Robert Duvall is out, John Hurt is in

[bruttenholm]

John Hurt told himself that he has been asked by Gilliam to play Don Quixote :

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.

Taken from here.

Maybe we'll have more casting news, then ?

[Packer]

It's about time Gilliam started working with John Hurt. That's a match made in heaven (or some other holly place).

Let's just hope Hurt doesn't have any allergies to horses.

[petersio]

Interesting that in a very recent Entertainment Weekly article, Robert Duvall was quoted as saying he planned on making The Man Who Killed Don Quixote his swan song. Perhaps a different actor was key for securing financing.

[bruttenholm]

I think that's an old interview that resurfaces now, but from a recent interview :

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.

[cclark]

John Hurt is looking very Quixotic with his new 'stache.



via Twitter

[TlatoSMD]

I'd say, he looks more Quixotic than did Robert Duvall, at least without make-up.

[bruttenholm]

Some updates (kind of) from John Hurt :

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.''

[bruttenholm]

John Hurt confirms his involvement :

FANG: What do you have coming up next?

HURT: All things being equal, I hope I’ll be working with Terry Gilliam next year on THE MAN WHO KILLED DON QUIXOTE, the one he’s been trying to make for eons.

FANG: So that’s finally getting up and running?

HURT: I hope so. I’m going to go out and do a test for him—not for me, but for the young man [who will co-star], and when I get back I’ve got to find the time to learn it.

[bruttenholm]

John Hurt confirms, by the way :

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.”

http://www.supajam.com/news/story/Featur...s-on-Earth

[cclark]

Yes! this is great news. I was thinking that now the script is a bit more of an autobiographical, "modernized, semi-meta story," I wonder if Gilliam would chose to have cameos from actors from his previous films to add to those elements. His films already have cameos and smaller parts for actors he's worked with in the past, anyway.