Stay Connected
Atlanta Black Star/Film
FilmNews

Johnny Depp Decides to Go Ahead with Don Quixote Without Terry Gilliam

Posted byBy ABS Contributor | Published on: CommentsComments (0)

Terry Gilliam has been trying to make The Man Who Killed Don Quixote for twelve years now. His disastrous first attempt was chronicled in the great documentary Lost in La Mancha. Johnny Depp originally starred as a modern-day businessman who gets sent back in time to 17th century Spain, where he falls in with Don Quixote (the crazy dude who fights a windmill), who’s mistaken him for Sancho Panza (the sidekick who rides around on a donkey and is sort of like the Boo Boo to Don Quixote’s Yogi, always telling him that the various crazy things he’s doing are bad ideas, but always ignored). There was flooding, aircraft noise, and a star breaking his back, and so the production was shut down. Gilliam’s been doggedly trying to get things going again ever since, and Depp’s character has since been recast as Ewan MacGregor.

Depp, in the meantime, has moved forward with his own Don Quixote project. Depp and his production company Infinitum Nihil have struck a deal with Disney to make an adaptation of Miguel Cervantes’s classic novel. Steve Pink and Jeff Morris will write the script. Terry Gilliam will presumably cry himself to sleep for more than a few nights.

Democracy needs journalism it can trust.

This election season, the stakes are higher than usual — and so is the pressure on newsrooms to soften their coverage, stay quiet, or just disappear. Independent reporting, the kind that answers to readers instead of advertisers or political pressure, matters more in a moment like this, not less.

For over 14 years, Atlanta Black Star has stayed independent and reader-funded. We have no corporate owner and no shareholders telling us what to cover or how to cover it. That independence is also our biggest vulnerability: nothing protects it except readers choosing to fund it directly.

Newspaper ad revenue has fallen more than 80% since 2005, and local newsrooms are closing at a rate of roughly two a week nationwide. When outlets go under in a moment like this, it's rarely the independent, reader-funded ones that get to stick around.

We know a request for support isn't why you came here. But without readers choosing to fund this work directly, the depth of reporting we can do at home and abroad shrinks along with everyone else's. If you're not in a position to give, that doesn't change how much we value you as a reader.

If you are able to, a recurring contribution does more for us than a single one-time gift, because it lets us plan the next investigation instead of just the next invoice. It takes about 30 seconds, no long form, no account. Thank you for continuing to support independent journalism and freedom of the press.

Give once Give monthly Support another way

Related Stories

Back to top