Gilliam Again Says Depp Will Star in 'Don Quixote'

Terry Gilliam, presumably months away now from returning to La Mancha for The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, tell Paste - rather nonchalantly - that Johnny Depp will be back for the film, roughly a decade after Gilliam had to put the troubled production on the shelf. Asked if Quixote was his next project now that The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus is up to the distributor and audiences (it's being released by Sony Classics next week in a few cities), Gilliam confirmed Depp's return with a simple "yeah," adding, "And I rewrote the script. Robert Duvall has agreed to play Quixote. I’m really excited. So it’s all that business of funding now." The Duvall thing broke a couple weeks ago, and that's incredible news. Very few actors are more educational than Duvall and to see him on screen with Depp is an enticing prospect...if that funding comes through. Now, there's another thing: If Gilliam really wants to make the film in the spring, which is his official line, then how does Depp pull that off? He has The Tourist with Angelina Jolie and most likely Pirates 4, both of which are studio projects and have guaranteed time tables. So that makes this the third priority for Depp. The other side of that point is that Don Quixote doesn't have a studio meddling with it yet, so Gilliam can work around or at least with Depp's schedule. Personally, knowing a little bit about the previous incarnation through the documentary Lost in La Mancha, I want Gilliam to make this film, so I hope it holds together this time.

Comments

[Lengthy Johnson]

I am a big fan of Terry Gilliam's. I just watched Brazil on TV and enjoyed it tremendously.

I am also a big fan of Cervantes and therefore I am having some trouble reconciling my image of Don Quixote with Robert Duvall. While Don Quixote is a expressive and delusional character, Duvall's trade mark is understated slow-play.

I think Max von Zydow would have made an excellent Don Quixote because he can ramp it up quite a bit and yet play with detail and nuances.