Cannes 2009

By Quinn Bender

After nine-years on the shelf, Terry Gilliam's epic misadventure, The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, will resume filming again in 2010, but there's no word yet on whether Johnny Depp will once more saddle up in the re-imagined role of Sancho Panza.

Speaking to the press at the Cannes Film Festival Thursday about his latest film, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Gilliam would only confirm the resurection of his project.

"Don Quixote rides again," Gilliam said. "We've re-written the script and finally got the script back from the lawyers... and the plan is to begin shooting next springtime."

Heavyweight producer Jeremy Thomas, whose 1986 epic, The Last Emperor, went on to win nine Accademy Awards, is attached to the project, Gilliam said.

"I don't have anything else to say about it, except that we're at that beginning stage: get the money, get the bodies and let's go."

Reporters were blocked from asking any further questions as the moderator then abruptly ended the press conference.

In 2000, The Man Who Killed Don Quixote was the biggest-budgeted feature film to use only European financing. However, for all Gilliam's creativity, the film was plagued with an improbable series of disasters, ranging from scheduling conflicts, budget cuts, studio and location problems, among others, that eventually killed production within one week.

A behind-the-scenes film of Gilliam's failure, Lost in La Mancha, went on to become a rare, theatrical success for a documentary, as the director's struggle and unwavering belief, much like Quixote's, proved only an elaborate delusion against unconquerable odds.

In it's first incarnation, Gilliam's script combined the literary world of Miguel Cervantes with 21st century satire. An advertising executive, previously played by Depp, finds himself unstuck in time, unwittingly traveling between modern day London and 17th century La Mancha. He participates in the adventures of Don Quixote, played in 2000 by Jean Rochefort, who mistakes him for Sancho Panza.