For nearly two decades, Terry Gilliam has sought to bring his satirical revision of Don Quixote to the silver screen. As delays persisted, cast members and financiers walked away, and the film remained stuck in the bowels of developmental hell. Recently however, Gilliam received new funding from a trio of European studios, and he’s finally ready to move forward with production this fall.
In anticipation, Gilliam has put together a pretty impressive cast, as The Playlist points out. Star Wars villain Adam Driver has signed for the film’s lead role alongside Gilliam’s Monty Python collaborator Michael Palin. Also on board are Willem Dafoe, Stellan Skarsgard, and Olga Kurylenko.
The film, officially dubbed The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, will revolve around a one-time film student turned arrogant publicist (presumambly played by Driver) who learns of the real-life implications his own of Don Quixote film has had on a small Spanish village.
Read the official synopsis below (via Flick Reel):
There was a time when Toby was a young film student full of ideals. So he decided to shoot a film adapted from the story of Don Quixote in a pretty Spanish village.
But those days are gone and now Toby is an arrogant publicist, libidinous and jaded. Money and glitter have corrupted him, and while he is in Spain where he finishes filming an ad, he has to juggle with his boss’s wife – Jacqui – a calamitous weather, and his own ego. This is when a mysterious gypsy comes to find him with an old copy of his student film: Toby is upset and decides to go in search of a little village where he had made his first work a long time ago. He discovers with horror that his little film has had terrible effects on this quiet place. Angelica, the girl full of innocence, became a high-class call girl; and the old man who played Don Quixote lost his mind, convinced in his delusion of being the real “Knight of the Sorrowful Countenance.”
A series of incidents lead to a fire that threatens to destroy the village. Wanted by the police, Toby is “saved” by the old fool who takes him for his faithful squire Sancho, and drives on the roads in search of his perfect wife, Dulcinea.
During this journey, Toby will face demons, real and imaginary, modern and medieval. Damsels will be saved, jousts will be completed, and giants will be killed! Reality and fantasy merge in this strange journey, until a spooky ending.
