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by Tippi Blevins November 25, 2008 11:13 AM

Director Terry Gilliam Feeling Quixotic About Starting Over

Writer-director Terry Gilliam's movies have had such a reputation for being beset by unforeseen problems that The Onion spoofed the former Monty Python member's propensity for terrible luck. (This was even years before the untimely and tragic death of Heath Ledger, who died soon after shooting began for Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus.) An attempt to make a sequel to Time Bandits never got off the ground because several of the original actors had died. Budget disputes put the kibosh on other projects. Two attempts to adapt Alan Moore's Watchmen never came to fruition. Way back in 2000, Gilliam's The Man Who Killed Don Quixote was beset by a flood and an injury that sidelined star Jean Rochefort. But it looks like Gilliam's luck may be changing for the better.

According to Contact Music, the director is one step closer to sending Don Quixote and Sancho Panza off to tilt at windmills. Gilliam is nothing if not determined, and has spent eight years fighting to get the movie rights back from the insurance company that paid out after the disaster. Speaking at a tribute affair in London last week, Gilliam seemed confident that the project would, indeed, be moving forward. His own theory -- perhaps jokingly, perhaps not -- is that God "saved his ass" by wiping out the original production with that flood of nearly Biblical proportions. At the time, Gilliam says, he didn't have the financing to finish the movie and believes he would have had to go over budget. This second attempt will be a better film, he says. He still has original co-starring actor Johnny Depp interested in resuming his role, but will Gilliam's luck hold out long enough to finally finish the project?

TAGS: Heath Ledger, Terry Gilliam, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, The Man Who Killed Don Quixote

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Director Terry Gilliam Feeling Quixotic About Starting Over

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