Terry Gilliam has never seemed like the kind of guy who gives up easily-- we all saw Lost in La Mancha, of course, and he looked determined no matter how many awful things happened on that set. But I don't think anyone really expected Gilliam to try yet again to pursue his Don Quixote movie, after the last one failed so publicly, and so spectacularly.
But never say never with this guy. Gilliam told Britain's Empire Online that he and writing partner Tony Grisoni are back to work on the story of the adventurer who couldn't stop tilting at windmills. "[We] finally got the script back. I re-read the greatest script ever written and realise we gotta get rewriting! I really wanna knock that one out in the next month or so.”
Well, he's finished on The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, so at least he's got one difficult-to-impossible project out of the way. But can he really make this work this time around? He says optimistically, "[I’m] starting to think I was lucky, because maybe the film will be better seven years later. It will have matured a bit longer.”
If he pulls it off this time, it'll doubtlessly be one of the most amazing, and lengthy, production processes in history. And we'll all be rooting for him, given how sad it was to watch the whole thing fall apart in Lost in La Mancha. No telling if Johnny Depp will be back, or if any crew will follow Gilliam into the desert again, but I'm still ready to see how this one turns out.
