Director Terry Gilliam has his white whale. He’s been chasing it for 13 years now. Gilliam’s white whale, The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, is the film he will not give up on. At this point it should be renamed The Various Situations that Repeatedly Killed Don Quixote.
Three years ago it seemed like the project would actually see the light of day. There was a cast. There was a direction. But then it financially fell through. It was another situation to add to the list of problems the project faced.
Gilliam’s first attempt was in 2000, but it was riddled with problems. The biggest ones were the lead actor getting injured, and a flash flood that destroyed equipment and changed the landscape they were filming at.
Should that stop Gilliam? Not at all. This is the white whale he intends to catch if it’s the last thing he does.
“This is kind of my default position, going back to that. I actually just want to make it and get rid of it. Get it out of my life! I don’t know if it will be good or bad. The dangerous thing is that a lot of people are waiting for it, so I can disappoint a lot of people maybe.”
–Terry Gilliam
You got to respect Gilliam for being so candid about his position on The Man Who Killed Don Quixote. It must haunt him that it kept slipping from his grasp. Maybe this time, hopefully, he can make it happen.
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