It’s maybe best to take most Terry Gilliam-related news with a rainforest-sized grain of salt, but still, it’s also nice to get excited about a project from the director of Brazil. It’s been announced that Adam Driver has signed on to co-star in Gilliam’s in-the-works take on Don Quixote. The Girls and Star Wars star will play the role of Toby, a publicist who, back when he was but a lowly film student, decided to adapt Don Quixote — so, it’s kind of one of those films with a film within the film.
Monty Python-alum Michael Palin will play Quixote in the film made by Toby, which is important because the crux of Gilliam’s Quixote is that, while filming his project in a remote village, Toby unknowingly altered the lives of the people there forever. The man who played Quixote in said film has gone crazy and is convinced that he is actually Don Quixote. This is sounding kind of a lot like what could be an only slightly altered history of Herzog’s Aguirre, the Wrath of God.
Here’s more of an official synopsis, from Flickreel:
“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.”
Gilliam’s previous attempt at filming a Quixote adaptation was captured on the documentary Lost in La Mancha. That attempt, to be titled The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, was meant to star Johnny Depp as a time-traveling Quixote.