Special feature of 1905 film network Have you ever wondered how long a movie can last?
Du Qifeng’s film only took 19 days, and won the Academy Award and the Golden Horse Award for best director.
It took only half a month for Liu Zhenwei to take emergency photos of Wong Kar-wai, and it became a generation of classics.
Han Han filmed for more than 80 days and earned 1.046 billion box office.
It took richard linklater 12 years to shoot, and finally won the Golden Globe Award for best film.
What I want to talk about today is the closing film of Cannes International Film Festival. It took 17 years to finish, and it has become a public case in the film history. Near the opening of the film festival, the film is still riddled with lawsuits, which can be said to be quite eventful.
Terry gilliam, the director of this film, is detached from Hollywood and European critics. His image style is unique and full of imagination, and everyone who has seen his films knows his madness.
The story of the new film Who Killed Don Quixote focuses on Toby, an advertising director, played by adam driver. In the 21st century, he traveled back to the 17th century and returned to the Spanish village where he had stayed, and found the works adapted from his school days. One of the villagers firmly believed that he was Don Quixote and that Driver was his servant, Sankoh Panza, and they took an adventure.
The film itself is really unusual. The director uses flashback to blur the boundary between reality and fantasy, which makes the audience fall into great madness. But behind this is actually some messy creation and a full-fledged shooting cycle. The final harvest is also a bipolar evaluation.
"Village Voice" believes that "gilliam made us feel his madness and pulled us into the crazy and beautiful world he created."
Variety believes that "this is what the director’s fans fear most, because it is clumsy, confused and chaotic."
So, in these 17 years, what happened to Who Killed Don Quixote?
1989: The Origin of Don Quixote
Terry gilliam read Don Quixote by Cervantes in 1989 and decided to try to adapt it. The film has the same name as the novel.
In 1990, he signed an agreement with Phoenix Film Company, and sean connery was negotiating to play Don Quixote. Nigel hawthorne and danny devito are also discussing the roles of Don Quixote and Sankoh Panza. But in the end, because of the low budget, gilliam withdrew from the project, and this movie became a wish that he always wanted to complete but could not.
At that time, the production company used director Fred Schepisi to replace gilliam, and the leading role was changed to john cleese and robin williams. However, this plan was cancelled in 1997.
1998: Change the title of the film and rewrite the script.
Later, gilliam resumed cooperation with screenwriter Toby Grisoni, and the film was renamed "The Man Who Killed Don Quixote". In this version, the protagonists are not Don Quixote and Panza, but Toby.
Toby lives in the 21st century, and his name comes from Grisoni. He met Don Quixote through time. This technique draws lessons from Mark Twain’s "Breaking into King Arthur’s Palace by mistake" in 1889.
In 1998, terry gilliam’s other film "Fear of Las Vegas" premiered in Britain, and he also announced that the next film was Don Quixote. Having lost confidence in Hollywood, he decided to make a new film in Europe, with the location in Spain, and the budget was reduced from 40 million dollars to 32.1 million dollars.
Gilliam invited jean rochefort, his "perfect Don Quixote", to play the leading role, and French actor Reshef studied English for seven months. John Denip played the role of Toby, with his girlfriend vanessa paradis as the heroine.
2000: Bad luck for the first shooting.
In September 2000, the film officially started shooting in Badenas, northern Spain. On the first day of filming, F16 fighter planes flew back and forth in the air, damaging the recording. The next day, flash floods broke out, important equipment was damaged, and the color of the scene changed.
After the crew searched for some new equipment to resume shooting, on the fifth day, when Reshef was ready to perform, he was suffering from prostate disease and his expression was very painful. Subsequently, Reshef went to Paris to see a doctor and was diagnosed with double disc disease.
In the next few days, the crew has been filming other parts, including several scenes of Depp, but no one knows when Reshef will come back. Finally, the project stopped in November 2000.
The director joked that it was "one of the most troublesome movies in history", and it seemed that heaven and hell were united in contempt of gilliam’s Who Killed Don Quixote. The words "disaster", "collapse" and "bad luck" always revolve around this terminated project. The German insurance company claimed that it brought them a loss of 15 million dollars, and then took the copyright of the script as collateral.
It is worth noting that the documentary "Help! Don Quixote caught fire unexpectedly and was shortlisted for several film festivals.
2005: Butterfly Effect under the Lack of Economic Support
In 2005, gilliam once again showed his interest in this unfinished project, hoping that Gé rard Depardieu would play Don Quixote. However, due to various unfavorable influences before, it is difficult for him to get financial support from the film company.
During this time, he tried to make other films, but they all met with problems, including Nicolas Cage’s The Defective Detective and Good Omens, whose novel adaptation was darker. During the production, there was a conflict with producer Varnstam, and long-term cooperation photographer nicola pecorini was also fired.
At the Munich International Documentary Film Festival in 2006, gilliam revealed that there was still a play in this project, and the producer Jeremy Thomas was very interested. In August, he said that the legal dispute of the film had been solved and he planned to remake the film completely.
2008— 2012: Depp or Ivan? Stupid can’t tell the difference.
In 2008, gilliam resumed film preparation. In January 2009, the script was rewritten. Later, it was reported that in November 2009, gilliam had finished the remake of the role of Don Quixote, and refused to disclose the names of the actors.
