The Man Who Killed Don Quixote suffered from such an immense case of bad luck, someone made a documentary about its failure. Lost in La Mancha showed the details of the dismal first attempt by Terry Gilliam to get Don Quixote to the big screen. On top of the film’s fragile schedule and budget the cast and crew suffered through a number of calamities including noise from an aircraft target practice site, a flash flood and the lead actor, Jean Rochefort, suffering a herniated disc. Are these signs the movie shouldn’t be made? Certainly not to Gilliam.
While at the premiere for The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Gilliam told Empire “We're up and running again, we've rewritten the script and finally got it back, the budget's come in ... and I think we've found our Quixote! But who's it going to be? Well, I'm not going to tell you, but it'll start next Spring.” Earlier in the week Gilliam called the project a “donkey, and now it has three of its legs” referring to the film’s necessities. I don’t really know what to make of that, but three out of four doesn’t sound so bad. I guess that means he’s 75% of the way to getting that ass up and running.
The original Quixote featured Johnny Depp as an advertising executive who time travels from modern day London to 17th century La Mancha. There, Don Quixote mistakes him for his faithful pal Sancho. As Gilliam said, he’s found his Quixote but won’t be revealing who. As for the role of the ad exec, Toby Grisoni, it’d be nice to see Depp stick with the role, otherwise, recruiting one of his other Imaginarium stars, Jude Law or Colin Farrell, could be prime options. Whoever he goes for, I advise them to stuff their suitcases with lucky pennies, rabbit’s feet and whatever good luck charms they can get their hands on. You know, just in case.
