In filmmaking terms, when you talk about the phrase 'development hell' there's few projects that come to mind more readily than Terry Gilliam's The Man Who Killed Don Quixote.
Gilliam has tried to get the film made a whopping eight times over the past seventeen years but finally his long gestating passion project has come to fruition.
The director took to his Facebook page to announce that filming had wrapped on the project.
Based on the based on the 1605 novel Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, the fantasy adventure comedy is set in modern day and follows film director Toby Grisoni (Adam Driver) who comes across a copy of his old student film, a re-telling of the famous Don Quixote story. He decides to head back to the old Spanish village where he shot the film, leading to a series of catastrophic events and adventures.
Gilliam's struggles to get the film made in the past could also be labelled a series of catastrophic events and adventures. It was the subject of the 2002 documentary Lost in LA Mancha. That particular film followed the film's original production which had Johnny Depp playing Toby Grisoni and Jean Rochefort as Don Quixote.
Production on the film was shut down after severe flooding destroyed many of the sets and Rochefort had to leave the project due to illness. Gilliam tried to get production going again between 2005 and 2015 with the likes of Ewan McGregor and Jack O'Connell considered to play Grisoni before Driver eventually signed on for the film.
The film is now expected to have a 2018 release. Olga Kurylenko, Stellan Skarsgard, Oscar Jaenada, Rossy de Palma and Jason Watkins are all among the supporting cast.
Via Screen Rant
