Earlier in the month, we reported that Terry Gilliam was in Spain scouting locations for what he hoped would be fall shoot for “The Man Who Killed Don Quixote.” As everyone knows, Gilliam attempted the film once before before he was descended upon by an endless number of plagues that brought the production to a tragi-comic halt. He has long talked about returning the film, and seems ready to do it, but he still lacks two key ingredients: a name star and financing.
In an awesomely candid interview with Movieline, rad old dude Robert Duvall (who we would definitely have beers with anytime) was remarkably frank about the status of the film and just why it hasn’t been given a greenlight yet. After revealing that “the Irish guy who was in ‘Crazy Heart'” [Colin Farrell] turned down the lead in “Don Quixote,” Duvall elaborated further on what we pretty much figured was holding up production on the film: “….they [producers] need a name. He’s going after two people now, but he doesn’t want to say who they are until after he gets them. But it’s been six months he’s been after people. And it’s a bigger budget than his others. And he doesn’t stick to a budget, they say. He goes on and on. And he’s got locations picked out in Spain. So it’ll be very exciting. And when the time comes — and I know for sure — then I’ll start riding horseback every day….But you know, when the time comes… I can’t really start preparing for it until it’s greenlit. Until it’s really greenlit.”
In one fell swoop, Duvall has pretty clearly enunciated what makes Gilliam such a dicey prospect for producers in today’s cinematic climate. You can be sure that without a bankable name in a lead role, the film will get nowhere in front of cameras, and even then, Gilliam’s reputation/curse for troubled productions is almost more well known than his finished films. As of January, Gilliam seemed somewhat confident about his non ‘A-prime’ lead actors, but with months having since passed and no names officially announced, we’re assuming those names have bowed out and he’s moving on secondary choices.
We’re always rooting for the underdogs, and despite being tagged by Gilliam fanboys as “haters” we do think the director is talented even if he’s been thwarted multiple times by things outside of his control. And we certainly like the concept here that Duvall describes as the film about “a guy who was going to become like Don Quixote. And in the end he goes back to shoemaking….But he has to get his Sancho Panza. I’m theoretically playing a Latin guy” (Gilliam was impressed with Duvall’s turn in “Wrestling Ernest Hemingway” where he played a Cuban barber). But it remains to be seen if producers are once again going to bite on a high concept, and presumably expensive production from Gilliam.
So, it looks like “The Man Who Killed Don Quixote” still has a couple of hurdles to jump before it can get in front of cameras. But if we can walk away from this story with anything, it’s that Robert Duvall seems like a totally awesome dude.