What Terry Gilliam needs at this point of his career is another Fisher King. A good script done as a for-hire job with a modest budget and a solid cast and enough freedom to put just enough of the Gilliam stamp on it that when it becomes a success it will leave him the freedom to do what he wants for the next couple films without everything having to be such a damn struggle.
I say this because, once again, Terry Gilliam's The Man Who Killed Don Quixote is dead. The first real indication that things were going south came a few months back when Gilliam acknowledged that there had been a financial "hiccup" in getting things ready to go. But at the time he said things were still fine and they'd be running as planned, just a little bit later. The second indication came more recently, when Gilliam directed the webcast for a live performance by The Arcade Fire - a performance and directing gig that came right around the time that he was supposed to be getting started on Quixote. And if he was prepping and shooting a rock performance he certainly wasn't tilting at windmills.
And now, at the Deauville Festival in France, Gilliam has confirmed what fans feared, that the financing has fallen apart completely and the film is off indefinitely with other commitments - he will be directing an opera in early 2011 - meaning that the earliest he could possibly shoot, should money somehow come into place is one full year from now. But if people won't finance it now, realistically they won't finance it then, either. And even Gilliam - who maintains that he's not giving up entirely - seems to be acknowledging that fact, saying that he has a pair of other projects in development that he thinks won't be so hard to get money for. In that same interview - available only in French, unfortunately - Gilliam also mentions that he is in discussions for a possible 3D re-do of Time Bandits but I don't buy it, frankly, as this would only make sense if there was a theatrical re-release in the works and I just can't imagine anyone doing that in the current market.
And Terry Gilliam is naked with a fish in the accompanying photograph because he is Terry Fucking Gilliam.
I say this because, once again, Terry Gilliam's The Man Who Killed Don Quixote is dead. The first real indication that things were going south came a few months back when Gilliam acknowledged that there had been a financial "hiccup" in getting things ready to go. But at the time he said things were still fine and they'd be running as planned, just a little bit later. The second indication came more recently, when Gilliam directed the webcast for a live performance by The Arcade Fire - a performance and directing gig that came right around the time that he was supposed to be getting started on Quixote. And if he was prepping and shooting a rock performance he certainly wasn't tilting at windmills.
And now, at the Deauville Festival in France, Gilliam has confirmed what fans feared, that the financing has fallen apart completely and the film is off indefinitely with other commitments - he will be directing an opera in early 2011 - meaning that the earliest he could possibly shoot, should money somehow come into place is one full year from now. But if people won't finance it now, realistically they won't finance it then, either. And even Gilliam - who maintains that he's not giving up entirely - seems to be acknowledging that fact, saying that he has a pair of other projects in development that he thinks won't be so hard to get money for. In that same interview - available only in French, unfortunately - Gilliam also mentions that he is in discussions for a possible 3D re-do of Time Bandits but I don't buy it, frankly, as this would only make sense if there was a theatrical re-release in the works and I just can't imagine anyone doing that in the current market.
And Terry Gilliam is naked with a fish in the accompanying photograph because he is Terry Fucking Gilliam.
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