Lost in La Mancha
 

Has anyone seen the Terry Gilliam/Don Quixote documentary?

http://i.imdb.com/Photos/Ss/0308514/...poster2224.jpg

It's about Terry Gilliam and lead Johnny Depp trying to make
a Don Quixote movie in Spain.

There are financial troubles and weather-related disasters etc. they end up ruining the attempt at a film.

It's quite interesting and funny as well.

One of the best docs I have seen. Goes to show you everything hat could go wrong.

its so friggen sad, I wanted to cry, one of the most depressing docs I have ever seen (huge Gilliam fan)

It's really too bad that Gilliam "had" to go to Europe to get
the film financed in the first place.

Yet, I'm sure Hollywood will have no problem paying for a
sequel to "Dude, Where's My Car?"

I'm more or less playing devil's advocate here, but given how the production turned out, don't you think those Hollywood people who declined to finance the film are patting themselves on the back right about now? Whereas they would probably be guaranteed a profit with a "Dude, Where's My Car?" sequel? Hard to believe, but it is a business.

I finally saw this last night, thought it was pretty enjoyable. Gilliam is an interesting man to watch.

It was shocking how easily the film fell apart though. Rained out one day, the lead actor lost and poof! No more film. I had to wonder why they didn't have a stronger contingencey plan for the storm. Once they were rained out, didn't have a cover set or a different sequence that could have been shot? Why was so much time wasted hanging around.

Ofcourse, they couldn't have expected Jean to get so ill that they would lose him completely. But couldn't it have been in the back of their mind. Wouldn't you cynicly be thinking 'Well he's an old man. People do die whether they're making a movie or not.'

I liked the financers stuff a lot. As well as insurance on films, something that I've never seen covered in any other movie documentary.Wished there had been more on that. Maybe in deleted scenes on the DVD.

I wonder if Gilliam would ever be able to try a Don Quixote movie again. I for one would love to see that opening Windmill scene.

A well financed Hollywood film can withstand big blows and can reschedule easily. Lower budget films don't have that room to move. Losing a lead actor is huge, especially when it's really the only one that you liked in casting. Someone like Ridley would almost rather not make a film at all then make one with an actor he didn't feel was right for the role.

As far as the rainstorm, it was a little more extreme than just a rain day, wasn't it? It's been awhile since I 've seen it. Equipment was washed away and the landscape was muddy for days afterward. When they did try to shoot elsewhere, didn't the lead actor then have serious health problems? The warehouse they were looking at to use as a stage was horrendous. This was just a huge case of bad luck. Low budget productions can weather a storm or two as long as things go right in other avenues of production. On LILM, it seemed like it was one thing after another, they could never recover. Once you're behind schedule and over budget, minus a lead actor and you've barely started shooting, financers (at least european private investors) are going to cut their losses and split.

Id like to see this!

I just watched this yesterday, and while I didn't find it as moving as some of you, it was very entertaining and interesting. I would hope that the success and acclaim for this doc might convince U.S. studios to give Gilliam the funding he needs.

In terms of "how easily" this fell apart, keep in mind that this modest $30 million dollar budget was HUGE for Europe--it would have been one of the biggest budgets funded entirely by Europeans, as mentioned in the doc. Gilliam was trying to make it for about half as much as it really should have cost, but he was trying to make the same movie. It was too difficult, but there is hope that it will one day be made, as Gilliam is now trying to buy back the rights to the film from the insurance company.