Finally, Terry Gilliam has wrapped up his long, long gestation The Man Who Killed Don Quixote movie. But even as he comes to premiere the movie, the obstacles keep coming.
A necessary refresher, for those new to the story. Gilliam first started shooting the film 20 years ago, but production has to be abandoned when the then-lead actor, Jean Rochefort, fell ill during filming. The aborted production became the subject of the excellent documentary Lost In La Mancha, and Gilliam subsequently tried to get the project off the ground on many separate occasions.
Just recently, though, he’s struck gold, and the film – now featuring Adam Driver and Jonathan Pryce – will be getting its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. However, with good news has come bad, and in this instance, the film has now lost its distribution. Amazon was set to distribute the film in the US, but has now pulled out of a deal to do so. Gilliam is currently in the position of finally having a finished film, but not having a company to get it in front of eyeballs.
The problem has been an ongoing legal battle over the ownership of the movie. That, and changes at Amazon. Roy Price, the Amazon executive who backed the project, is no longer at the company following a sexual harassment scandal. Since then, Amazon has been re-evaluating its slate, and the kind of films it wants to put out.
Just to make Gilliam’s life more complex, it’s also reported that he suffered a minor stroke over the weekend, albeit one – thankfully – he’s recovered from. We wish him the very best.
Hopefully, fresh distribution can be sought swiftly for his film. We’ll keep you posted, of course, as we hear more…