In December, he released news that robert duvall would play Don Quixote, and Depp would still play Toby. But by this time, Johnny Depp had signed a contract with Disney, which was questioned. Depp said he wouldn’t take time out of his hectic schedule to play Don Quixote.
On May 17th, 2010, it was said that ewan mcgregor played a role in the film. On September 5th, gilliam said that there was a problem with the funds a month and a half ago, so the filming was postponed again.
By 2012, Duval had always kept in touch with gilliam, and said, "We rewrite the script every year, and you will be happy to see Don Quixote return with a new look in the saddle". But at this point, ewan mcgregor is not in the cast.
2013— 2015: The actor died and the project was shelved.
In November 2013, director gilliam appeared at the Venice Film Festival. He told Variety that he was trying to remake Don Quixote himself. "I just want to finish it and take it out of my life."
In January 2014, gilliam said on Facebook, "Don Quixote’s dream has started again. Can we see that old bastard on horseback come back this year?" In an interview with Empire, he said that on September 29th, 2014, the film will start shooting in the Canary Islands. Spanish producer Adrian Guerra will provide the funds.
In August, when gilliam was interviewed by The Wrap, he said that the script had changed a little, and the story was contemporary, focusing on the harm that movies did to people. In the film, "Some people were crazy, some became drunkards, and some became prostitutes".
In September, gilliam confirmed that john hurt played Don Quixote instead of Duval. Then in an interview with Rolling Stone, gilliam said that he had encountered some minor problems. He said, "I wasted too much time on this matter. If you shoot it, you will be as crazy as Don Quixote. This decision is crazy and unreasonable. The smart people around me told me to give up, but I know they are all reasonable people. "
In December, the film announced that jack O’Connell had decided to play Toby.
In December 2015, due to the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer in john hurt, the film production was interrupted again. On January 27, 2017, Hutt died. In October, Reshef, who was originally chosen as Don Quixote, died.
2016: Funding problems lead to film stagnation.
In February 2016, gilliam talked with Portuguese producer Paulo Branco at the 66th Berlin Film Festival. At this time, he needed a budget of 16 million euros. The latter promised to give him money in September to start filming for 11 weeks.
At this time, the starring lineup changed again. adam driver played Toby, Mike Palin played Don Quixote, and Olga Kurylenko played the heroine. According to reports, Driver’s salary is 610,000 euros, while Palin’s is 285,000 euros. Gilliam hired his daughter Amy as the production director. The new story is basically consistent with the final presentation.
But before long, the problem came again. Blanca wanted to take control of the whole project, but gilliam chose to comply, because he saw the former’s successful project in david cronenberg. However, Blanca seems to feel gilliam’s disgust for himself.
Before the Cannes Film Festival in 2016, Amazon decided to quit because Blanca was a producer. The representative said, "We don’t want to communicate with him any more."
Blanca cut the original budget and reduced Palin’s salary to 100 thousand euros, which angered the latter. He also told gilliam that the project needed a real producer and appointed himself as the leader. He tried to replace Palin, give up 35mm equipment and shoot with digital equipment, at the same time threatening gilliam.
Because gilliam did not accept any conditions after the change, the final funds could not be put in place and the project was stagnant. This also led to gilliam’s heart attack.
2017— 2018: After the successful killing, there are twists and turns.
In March 2017, "Who Killed Don Quixote" started shooting again, and the role of Don Quixote was changed to jonathan pryce. He worked with gilliam on Brothers Grimm. As early as 2000, when the project was first launched, Press was one of the cast members. He wanted to play the role of Don Quixote for 15 years.
Gilliam said that the budget of the film was not as much as expected, and the whole crew was very eager to finish it. "It has been too long since I wanted to shoot it in 1989. The experience of thinking, imagining, writing and rewriting is terrible, but the interesting thing about the film is that at some point it has begun to shape itself. This is a very different movie. It seems to be doing my job. I just stick to it until the end. "
On June 4, 2017, "Who Killed Don Quixote" was finally finished after 17 years. In November, gilliam revealed that the editing was about to be completed, but it still needed several months for post-production of visual effects, sound and music.
However, there was an episode in which during the filming in Portugal, the crew was accused of destroying public property, including Christian monasteries. However, gilliam denied these allegations and said that all we did was to protect the building. It was later ruled that it was only responsible for insignificant damage.
What is even more unexpected is that the film is approaching the release and there are twists and turns. Paulo Branco, the former producer, said that the agreement signed with gilliam in 2016 was still valid, and he owned part of the rights and interests. Without his consent, the film could not be released. This lawsuit will affect the screening of Who Killed Don Quixote at the Cannes International Film Festival in 2018.
The final judgment of the case will be announced on June 15th, which was later postponed to 18th. On May 7, a hearing was held on whether the film could go to Cannes, and on May 9, it was allowed to be shown as the closing film at the film festival.
The organizing Committee of the film festival responded by saying, "The film festival is purely about choosing works of art.. First of all, we must reach an agreement with the film director. This is the case here. Past experience has made us aware of the litigation and risks we will face, but when we made this decision, no one objected. "
As the director himself said, "People like Roman ruins because they can’t see them. You can only imagine them."So gilliam always thought that his film would be better than expected. He finally turned his imagination into reality.
