Willem Dafoe and Stellan Skarsgard have been cast in Terry Gilliam‘s The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, joining Adam Driver, Michael Palin and Olga Kurylenko on the project, which will start shooting towards the end of the year.
The news comes to us from Entre Chien Et Loup via Den Of Geek, as it finally looks like the project will finally come to fruition for Gilliam, who has attempted to bring the story to the screen in the past, most notably with Johnny Depp in the lead role (a production that was documented in the superb documentary Lost In La Mancha).
This will be Gilliam’s eighth attempt at bringing the story to the screen. His original attempt was all of the way back in 1998.
The new version is said to be set in the modern day. Gilliam co-wrote the script with Tony Grisoni and the film’s budget is said to be around $17 million. Palin is set to play Don Quixote, while Driver, is an advertising executive who is mistaken by Quixote for his friend Sancho Panza. That was the role originally played by Johnny Depp in Gilliam’s first attempt of bringing the story to the screen.
“My fear is that people have been expecting it for so long that I won’t come up to their expectations,” Gilliam said when the film was announced at the Cannes Film festival back in May. “That’s my only fear, my own inability.”
“It’s one of those dream nightmares that never leave you until you kill the thing.”
No specifics on who Dafoe or Skarsgard will plays as yet, but we’ll keep you updated.
