Jack O'Connell to Star in Terry Gilliam's DON QUIXOTE
Jack O'Connell, who is the star of Angelina Jolie's upcoming World War II survival movie Unbroken, is set to star in Terry Gilliam's long awaited passion project, Don Quixote. I've been following this movie for years, and it's really good to see that this movie is actually moving forward and that Gilliam has found an actor to star in the film.
Even though it's not mentioned in the report on Variety, John Hurt is expected to play Miguel de Cervantes, the hero of the story. Last month in an interview with the Daily Mail, Hurt talked about O'Connell's potential casting, saying, "Jack's Derbyshire born and bred, so it will be fun to work with him." Hurt is also from Derbyshire.
Gilliam's new vision of this story is a modern and satirical twist on the classic Cervantes tale. O'Connell will play Toby, "a jaded commercials director who travels to Spain for a shoot and comes across a gypsy who gives a copy of his student film - a lyrical re-working of the Don Quixote story set in a quaint old Spanish village. Moved by the discovery, Toby sets off on a bizarre road trip to find the little village where the student student film was shot and gets caught up in a series of catastrophies."
This is Gilliam's seventh attempt to make this film, and in a statement he says, "Seven is my lucky number so let’s break the curse and make it!" Executive producer Gregoire Melin added,
"We believe this film will capture the essence of everything audiences loved in Gilliam’s unforgettable masterpieces such as Brazil, Time Bandits and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen."
The original 2000 version's screenwriter Tony Grisoni, who wrote Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas, Tideland, and (uncredited) The Brothers Grimm with Gilliam, is still credited with the Quixote script.
The movie is set to start shooting in the spring for an expected May 2016 release.