"In 2000, Gilliam set out to realize his long-cherished vision of a freely adapted version of Don Quixote, titled The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, starring Johnny Depp as a time traveler from the 21st Century who meets up with Quixote,. Despite the complexity of the project, Gilliam was restricted to a bare-bones budget. During the first few days of filming, things began to go horribly awry. The situation only got worse from there, and like Orson Welles before him, Gilliam was unable to bring Don Quixote to the screen. He called it the “curse of Quixote.”

The unfolding disaster is documented by Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe in Lost in La Mancha. The 89-minute film is narrated by Jeff Bridges. Woody Allen wryly described Lost in La Mancha as “an extremely entertaining and hilarious presentation of every film director’s worst nightmare.” Read on at www.openculture.com

Terry Gilliam and the Curse of Quixote