QUIXOTE based on Miguel de Cervantes‘ classic 17th century romantic tale. But production was put to a stop due to bad weather, destroyed sets and lead actor Jean Rochefort’s back problems (check out some of the unfinished footage). Those elements could definitely discourage any filmmaker from going through with the task at hand …but ten years?! Did it really take that long to get good weather, new sets and for Rochefort to heal from his back problem?! That must’ve been the worst back problem ever.
In the effort of resurrecting the project, screenwriter Tony Grisoni, who also wrote the first version, have rewritten and updated the script about a filmmaker who is charmed into joining Don Quixote’s eternal quest for his ladylove, becoming an unwitting Sancho Panza. Gilliam is trying to cast Johnny Depp as a modern-day ad executive who travels back in time and is mistaken for Sancho Panza by Don Quixote but Depp is hella busy these days with RANGO, THE RUM DIARY and THE LONE RANGER Movies, we won’t know whether or not he’s on board until his schedule allows. The man’s a workaholic beast! By the way, Depp helped Gilliam out by playing one of the people replacing Heath Ledger in PARNASSUS, the other two actors were Jude Law and Colin Farrell.
Gilliam will produce THE MAN WHO KILLED DON QUIXOTE with producer Jeremy Thomas and they expect production to start next Spring.
