If you’re feeling a bit down this Monday morning — maybe you’re one of those who isn’t enjoying a holiday in the States, today, for instance — you might need some clowns.
More specifically, you might need some Terry Gilliam clowns, as seen in the first images from his new short film The Wholly Family. Don’t be afraid: they’re Italian Commedia Dell’arte clowns… whose masks and expressions only remind me of the Clockwork Orange home invasion scene… and they seem to be attacking (or, worse, staffing) a hospital. Oh, dear, I’m really not making this any better, am I?
Clown-filled images and some behind the scenes video, after the break. Read More »
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Terry Gilliam may not be making that second take on The Man Who Killed Don Quixote after all, but don’t think he isn’t busy. He’s already done a webcast with the Arcade Fire this year, and made that strange NASCAR-themed short film, The Legend of Hallowdega.
Now he’s got another short planned that will go before cameras early in 2011. Details on The Wholly Family, after the break. Read More »
It’s a strange world. If you’d told me that one day I’d be watching Dale Earnhardt, Jr. introduce a short NASCAR film directed by Terry Gilliam, I can’t imagine I’d have taken the idea seriously. And yet here’s the online presentation of The Legend of Hallowdega, an 18-minute film in which the secret, possibly spooky past of the Talladega Speedway is explored. Seriously. Read More »
Briefly: Terry Jones — the Monty Python member who directed The Life of Brian, not the nutter who wanted to burn the Qu’ran in Florida — is preparing to make his return to the director’s chair with Absolutely Anything. The film will star John Oliver, recently known as the Senior British Correspondent (among other titles) at The Daily Show. That makes Oliver the latest TDS alum to jump from small screen to large, and a well-deserved jump it should be.
Jones wrote the script with Gavin Scott, and it reportedly includes as diverse elements as “aliens, a goofy Brit, a talking dog and buckets of silliness,” to all of which I’ll simply say: ‘yes.’
We don’t have info about Oliver’s role (‘goofy Brit,’ one would assume) but Deadline says that Robin Williams is in talks to play the talking dog (named Dennis the Dog) while John Cleese, Michael Palin, Eric Idle and Terry Gilliam have all been contacted about voicing aliens. Again: yes. Absolutely Anything is currently hoping to shoot in Spring 2011.
I feel for Terry Gilliam. He just can’t seem to catch a break, no matter the project. And in the case of The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, the film’s history has been more storied than most. He’s been trying to get the movie made for over ten years, and even got as far as filming the thing (with Johnny Depp in the lead role, no less), when the entire production went to hell and was forced into cancellation. These mishaps were captured in detail in the depressing 2002 documentary Lost in La Mancha, and I’ve been wary about Gilliam’s attempts to return to the project ever since.
And for good reason, it seems. Read More »
Last night Terry Gilliam directed the live webcast of the band Arcade Fire‘s performance at Madison Square Garden. Prior to the event, Gilliam said he’d mostly just be following along and trying to keep up. But you know he couldn’t simply do that.
The webcast opened with a fun little skit in which Gilliam is revealed to be more of a controlling director than he’d previously let on. And it comes complete with a guest appearance from Andrew Garfield, your future Peter Parker, whom Gilliam directed in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. Read More »
Just when we thought it was safe to have hope for Terry Gilliam‘s resumed efforts to film The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, the project is stalled again. The famous first stall was a decade ago, and has been documented so many times that I won’t go into it again. Now Gilliam seems to have Ewan McGregor and Robert Duvall lined up to star in roles once taken by Johnny Depp and Jean Rochefort.
But both new actors have recently sounded hesitant about the project, and now Gilliam admits that a financial ‘hiccup’ has temporarily stalled the film. Read More »
Terry Gilliam‘s The Man Who Killed Don Quixote has undergone quite a few changes. Since Gilliam first attempted to shoot the film in 2000 with Johnny Depp and Jean Rochefort, the project has been put on hold, recast (with Ewan McGregor and Robert Duvall) and undergone at least one rewrite.
We’d previously heard that the rewrite had changed some small things, like the name and occupation of the main character. But now it seems that some serious changes have been wrought, which among other things might make the picture more attractive to financiers. Read More »
