Terry Gilliam Shares Poster Designs for “The Man Who Killed Don Quixote”

Filmmaker Terry Gilliam has been sharing several designs for posters for his upcoming film The Man Who Killed Don Quixote on Facebook and Twitter.

You may know Gilliam as the director of cult classics as Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Brazil, and 12 Monkeys among other unparalleled films. He is also a former member of the British surrealist comedy troupe, Monty Python. The auteur filmmaker is also the director and co-writer of “The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus”, the last film to star the dearly departed Heath Ledger as he passed away in the midst of filming.

The Man Who Killed Don Quixote is notorious for being in development hell for nearly thirty years. Gilliam has tried over and over again to make this film only to have production halted and canceled due to funding and insurance issues, equipment being ravaged by weather in the initial filming in 2000, people leaving the project due to illness and losing interest, and issues over who owned the film rights. People were saying that the film was cursed. There’s even a 2002 documentary about the film’s failed production called Lost in La Mancha when Johnny Depp was cast as the lead.

Because all this notoriety, this film is already facing negative reception for apparently not being a total masterpiece, but it should be noted how incredible it is that this film has been completed at all. The film has a lot of history to live up to, but you have to give it to Terry Gilliam for being so persistent and determined to make this movie. I would have given up after a few months of bad luck. He carried his bad luck for 29 years.

The Man Who Killed Don Quixote stars Adam Driver, Jonathan Pryce, Olga Kurylenko, Stellan Skarsgård, and Joana Ribeiro. The film was released on May 19th in France and has release dates in other countries as well, but currently has no release date in North America because of distribution issues. One can only hope that Gilliam will find a way to get his film in front of American audiences, and I have a feeling he’ll pull it off.

Anyway, take a look at these surreal poster designs.