This fucking movie.
I think most fans of Terry Gilliam are rooting deep in their souls for this man to make this film, if only so he can rest in peace when he finally departs this world. Unfortunately the man is 69 years old, and while he’s hopefully not checking out later this week, his efforts are too precious to be wasted on a Sisyphean quest to make a film no one will cough up the dough for. So with that in mind, I guess it’s a good thing that he’s taking the latest “financial hiccup” in stride and taking a call from Arcade Fire to direct a live webcast of their concert that will air at 10pm EST TONIGHT.
You can check out that webcast at YouTube, and I’ve embedded the trailer below.
The main point here though, is that Don Quixote is in fact delayed but the principle elements are still assembled, according to his interview with MTV.
“We moved forward and then we stepped back a bit. Originally, I thought we were going to be in pre-production right now, but there’s been a little hiccup. And me doing this thing with Arcade Fire is a result of this hiccup with “Don Quixote.” Robert Duvall is still Quixote and Ewan McGregor is still involved — all that stuff is still happening. There’s just been a financial hiccup.”
So with that project paused he joined up with Arcade Fire for the aforementioned webcast for which he, by his own admittance to EW, doesn’t fully understand his role.
“I’m trying to find out what this fucking thing is… I keep reading that I’m directing this thing, but I’m not sure that’s what I’m doing. Their manager called my agent less than two weeks ago and said, ‘We’re doing this webcast and the band would love it if you got involved.’ …it will be the fourth that I’ve been with them. I’m a groupie, basically! If I see somebody doing something stupid I’ll probably mention that to them. But their show’s really good, and they’ve got really good video stuff already. So we’ll stick with what they’re doing and I can sit back and take credit for everything.”
Gilliam is a delight of a man, and I hope he gets what he needs for Quixote, but I hope he’ll also know when to walk away for good.