7. The Man Who Killed Don Quixote - Terry Gilliam
It's a flat out miracle that Terry Gilliam is still making movies. After years of rancorous battles with studios over funding, and cataclysmic struggles against obstinate weather or irrate actors, the prolific filmmaker finally met his match when he attempted to mount a large, sprawling production of Don Quixote in 2000, complete with a then much younger (and much cooler) Johnny Depp. With his luck running true to form, Gilliam's production was almost immediately beset with disaster on all sides. First, star Jean Rochefort suffered a herniated disk, completely sidelining him from the production for months. Then shots were disrupted from noise coming from a near-by NATO base. To top it off, a flood of biblical proportions swept the production area, severely damaging critical pieces of equipment. Needless to say, the film was eventually abandoned (all of this is chronicled in the sublime documentary Lost in La Mancha): a certified shame, given that, though Gilliam can occasionally be inconsistent (particularly of late), when he connects, he connects hard. Examples of this run throughout his filmography and include such titles as: Time Bandits, Brazil, The Fisher King, and 12 Monkeys - all of which are terrifically made and showcase the man's boundless imagination.