‘The Man Who Killed Don Quixote’ Isn’t Dead Yet: Terry Gilliam Still Retains Rights
Reports ofThe Man Who Killed Don Quixote’s death were greatly exaggerated. Although a French court ruled in former producerPaul Branco’s favor over the long and drawn-out legal battle between him and directorTerry Gilliam, apparently reports that Gilliam had lost the rights to his film were not true.
Gilliam retainsThe Man Who Killed Don Quixoterights, according to Gilliam’s current producerMariela Busuievsky. As to those reports that Branco had won them in the court case? Busuievsky says that was a case of Branco simply being a little too boastful.
Earlier this week, we reported that the Paris Court of Appeal hadruled in favor of Brancoafter the formerThe Man Who Killed Don Quixoteproducer sued Gilliam over rights to the project andattempted to block the film’s premiereat the Cannes Film Festival. The court ordered Gilliam to pay Branco’s company Alfama Films €10,000 ($11,600) in damages for breaking their contract.
Victorious after a protracted 18-month legal battle, Branco claimed that the rights to the film “belonged to Alfama.” However, that claim seems to be patently false, according to Busuievsky. She, along with partnerGerardo Herrero,played a crucial part in bringing Gilliam’s three-decade-long passion project to life.
In an interview with Spanish-language outletEl Español, Busuievsky clarified that the rights toThe Man Who Killed Don Quixoteremain in the hands of Gilliam. According to translations fromThe Playlist, Branco had “overstated” his victory. No frame of the film was shot under the contract between Gilliam and Branco, and thus Branco doesn’t have any claim to the movie rights. But since Gilliam didn’t properly terminate his contract with Branco per French law — swiftly moving on to a new producer after Branco failed to procure his promised funds — Gilliam would still have to pay Alfama at least $11,600 in damages.
Once Gilliam has paid the damages, he can finally put his legal troubles overThe Man Who Killed Don Quixotebehind him and move on to searching for a distributor. Amazonpulled out of its distribution dealshortly before the film’s Cannes premiere in the midst of the heated court battle. But hopefully with legal woes out of the way and the film out on the festival circuit, a new distributor will soon snatch up Gilliam’s long-troubled movie. At the very least, people will flock to it out of sheer morbid curiosity. Because come on, guys. It’snot dead yet.
