Terry Gilliam Suffers Minor Stroke Days Before Verdict on Cannes Closer ‘Don Quixote’

Terry Gilliam suffered a minor stroke over the weekend, days before a final verdict on whether his long-gestating passion project The Man Who Killed Don Quixote will be screened as the closing film at the 71st Cannes Film Festival. 

The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed that Gilliam, 77, had a minor stroke but is fine now and recuperating at his home in England, awaiting the outcome of a court ruling regarding the screening of Don Quixote on the last night of the festival May 19. French newspaper Nice-Matin first reported the news. 

Gilliam and the producers of Don Quixote are in a legal spat with Paulo Branco, formerly a producer on the film. Branco, who claims to have the rights to the movie, has sought an injunction in a Parisian court to prevent it from being shown at Cannes and in French cinemas. A final ruling was to be made in Paris on Wednesday. 

A decades-in-the-making passion project for Gilliam, Don Quixote stars Adam Driver, Jonathan Pryce and Olga Kurylenko. A surrealist interpretation of the Cervantes classic, the film follows Toby, a disillusioned advertising executive, who is pulled into a world of time-jumping fantasy when a Spanish cobbler believes him to be Sancho Panza. He then gradually becomes unable to distinguish dreams from reality.

Don Quixote‘s legal problems haven’t stopped its commercial prospects. On Tuesday, Beijing-based Turbo Films acquired Chinese rights to the film with plans for a wide theatrical release in the country.