Jack O’Connell Joins Terry Gilliam’s ‘The Man Who Killed Don Quixote’ [Updated]
Update:O’Connell has now officially been cast in Gilliam’s film. Our original article follows, and is updated with a new synopsis below.
Jack O’Connellmay well be the next big guy to watch. After his stint onSkins, he showed up in300: Rise of an Empireand'71, and received rave notes for his work inStarred Up.Holding the lead role in Angelina Jolie’sUnbrokenmeans that half the families in the US are going to know his face after that film opens at Christmas. And now he might be the man forTerry Gilliam—The Man Who Killed Don Quixote. He would play, according to the most recent draft of the script, a guy who is connected to a Don Quixote movie which has had a fairly undesirable effect on some audiences.
The latestMan Who Killed Don Quixotecasting report comes fromBaz Bamigboye, who passes on word fromJohn Hurt that Gilliam is eyeing O’Connell, and that the actor is “in discussions about appearing with Hurt in the Quixote film, which could shoot in autumn next year.” Hurt is quoted saying “Jack’s Derbyshire born and bred, so it will be fun to work with him.”
The Man Who Killed Don Quixotehas so far turned out to be an appropriately (but not pleasantly) quixotic project for Gilliam. It originally went before cameras in 2000, and was shut down by disasters chronicled in theLost in La Manchadocumentary. Gilliam and screenwriter Terry George have attempted to revive it a couple times in the decade and a half since, with significant script rewrites and new casts changing the film each time.Gilliamexplained the story’s current statea couple months back:
Update:O’Connell has been announced as the star of The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, andVarietyoffers up this new plot description:
