Back in December of 2012, it was announced that Walt Disney Pictures was developing a new big-screen Don Quixote movie based on Miguel de Cervantes’ classic 1605 Spanish novel. Now, The Hollywood Reporter brings word that active development has resumed on the project, with screenwriter Billy Ray (The Hunger Games, Captain Phillips) taking the reigns of Quixote and Sancho Panza. Ray recently created a pilot for The Last Tycoon for Amazon.
This new take on Quixote will be produced by Ray and Disney vet Gordon Gray (The Rookie, Million Dollar Arm), and is said to take its cues from the rollicking, adventurous tone of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise.
When the project was initially set up, the studio was looking at their Pirates of the Caribbean and Alice in Wonderland star Johnny Depp to headline, with the actor’s company Infinitum Nihil and Christi Dembrowski producing the pitch from screenwriters Steve Pink and Jeff Morris. Depp had previously attempted a loose adaptation of the tale with Terry Gilliam directing. The 2000 production, which featured Depp in a time-traveling Sancho Panza-like role, famously fell apart and was documented in the film Lost in La Mancha. There is no word on whether he is still attached, particularly after the stinging failures of The Lone Ranger and Alice Through the Looking Glass.
Meanwhile, Gilliam’s most recent attempt to resuscitate The Man Who Killed Don Quixote has hit another snag. Despite a cast that included Adam Driver, Michael Palin, Olga Kurylenko and Stellan Skarsgård, producer Paulo Branco apparently was unable to acquire the proper funds for an October shoot and was subsequently let go from the production. Gilliam says he plans to continue efforts to mount the production, though Disney may possibly finish theirs before he does.
