Paulo Branco is stepping in as producer for Terry Gilliam’s beleaguered The Man Who Killed Don Quixote.
Branco will produce under his Paris-based Alfama Films label, with Spain’s Tornasol Films and Portugal’s Leopardo Filmes co-producing.
The budget is set at $18.25 million (€16 million), with principal photography starting in September in Spain and Portugal.
The Man Who Killed Don Quixote has reached almost mythical status after years of failed attempts to complete it and even resulted in a documentary on its ill-fated journey to the screen in 2002’s Lost in La Mancha when Johnny Depp was the star.
Ewan McGregor and Robert Duvall were attached as stars in Gilliam’s second try, but it ultimately did not find financing. The latest cast is the legendary John Hurt and Unbroken star Jack O’Connell. Further delays were caused by Hurt’s diagnosis of pancreatic cancer early last year. Hurt was given the all-clear by his doctors in Oct. 2015.
Alfama Films previously produced David Cronenberg’s Cosmopolis and Mathieu Amalric’s Cannes entry The Blue Room.
