The Man Who Killed Don Quixote might actually come out, barring even more ridiculous setbacks

By Sam Barsanti | December 23, 2018 | 5:29pm

Aux Features Film

When future generations look up the word “mess” in some kind of high-tech VR encyclopedia, they will simply redirected to a separate volume that covers the production of Terry Gilliam’s The Man Who Killed Don Quixote. He spent nearly two decades just trying to get the project off the ground, but then once he finally finished filming, a lawsuit threatened its Cannes premiere and scared Amazon away from handling the film’s U.S. distribution. Then a French court decided that the rights belonged to producer Paulo Branco because of an old financing deal he made with Gilliam that fell through—even though he didn’t put any money into actually making the film. Essentially, our running joke about wondering whether or not the movie would ever really come out became less of a joke and more of an honest question.

Now, though, we’re once again ready to report with extreme hesitance that The Man Who Killed Don Quixote might really come out. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Screen Media has picked up the U.S. distribution rights that Amazon dropped, and it is teaming up with Fathom Events for some kind of theatrical run next year. Fathom Events is the organization that usually handles special screenings and very brief theatrical runs of old movies celebrating an anniversary or smaller niche stuff like documentaries and RiffTrax stuff. The release might not be what Amazon would’ve done, since it tends to throw a lot of money at stuff like this, but it’s better than having the media report on constant setbacks for another few years.