Report: Terry Gilliam Hospitalized Ahead of Cannes’ ‘Don Quixote’ Premiere Decision

For a moment there, it looked like Terry Gilliam‘s The Man Who Killed Don Quixote was finally going to make its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. That remains in question as the on-going legal battle over the rights wages on, but new reports cast even more upsetting developments around the project: Gilliam was reportedly hospitalized ahead of the premiere decision.

Two French publications (h/t The Playlist) have reported that the director was hospitalized over the weekend and unable to attend the court proceedings on Monday debating his film’s premiere date. Nice-Matin reports that Gilliam allegedly suffered a stroke this past weekend in London, while Le Point claims that the 77-year-old filmmaker was hospitalized for being “a victim of discomfort” and soon after released and sent to his London home on Sunday night. Either way, it sounds like Gilliam’s health was what kept him from attending the Paris court this week.

The on-going Don Quixote saga dates back to a 2016 between Gilliam and producer Paul Bronco. Long story short, Bronco agreed to fund Gilliam’s long-in-the-works passion project and give the director creative freedom in exchange for rights. When that money never arrived though, Gilliam went elsewhere to get the movie funded. But now that the Adam Driver and Jonathan Pryce-led film is finally completed and gearing up for a premiere, Bronco is protesting the Cannes closing debut, claiming he still holds the rights. The court is said to announce the decision later this week, which the festival has promised to abide by.

It’s clearly a massive headache, and one can only imagine how stressful it must be for a director who’s been trying to get his movie made since 1989 (!). Cannes premiere or not, we just hope Gilliam is in good health. The trailer sure looks fantastic, so hopefully the film arrives on screens somewhere, sometime soon.