Quote:The night concluded with the headline event, John Hurt in Conversation. With Quad's largest cinema full to capacity, it was an absolute delight to hear the room hanging on John's every word. Journalist Tony Earnshaw provided a series of intelligent, probing questions that - unlike the bombastic Brian Blessed event a couple of years ago - really did feel like a conversation. The most exciting bit of news revealed during the event was that Terry Gilliam has asked John to star as Don Quixote in the long-delayed, oft-cancelled film of the same name, and hopes to start filming this year - but with a guest as engaging as this, there were words to savour with every question.

Quote:The 83-year-old actor says he has no particular plans to retire; he’ll stop acting when people stop offering him good parts, he says. He hasn’t heard anything about the long-stalled Terry Gilliam/Don Quixote project to which he was attached in the past, which is now reportedly moving forward without him, but says he has a good few projects left in him.

Quote:Well into his eighth decade, Hurt shows no signs of slowing down. He continues to act on stage, and reportedly will star in the latest attempt to make Terry Gilliam's legendarily trouble-plagued The Man Who Killed Don Quixote. He emphasises that he hasn't signed to make the film, but adds that he would readily do so, despite the project's erratic history.

"With absolutely no question whatsoever,'' he says promptly."I think it's a terrific script.''

Quote:Venturing away from the topic of music and of 20,000 Days on Earth, we asked what Hurt had lined up next. It led to some outspoken criticism of the current state of film. “I am doing the Don Quixote film with Terry Gilliam next year and I'm also a television 6-part serial piece. That's about it, really.”