Z/Web

This is the story of a film that was never made. Terry Gilliam, one of my favorite directors, wanted to create a film based on Don Quixote. It’s been his pet project for a decade, but he couldn’t get financing. He finally got it financed in Europe at a record-setting $32 (for Europe), but according to Gilliam, that’s only half of what he really needed. What followed is a comedy of bad luck and mismanagement. Because of the tight budget, actors were hired at reduced rates and the production had to fit within the schedule of the actors instead of the other way around. Thus there was minimal pre-production time with the actors, leading to a number of problems. Then the production schedule was so tight that they couldn’t miss a single day: combine that with location problems, such as military F16 jets flying overhead constantly in the desert location (they’d been told the base was only active an hour a day), and a sudden flash flood that ruined equipment, caused them to lose a couple days shooting, and changed the color of the desert meaning earlier footage wouldn’t match. Then the lead actor, Don Quixote, played by 70-year-old French actor Jean Rochefort developed prostate problems and couldn’t ride a horse or continue. Production ground to a halt and it was basically up to the film’s insurers to decide if the film could proceed. To replace the main actor would mean refinancing from scratch, so that wasn’t a simple option. Basically, everything that could go wrong went wrong. Definitely mistakes were made: the insurance wasn’t quite the right kind (it covered lost equipment but not lost shooting time), some of the people in the production didn’t make good decisions, etc. What struck me most profoundly was that what killed the film was dozens of small things, not any huge catastrophe. In other situations these problems could have been overcome, but with such an ambitious project, such an impossibly tight schedule, and inadequate financing, it was made for disaster. Gilliam is still trying to get the film made, and it would be nice to see it happen, though I suppose it will be years off and probably with a different cast. It’s very unfortunate and this is a sad film in that regard, but it’s a fascinating look behind the scenes of how films are (or aren’t) made.