15 Movies You Thought Were Doomed (But Weren't)
7. The Man Who Killed Don Quixote
Terry Gilliam's The Man Who Killed Don Quixote might well be the most persistently troubled production in cinema history, and the mere fact Gilliam finally got it made is really triumph enough, regardless of the film's quality.
Gilliam has been trying to get the adaptation of Miguel de Cervantes' novel made since the late 1980s, with the movie first going into production in 1998, with Jean Rochefort and Johnny Depp starring.
Due to Rochefort's health problems, inclement weather destroying some of the sets and a litany of financial issues, production was cancelled shortly after shooting began (as depicted in the terrific 2002 documentary Lost in La Mancha).
This was just the first of many failed attempts to get Don Quixote before cameras over the last 20 years, with the likes of Michael Palin, Robert Duvall and John Hurt also signing on to play the title character, but Gilliam never being able to secure adequate funds.
Out of the blue, shooting finally began in early 2017 with Jonathan Pryce as Quixote and Adam Driver as his sidekick Toby Grisoni. While fans eagerly anticipated an act of God once again wiping out the "cursed" production, Gilliam was finally able to finishing shooting the movie 17 years after he started, but he sadly wasn't out of the woods yet.
Even with the film in the can, legal red tape over ownership of the movie threatened to cancel its recent premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. Only at the last minute did the courts rule in favour of Gilliam, and the premiere was given the go-ahead.
Though the movie has opened to mixed-positive reviews so far, that in of itself is a robust achievement given that Gilliam spent two decades battling against the sheer will of the universe itself, which seemingly didn't want this movie to exist.
Considering most of Gilliam's fans had resigned themselves to never seeing the movie, the fact it even exists and is halfway decent is a shocking victory.