Cervantes’ Don Quixote is one of literature’s most epic journeys and bringing it to the big screen seems to be proving quite the epic journey in itself!

Legendary director Terry Gilliam (Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas) began his fraught relationship with the man of La Mancha back in 2000. Johnny Depp was set to play Toby, an advertising exec who unwittingly travels between modern day London and 17th century La Mancha, where Don Quixote (Jean Rochefort) mistakes him for Sancho Panza. Herniated disks, flash floods, schedule and budget restrictions followed, and The Man Who Killed Don Quixote

seemed all but dead in the water.

The film got a new lease on life when it was announced that Ewan McGregor had signed on, but Gilliam recently spoke to The Hollywood Reporter and sadly confirmed that the movie is on the back burner once more while he works on another project:

Its off again now. Postponed until next year at least.

He then added, philosophically:

Im intrigued by the unfinished. Maybe the Don Quixote project fits into that as well. Maybe you always need to have something vying for your attention, something yet to be completed.

Aware of the hype that surrounds any film he is working on, the director was secretive about his next project, revealing only that it is currently shooting in Bucharest. His wife apparently thinks that talking too much about his projects only jinxes them, so what he’s working on or when we’ll see it is anyone’s guess, but watch this space!