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The Man Who Killed Don Quixote. The Man Who Killed Don Quixote is a 2018 adventure - comedy film directed by Terry Gilliam and written by Gilliam and Tony Grisoni, loosely based on the 1605/1615 novel Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes. Gilliam tried to make the film many times over 29 years, which made it an infamous example of development hell.
- Plot
- Cast
- Production
- Promotion
- Release
- Reception
- Legacy
- See Also
- Notes and References
Toby Grummett, a director, is in rural Spain, struggling with the production of a commercial featuring Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. After an unsuccessful day of shooting, Toby's superior, the Boss, introduces him to a Romani street merchant who sells him an old DVD of The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, a film he wrote and directed ten years earlier a...
Adam Driver as Toby Grummett, a director who comes back to the village where he filmed his student film ten years ago, and whom Quixote mistakes for his trusted squire Sancho Panza. Robin Williams,...Jonathan Pryce as Javier Sanchez / "Don Quixote", an old Spanish shoemaker who played the part of Quixote in Toby's old student film, but has since become convinced he is actually the famous litera...Origins
Terry Gilliam first read the novel in 1989, and started conceptualizing an adaptation right away. He saw a personal project in adapting Don Quixote, as it embodies many of the themes that run through his own work—such as the individual versus society, and the concept of sanity. Instead of a literal adaptation, Gilliam's film was about "an old, retired, and slightly kooky nobleman named Alonso Quixano [who] reads too many chivalric romances. Taking leave of his senses, he sets out to fix the w...
Later attempts
After the production had been cancelled, an insurance claim was filed on behalf of the film's investors. US$15 million were reportedly paid, and the rights to the screenplay passed on to the insurance companies. From 2003 on, Gilliam kept on trying to make the film, but to no avail. His first new attempt, six months after the release of Lost in La Mancha, was quickly turned down. In 2005, Gilliam voiced his interest in re-casting the role of Don Quixote with Gérard Depardieu. The film quickly...
With Paulo Branco as producer
At the 66th Berlin International Film Festival in February 2016, Gilliam, in need of a minimum 16 million euros for the budget in order to make the film, was introduced to Portuguese producer Paulo Branco, who promised that he would obtain the needed budget by September, a few weeks before they would start the eleven weeks-long shoot. With the film having entered pre-production once again, Gilliam cast Palin as Quixote, Adam Driver as Toby, and Olga Kurylenko as the female lead. Reportedly, D...
The first image of the film, showing Don Quixote and Toby riding horses, was released on 21 February 2018. The first trailer was released for the French market on 5 April, featuring French text and subtitles, followed by an English-language trailer the following day.
The film premiered on 19 May 2018 as the closing film of the 2018 Cannes Film Festival (where it received a standing ovation), and was released in French theaters the same day. Paulo Branco, whose legal dispute with Gilliam prevented the film from competing for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, attempted to prevent the film from both bein...
Critical response
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of, based on reviews, with an average rating of . The website's critical consensus reads, "The Man Who Killed Don Quixote may not live up to long-gestating expectations, but it bears enough of director Terry Gilliam's signature creative stamp to satisfy fans." Metacriticgives the film a weighted average rating of 58 out of 100, based on 25 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Peter Debruge with Variety called t...
Development hell
In the years that followed its original cancellation, The Man Who Killed Don Quixote became widely recognized as one of the most infamous examples of development hell in film history, and as one of the most famous films never made, even gaining the reputation of being cursed. IndieWire called the film "one of the most troubled productions in the history of cinema", while /Film believed they "could write a book about the movie's problems", stating, "Heaven and hell seemed to unite in defiance...
Lost in La Mancha
See main article: Lost in La Mancha. After his 1988 film The Adventures of Baron Munchausen was almost abandoned, Gilliam decided to document the making of all his films in case one of them was canceled. For The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, he asked Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe, who had been in charge of the making-of of his film 12 Monkeys, to film what should have ultimately been its making-of; however, after Don Quixote was canceled, Lost in La Mancha was released in 2002 as a stand-alone do...
He Dreams of Giants
See main article: He Dreams of Giants. Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe, the writers and directors of Lost in La Mancha, released a follow-up film, titled He Dreams of Giants, which covers the entire history of the film's making, with particular focus on what happened after the events depicted in Lost in La Mancha. The documentary film was released on November 10, 2019. Pepe said that the film is "more introspective" than Lost in La Mancha: "This is more a film about an internal struggle in an art...
Web site: 'The Man Who Killed Don Quixote' Film Review: Terry Gilliam Finally Delivers Messy Fun . . 18 May 2018. Ben Croll. 18 May 2018.Web site: Pour " Don Quichotte ", le projet fou de Terry Gilliam, la malédiction continue . Gérard . Davet . . 3 April 2018 . 8 April 2018. fr.Web site: The Man Who Killed Don Quixote. Box Office Mojo. 13 April 2019.Web site: The Man Who Killed Don Quixote. The Numbers. 15 June 2018.Apr 10, 2019 · April 10, 2019. Terry Gilliam discusses the movie 'The Man Who Killed Don Quixote.'. Diego Lopez Calvin/Screen Media. It’s been 30 years since Terry Gilliam first dreamt of making a movie about ...
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- Kory Grow
May 8, 2018 · Terry Gilliam’s The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, a film which is synonymous with sustained and calamitous misfortune, is finally going without a hitch after nearly 30 years of blood, sweat, toil ...
May 18, 2018 · Gilliam and co-writer Tony Grisoni have ditched the time-travel element, so ad-man Toby (Adam Driver), a cynical egomaniac with a disregard for budget and production schedules, now remains in the ...
Apr 9, 2019 · I have approached few recent films with the same anxious trepidation as I did “The Man Who Killed Don Quixote.” Through some 25 years in the making, through production starts and stops ...
People also ask
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Who killed Don Quixote?
Will 'the man who killed Don Quixote' be a closing night film?
Apr 10, 2019 · 5 min read. Witty, goofy, and glorious, “The Man Who Killed Don Quixote” is Terry Gilliam ’s best film in two decades. Yes, the critical accusations after its Cannes premiere that it’s messy are 100% right, but it’s a beautiful mess, the kind of passionate, creative filmmaking that the director made back in the ‘80s and ‘90s.
