The one movie Terry Gilliam would never direct: “There’s not much that interests me”
Terry Gilliam has a very active imagination. In addition to contributing the surreal animations to Monty Python’s Flying Circus, he went on to direct some of the maddest films to ever grace the silver screen. The seminal Brazil would have been enough to prove his artistic credentials, but then he went and followed that up with The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, 12 Monkeys, and The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.
The American-born British national treasure has made quite the name for himself despite having never contributed to a major franchise. Though he definitely thrives in the world of unique, auteur-driven ideas, seeing Gilliam get his hands on a recognisable series would be undoubtedly interesting. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like that’s ever going to happen.
In an interview with Wide Angle/Closeup, the maverick was asked about the possibility of directing a Star Wars movie. The prequel trilogy had just been announced, which set fans’ minds ablaze with potential. Alas, the chance of watching a young Obi-Wan Kenobi embark on a Hunter S Thompson-style drug binge was shot down by Gilliam, who admitted he had absolutely no desire to visit the galaxy far, far away.
“There’s not much in there that interests me, except for some of the visual stuff they play with. I mean, the characters don’t interest me,” he revealed. “It never seems to deal with ideas that are very strong, as far as I’m concerned. Still, what interests me in films is the ideas in them, not just the cracking adventure. I mean, I like some of the worlds they play in, but the worlds, they always strike me as not having any depth in them. I mean, if I go to another world, I try to make it into something that has more meaning to it. Their stuff is always fairly superficial—wonderful but superficial.”
By 1996 (when this interview was conducted), the Star Wars series consisted primarily of the three original movies. There were various holiday specials and Ewok TV movies, but these were considered small-fry oddities when compared to the adventures of Luke, Han, and Leia. While there certainly are themes of anti-imperialism and individual rebellion present in the films, Gilliam is bang on the money when he says they aren’t very deep. Star Wars is very much a ‘plot first, everything else second’ kind of franchise. Although there’s nothing wrong with that, it clearly isn’t what our Terry wanted to do.
With the power of hindsight, Gilliam might have dodged a bullet by ruling himself out of the prequels. While some people defend them passionately, the general consensus is that the first three chronological entries in the ‘Skywalker Saga’ are no good. George Lucas, who directed all three of them, spends too much time on trivial intergalactic politics rather than cool lightsaber fights. Then there are the scripts, which read like they were written by R2-D2 on the fritz.
Gilliam has always done things his way. He’s explored the topics he wanted to explore, even when no one else would touch them. Star Wars just wouldn’t be a good fit for him, so he was right to distance himself from it. He must have enjoyed some good schadenfreude when he first saw Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. Who am I kidding, he never saw it!
