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WATCH: We can’t believe we’re finally writing this, but here’s the trailer for Terry Gilliam’s The Man Who Killed Don Quixote!

April 10th, 2018 by Irwin Fletcher Comments

Some movies take a long time to get to the screen. 

Some never make it to the screen and have really good documentaries about their failure made about them (Lost in La Mancha) and, in the case of Terry Gilliam’s The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, both of these things have happened.

After many, many, many years, the former Monty Python has finally finished his magnum opus and it is due for its premier at this year’s Cannes Film Festival… in the mean time, us normal folk will have to make do with the trailer:

(Continues after video)

In 2016 Gilliam in league with producer Paulo Branco struck a deal that gave Gilliam creative freedom over the project in exchange for the rights to the film. It appears that Branco never ponied up the dough and Gilliam went out and found a new partner.  With a new deal in place the movie was to release this spring but to be true to form there were more twists in to be had, Branco is now saying that he technically owns the right to the movie and is saying Gilliam cant release it with out his permission.  Gilliam for his part has stated that his agreement with Branco is void as he never paid for the production and the case is up in court in June

The film, scripted by Giliam and Tony Grisoni is a reworking of the Quixote Story about a man named Toby.  Toby, a once idealistic young film student who has turned into an arrogant publicist, libidinous and jaded, comes across a copy of his old student film based on Don Quixote. He is horrified by the terrible effects the film has had on the quiet village where it was set.

“Once upon a time, Toby was an idealistic young film student. His great achievement, a lyrical re-working of the Don Quixote story set in a quaint old Spanish village. But that was then; these days he is a jaded, arrogant and over-sexed commercials director. Money and glamour have derailed him, and now he juggles his boss’s wife Jacqui, a biblical storm and his own ego as he tries to complete a new commercial shoot in Spain. Until a mysterious Gypsy approaches him with an ancient copy of Toby’s student film: Toby is moved and sets off to find the little village where he made his primary opus all those years ago. To Toby’s horror, his little film has had a terrible effect on the sleepy village; Angelica, the young girl who was innocence personified, now works as a high class call-girl, and the old man who played Quixote has now gone completely mad, believing he really is the ‘Knight of the Mournful Countenance’. A series of accidents leads to a fire that threatens to destroy the village. The police come for Toby, but he is ‘rescued’ by the deluded old man, who, mistaking him for his loyal squire Sancho, leads Toby away into the countryside on the quest for his perfect lady, Dulcinea. On their quest, Toby comes face to face with demons, both real and imagined, modern and medieval. Damsels are rescued, jousts are fought, giants are slain and women have beards! Reality and fantasy blur on this bizarre road trip which leads to a phantasmagorical finale”

I'm an LA journalist who really lives for his profession. I have also published work as Jane Doe in various mags and newspapers across the globe. I normally write articles that can cause trouble but now I write for FTN because Nerds are never angry, so I feel safe.