The Making of Quixote

[cclark]

Here's one: https://www.franceinter.fr/amp/culture/q...-quichotte

English translation via Google:

Who wants the skin of "Don Quixote" (or Terry Gilliam)?
Posted on Wednesday April 4th, 2018 at 9h05

by Corinne Audouin @cocale

This Wednesday, April 4, in front of the Court of Appeal of Paris, is the fate of a film "cursed": "The man who killed Don Quixote", the film that Terry Gilliam has not yet managed to lead to the dark rooms.

For 20 years, Terry Gilliam, the director - among others - of "Brazil" and films of Monty Python, caresses the dream of adapting the "Don Quixote" of Cervantes. The dream had, for the first time, turned into a nightmare. In 2000, the shooting of the film was interrupted by a combination of factors : torrential rains, herniated disc of the actor Jean Rochefort, noise of the military planes flying over the place of shooting ... The fiasco gave rise to a documentary, "Lost in La Mancha " , released in 2002.

But Terry Gilliam is not a man to give up. In February 2016, he misses only a few million euros, on a budget of 16 million, to shoot "The Man Who Killed Don Quixote". Over the years, he imagined Robert Duvall, then John Hurt in the role of knight wandering against the windmills, before entrusting the role to Michael Palin, his old accomplice Monthy Python. A director introduces him to Paulo Branco: the exuberant producer of films by Raoul Ruiz and Andrew Zulawski likes to say that he sometimes financed films while playing at the casino .

"The person who takes all the risks is me"
Branco is enthusiastic, promises to find the money before shooting begins in September. Terry Gilliam writes to partners who are worried about the reputation of the producer : "The only way to make the film this year is to jump into madness, with Paulo" . The prediction will prove to be accurate: the two men will never succeed in working together, despite the contract signed in April 2016 . Paulo Branco is very clear: there will be only one captain in this boat, and it will be him, " the person who takes all the risks, it's me ", he writes in an email that we could consult . He agrees to respect the budget of 16 million euros and the artistic choices of the director, in exchange for the transfer of his rights.

But Terry Gilliam, scalded, refuses to trust blindly his producer, asks for news of the budget , the financing plan. Over the months, several co-producers are thanked, Amazon withdraws from the project. Paulo Branco tells Terry Gilliam to reconsider his project, refuses to hire his assistant director, ratiboizes the makeup budget, hires his sister as a costume designer. When, again at the end of July 2016, Terry Gilliam asks for accounts, Paulo Branco gets upset: the money is harder to find than expected, he asks the director to stop asking for the budget, threatening to "send everyone back" at home " .

The exit of the film blocked
In fact, the adventure stops abruptly, August 6, 2016: in an email, Paulo Branco announces that he suspends the pre-production, which must begin two days later, if Terry Gilliam does not give him full powers on the film. "I do not want to be responsible for another industrial disaster, that is to say a Lost in La Mancha 2 " he writes to the director, whose behavior and demands he criticizes. Terry Gilliam refuses, the pre-production is canceled: for the director, their contract is therefore obsolete.

This is challenged today by Paulo Branco, who still claims to own the rights to the film . In the spring of 2017, Terry Gilliam finally shot "The Man Who Killed Don Quixote" with another producer. In casting, another Terry Gilliam loyalist, Jonathan Pryce, has replaced Michael Palin. But Paulo Branco believes that their contract of April 2016 is still valid. The conflict paralyzes the film's release, originally scheduled for May ... as well as its possible selection at the next Cannes Film Festival.

Hearing at 9:30 on April 4 before the Paris Court of Appeal, the judgment will be reserved.