The failed movie Terry Gilliam compared to a bad joke: “That’s when I got mad”
Terry Gilliam has made many beloved fantasies, comedies, and science fiction epics that spawned rapturous reviews, but he’s become almost as well known for the films that he didn’t make, with one failed attempt to adapt a literary classic that still makes him mad.
Being part of Monty Python would be the apex of most people’s careers, but it was only the start for Gilliam. Despite his idiosyncratic style and notoriety for feuding with critics, he found success in bringing his highly imaginative spectacles to the big screen, such that those wary of his cranky attitude have to show him some respect for his achievements.
Brazil and 12 Monkeys were major commercial hits, and even box office disappointments like Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas have earned cult fandoms, showing that there’s not a single film on his résumé that isn’t at least worthy of consideration, but he’s also not earned quite as many credits as some of his peers. Moreover, when compared to Steven Spielberg or Brian De Palma, each of whom has directed over two dozen films, Gilliam is known for taking time in between projects.
He famously first started trying to make his ambitious medieval comedy The Man Who Killed Don Quixote back in 1989 before suffering several production shutdowns and funding collapses, with the film eventually completed and released in 2019, evidence that knowing when to quit isn’t a skill in the man’s arsenal. Nursing an almost permanent literary bent, although he managed to test fate with his Miguel de Cervantes adaptation, Gilliam was less successful in realising the work of another prolific author, Charles Dickens.
He had been on a hot streak after his Arthurian legend film The Fisher King landed five Oscar nominations (including a ‘Best Supporting Actress’ win for Mercedes Ruehl), and became obsessed with wanting to adapt Dickens’ classic story of love, death, and the French Revolution as told in A Tale of Two Cities.
Gilliam seemingly had everything going his way when Mel Gibson was attached to helm the ambitious project, but it began falling apart when the Braveheart star dropped out, which led to studios being unwilling to invest unless there was a major name attached that could feasibly draw out an audience. Although he thought he had scored a replacement when he attracted the interest of Liam Neeson, who was fresh off the success of Schindler’s List, he, in turn, had a new issue crop up wherein he realised he’d have to settle for a reduced budget for his vision.
According to an interview conducted with Ian Christie for Gilliam on Gilliam, the $60million Gilliam was offered to make A Tale of Two Cities with Gibson would be slashed by more than half to $26m with Neeson, even if it was “the same film, same everything”, and he called it “a bad joke”, sadly coming to terms that his idea wasn’t meant to be.
“That’s when I got mad and decided there was no point in dealing with these people,” Gilliam said, “It’s their project, they want the same production values, but they won’t give us a realistic budget”.
Although he admitted to trying to “stay with the project”, he found that the studio would only approve of actors like “the big star” Tom Cruise or “the heir apparent” Brad Pitt, or Matthew McConaughey, who they could get “at a bargain-basement price”. Ironically, Gilliam’s suggestion of casting Johnny Depp was turned down because the Ed Wood star “made far too many films that were non-commercial”.
The assessment of Depp’s career certainly changed when the Pirates of the Caribbean phenomenon turned him into the world’s biggest A-lister, but at that point, A Tale of Two Cities had completely sunk. It thankfully didn’t destroy Gilliam’s desire to work with Depp, as they collaborated on the underrated fantasy epic The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, garnering great critical success, if not immense blockbuster steam.
