Terry Gilliam can’t afford to fund new movie ‘The Carnival at the End of Days’
Few filmmakers are more accustomed to a nightmarish production than Terry Gilliam. Therefore, if anything, the fact that he’s struggling to find funding for The Carnival at the End of Days is nothing out of the ordinary.
Ever since his Monty Python days – where the cast and crew were regularly beset by infighting and malfunctioning equipment – Gilliam has spent great swathes of his big screen fighting uphill battles in an effort to bring his creative vision to the screen.
He’s weathered behind-the-scenes bickering on Time Bandits, went public with his disapproval for the studio-approved cut of Brazil, and went massively over-budget on The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. Gilliam also saw the movie lose a fortune as a result, and butted heads with Hunter S Thompson on Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
That isn’t even mentioning his feud with the Weinstein brothers on The Brothers Grimm, the tragic death of Heath Ledger during the shooting of The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, and his three-decade odyssey to bring The Man Who Killed Don Quixote to the finish line come hell or high water.
The Carnival at the End of Days has been lined up as Gilliam’s next feature, reuniting him with Johnny Depp. The Fear and Loathing star is set to play Satan opposite Jeff Bridges as God, with Adam Driver and Jason Momoa in supporting roles. Principal photography was tentatively pencilled in to begin in January 2025, but Gilliam has admitted he’s running a little low on funds.
“I don’t have all of the money for it right now,” he said, per Novinky. “I would have to compromise some of my ideas. Which I don’t want to. I’m angry with myself for not being able to do it. Which is not always a bad thing. When I get angry, some interesting ideas come out. Maybe I’ll start shooting it soon, albeit with a smaller budget.”
The filmmaker revealed that to secure the rest of the budget, he’s hoping to strike up a partnership with companies in Saudi Arabia. He’s even willing to shoot The Carnival at the End of Days in the country, so long as it guarantees he’ll have the money to actually make the thing.
Is it really a Gilliam movie at all if there isn’t at least one major bump in the road before the cameras start rolling? He might not like the answer, but history speaks for itself.
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