Terry Gilliam Apologizes For Being Dead, Shares Trailer For Memoir 'Gilliamesque'

Terry Gilliam isn't dead, despite a brief and alarming report to the contrary that stunned Twitter and the movie industry for a few minutes Tuesday afternoon. We're thrilled that Gilliam is still around, and that he is taking this odd spotlight moment to apologize for his own death.

In perfectly Gilliamesque fashion, the writer/director also shared the trailer for his forthcoming memoir, a "pre-posthumous" book he is calling, of course, Gilliamesque.

On Facebook, Gilliam shared a perfect photo that we'll let you click through to find, and said,

I APOLOGIZE FOR BEING DEAD especially to those who have already bought tickets to the upcoming talks, but, Variety has announced my demise. Don't believe their retraction and apology!

As it turns out, this moment is perfect to bring up Gilliam's soon-to-be-released memoir, which hits bookshops on October 1 from Canongate Books. Here's the trailer:

I hope that is, in fact, a representation of the book's design, as it looks terrific. I'd love to have a single volume that encompasses the filmmaker's career (to date) and this looks like it might do the trick. Here's a long bit of ad copy about the book, which has the benefit of telling us some of what's in it.

From his no-frills childhood in the icy wastes of Minnesota, to some of the hottest water Hollywood had to offer, via the cutting edge of '60s and '70s counter-culture in New York, LA and London, Terry Gilliam's life has been as vivid and unorthodox as one of his films.Telling his story for the first time, the director of Time Bandits, Brazil, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, The Fisher King, 12 Monkeys and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas – not to mention co-founder of Monty Python's Flying Circus – recalls his life so far. Packed with never-before-seen artwork, photographs and commentary, Gilliamesque blends the visual and the verbal with scabrous wit and fascinating insights.Gilliam's 'pre-posthumous memoir' also features a cast of amazing supporting characters – George Harrison, Robin Williams, Jeff Bridges, Robert De Niro, Brad Pitt, Uma Thurman, Johnny Depp, Heath Ledger and all of the fellow Pythons – as well as cameo appearances from some of the heaviest cultural hitters of modern times, from Woody Allen to Frank Zappa, Gloria Steinem to Robert Crumb, Richard Nixon to Hunter S. Thompson. Gilliam's encounters with the great and the not-so-good are revealing, funny and hugely entertaining. This book is an unrestrained look into a unique creative mind and an incomparable portrait of late twentieth-century popular culture.