WBUR.org: "Director, screenwriter, animator Terry Gilliam was the one and only American-born member of Britain’s Monty Python comedy team. Gave Monty Python its unforgettable visual stamp – the crazy Victoriana cutouts of zany old photos and stomping feet. Directed “Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” then a string of very distinctively Terry Gilliam films. Now he’s telling his own story." Read on

"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

Kirsty Young asks castaways to choose eight records, a book and a luxury to take with them to the mythical desert island.

bbc.co.uk: "Terry Gilliam first planted his foot-print on our cultural landscape as one of the defining images of Monty Python's Flying Circus. In the years since, his film credits have included Brazil, Twelve Monkeys and The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus. Now aged 70, he's directing his first opera. He says: "I've always liked the extremes, the edges. I like to know where the cliff is, but you only find out by stepping off." ead on

Terry Gilliam - 2011_04_10 - Desert Island Discs