HOME TRAILERS 2013 SCHEDULE PODCASTS REVIEWS POSTERS INTERVIEWS SHORT FILMS NEWS FEEDS ABOUT APPS

LATEST NEWS

Terry Gilliam Now Says Johnny Depp WILL Be in Don Quixote?

by Alex Billington
December 18, 2009
Source: Paste

The very last bit of news we heard regarding Terry Gilliam's The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, which will probably be his next project ("hopefully that’ll get up and running next year"), is that he had cast Robert Duvall in the role of Don Quixote instead of French actor Jean Rochefort (from the original 2000 version). However, Gilliam is still apparently looking for funding and didn't seem to have a start date set yet. But in a recent interview with Paste (via SlashFilm), Terry Gilliam answered the question of "Is it still going to have Johnny Depp in it?" with a simple "Yeah, and I rewrote the script." So Depp will be back as Toby Grisoni?

In the original Don Quixote that Gilliam tried to make in 2000, Johnny Depp was playing Toby Grisoni, a marketing executive who finds himself "unstuck" in time and travels back to 17th century La Mancha where he then becomes Don Quixote's sidekick/squire Sancho Panza. Originally, Gilliam said he was "in talks with Johnny Depp to bring the actor back," but then in June we reported that Depp was unsure of returning. Depp himself was quoted as saying that his "dance card is pretty nutty for the next couple of years" and he didn't want to make Gilliam wait for him. But maybe it all worked out and he was able to fit it in after all?

We'll need some secondary confirmation before reporting this as anything other than a rumor, but looking at Depp's upcoming "dance card," it may be possible. He's supposed to star in The Tourist with Angelina Jolie and that could shoot early 2010. And Tim Burton's Dark Shadows is also supposed to shoot next year. Then he's got Pirates of the Caribbean 4, but who knows what's going on with that, and he's also got The Lone Ranger. However, with a new studio head at Disney, there have been a lot of changes, and we haven't heard any news on those two moving forward. So who knows? Maybe a spot did open up in Depp's schedule?

Filed under Movie News, Opinions, Rumors

From around the web:

guh

Gilliam and Depp?!?! SWEET!!!
samuel j

im with #1
Blackstar

You know, that's great and all; but it's been so bloody long, stories have been ping-pong-ing around about this film for years, I really only care to hear when it's going to be in theaters.
Jeremiah

No. Stay away, Johnny. If this is true, he's prob only doing it because Gilliam's trying to make him feel guilty for pursuing other material.
Avi

Yeah! Gilliam always talk too much...
JimD

This is a perfect quirky story for Gilliam. With Johnny Depp it got even better.
chekhov

yes!!! duvall and depp in one movie?? GLORY!!! HALLLELUjah
Wb exec

Let's not forget it was Gilliam who contributed to Heath Ledger's death. Pressuring a guy to do his film after an intense Dark Knight shoot and not noticing the guy is out inthe cold all the time and not sleeping and all around horrible conditions on the set. Please Gilliam should just stop making films .
brou

#8 : You're an ass. Really. Go away.
Garth Marenghi

This is wonderful if it is true. Also, it proves that Depp is very forgiving and even-tempered; Gilliam has been constantly slagging him off in interviews over his other movie choices ever since he became a big star. If he didn't make the blockbusters, he wouldn't be able to secure financing for the likes of Mr Gilliam...
dex

@8 that's a very very wrong thing to say. btw i really look forward to this project.
http://bellsouth.net Sean

Something tells me that Johnny Depp is going to focus mostly on Pirates 4, because of the major success of the first three Pirates of the Caribbean movie that have been released so far!. The Director of Pirates 4, Rob Marshall, said that Pirates 4 is going to start filming in June 2010. Its coming to theaters on May 27th, 2011 Friday!, on memorial day weekend, like when pirates 3 came out on may 25th, 2007, back in 2007.
EJP

@12 Sean - I guess you haven't been keeping up-do-date. In the last interview given by Rob Marshall he stated he hadn't seen a script, but was hopeful POTC4 would get made. That doesn't sound to me like the filming is starting in June.
brou

And even if it's starting in June, Gilliam plans to start filming his Don Quixote in April... So there's room for Depp to star in Quixote and Pirates, if he wants and/or has no other film (aka "The Tourist") planned...
Tim

This Paste interview was the one and only interview where Gilliam supposedly confirmed Depp, and I really think it was a mis-communication somehow. Reading the original interview, it appears to have taken place over the phone. I have serious doubts Gilliam intended to confirm Depp. There have been so many other interviews, and just as recent, where he unequivocally said No -- like the recent interview for Comic Book Resources dot com titled Terry Gilliam Discusses "Doctor Parnassus" where he was asked: "With Johnny Depp?" "No, that's the one positive - not positive, the one definite thing I can say. Johnny was swashing and buckling somewhere else. [Laughs]" "But Robert Duvall…" "Yeah, Mr. Blabbermouth Duvall let it out in an interview on "Crazy Heart" saying that I'd asked him to play it. Yep, Robert Duvall is Quixote. Utterly wonderful. He's extraordinary. He's just such a phenomenal actor and the idea of him taking on a character like that is very unlikely, that's what's so interesting about it. He's just bubbling with enthusiasm. He's great."
Lando

jack sparrow as don quixote...Johhny Depp has fallen into that same vein of acting like jack nicholson, constantly playing himself as the same role in every movie..get a new face on the screen already!