Heaneyland!

Land of the Lost

Last night, Rose and I finally got to see "Lost in La Mancha", the movie which details Terry Gilliam's doomed attempt to film "The Man Who Killed Don Quixote". Even knowing in advance how many things had gone wrong on the production, how many incredible pieces of bad luck had arisen, it didn't prepare me for how painful it would be to watch. I thought "The Poseidon Adventure" was a disaster movie. No. This is a disaster movie.

But seeing it did remind me...hey, didn't Gilliam get back on the moviemaking bicycle recently? So I dug out my trusty old Internet and discovered that, yes, his next film, "The Brothers Grimm", is in post-production and should be released this November, although some of the news reports about it make me nervous about that whole studio interference thing that has always plagued Gilliam.

"Terry wants to make the film his way, but it is becoming increasingly apparent that his vision of The Brothers Grimm differs from Miramax's", says my source. "Bob Weinstein was sent to Prague to oversee production. But after taking one look at the rushes, he replaced Gilliam's trusted cinematographer with his own man.

"Now Terry has been telling everybody: 'Harvey Weinstein needs to learn a lesson and I'm the one to teach it.' The majority of the crew agrees with Terry. It's a titanic battle of egos."

A spokesman for Miramax in the States denied any knowledge of discord. "I'm not aware of this at all."

Well, one can always hope. And Quixote may yet see the light of day. It's been years, but Gilliam isn't any less interested in buying the script back from the insurance company that currently owns it, and Johnny Depp has said he'd still be up for it (fourth item).

Posted by Francis at 06:34 AM