Yes, it’s happening. Short of another act of filmic mayhem or the global apocalypse, Terry Gilliam’s Don Quixote will go into production with Jack O’Connell donning the now-contemporary garb of the Sancho Panza. Seventh time lucky, as the director himself has joked.
Variety has the scoop on O’Connell’s addition to a $21 million production that will update Cervantes’ classic tale to a modern setting. The actor will play Toby, a jaundiced commercials-director-for-hire who heads to Spain for a shoot where he encounters a mysterious gypsy who represents the still-uncast Don Quixote character. Tony Grisoni, writer of Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas, has penned the screenplay.
Intriguingly, the trade includes a storyline that deviates markedly from previous Gilliam versions. This one is termed "a modern and satirical twist on the tale", with that enigmatic gypsy handing Toby a copy of his student film - a reworking of the Don Quixote story set in a Spanish village - and setting in motion a "bizarre road trip" to find its setting. It will take in the expected catastrophes and windmill-tilting along the way, but it's a distance from the old Johnny Depp version.
“I keep incorporating my own life into it and shifting it,” said Gilliam when he recently debuted concept art from the film. “The basic underlying premise of the version Johnny was involved in was that he actually was going to be transported back to the 17th century, and now it all takes place now, it's contemporary. It's more about how movies can damage people.”
“We believe this film will capture the essence of everything audiences loved in Gilliam’s unforgettable masterpieces such as Brazil, Time Bandits and The Adventures Of Baron Munchausen,” says long-time backer Gregoire Melin, whose Kinology marque will be shopping distribution rights at the American Film Market this week.
O’Connell, of course, is very much the actor of the moment, with Starred-Up, ’71 and shortly Angelina Jolie’s Unbroken opening doors from him all around the movie world. He’ll join Gilliam for principal photography in the spring, with Don Quixote earmarked for a May 2016 release.
Head here for the full, fraught history of Gilliam's Don Quixote to date.