'He Dreams Of Giants' Trailer: Terry Gilliam Finally Makes His 'Don Quixote' Movie

Terry Gilliam's The Man Who Killed Don Quixote is more well-known for its behind-the-scenes stories than its actual content. Gilliam started working on the pic in 1989, but a series of misfortunes continually got in the way. Gilliam's long, strange quest to get the movie made was already chronicled once in the documentary Lost in La Mancha, released in 2002. In the years since that doc, though, Gilliam actually managed to get the movie made – which means there's now a Lost in La Mancha sequel, the new documentary He Dreams of Giants.

In 1989, Terry Gilliam set out to make a movie called The Man Who Killed Don Quixote. It didn't go so well. He didn't get around to actually shooting it until 1998, and then, the movie –which was to star Johnny Depp and Jean Rochefort – immediately began suffering from problems that might make a suspicious person suspect Gilliam's project was cursed. The elderly Rochefort suffered a herniated disc during filming and was unable to continue to work. The production also had to deal with flash-floods, lightning storms, and constant noise from NATO aircraft target practice taking place near the filming location. Gilliam eventually had to shut the entire thing down.

While all this was happening, Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe were making a documentary. The doc was initially supposed to be a making-of featurette – something that might appear on the home media release of The Man Who Killed Don Quixote. But with Quixote shut down, Fulton and Pepe's documentary became a chronicle of Gilliam's doomed production, and it was released to the public in 2002 as Lost in La Mancha.

Gilliam did not give up on Don Quixote, and continued to try to get the damn thing made in the years to come. Eventually, he actually defied the odds and finished the film – with Adam Driver and Jonathan Pryce starring in the roles initially intended for Depp and Rochefort. And once again, Fulton and Pepe were able to document the ordeal, resulting in a follow-up to La Mancha, He Dreams of Giants. The doc follows Gilliam "as he fights to finish his elusive passion-project."

He Dreams of Giants was announced back in 2018, with Fulton saying: "We began to think this is more a film about an internal struggle in an artist's mind. What is it like for an artist to be standing on the brink of actually finishing this project finally?" He Dreams of Giants is currently set to open in the UK and Ireland on March 29. An American release will likely soon follow.