Terry Gilliam: I Won’t Beg To Make Don Quixote

Terry Gilliam says he doesn’t feel comfortable seeking charity to get his long-gestating ‘Don Quixote’ project made.

The former Python whose latest foray into opera, ‘Benvenuto Cellini’, is being livestreamed into cinemas tonight, admits that he toyed with the idea of using crowd-funding site Kickstarter to get ‘The Man Who Killed Don Quixote’ made, but ultimately decided against it.

“There’s just something about [using Kickstarter to fund the project]. I just feel like I don’t want to beg,” he told us.

“Kickstarter is becoming so used now… but I think there’s a certain point where you’re just taking advantage of people.

“Everybody says Don Quixote is the perfect one [to Kickstart] as there’s a big fan base out there and everybody is doing it, but it would be my last resort.”

His adaptation of the Miguel de Cervantes novel has had one of the most tortured journeys to screen in Hollywood history.

Cameras first rolled on the project in 2000 with Jean Rochefort as Quixote and Johnny Depp as Toby Grisoni. The film was beset with problems from the start including floods, illness and financing issues. These led to the cancellation of the project and the whole debacle was captured perfectly in the 2002 documentary ‘Lost In La Mancha’.

Gilliam then tried to get the film off the ground again in 2005 with Ewan McGregor in the Grisoni role, but that too fell apart due to funding issues.

The film looked likely to shoot this this year, but the American-born film-maker told us that it has been pushed back to 2015 due to the Monty Python reunion shows.

“There’s not much to say about [Don Quixote right now] because I’ve postponed the whole thing while I’ve been dealing with [‘Benvenuto Cellini’] and then the upcoming Python thing.

“It’s been on hold. The plan was to shoot it in October, but I’ve just pushed it to next year.”

Terry Gilliam’s spectacular English National Opera production of Benvenuto Cellini is broadcasting live from London Coliseum on 17 June, 2014.

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