Interview: Terry Gilliam

Might beleagured director Terry Gilliam finally get his fairytale ending with two new projects, 'The Brothers Grimm' and 'Tideland'?

Nov  9 2004

Terry Gilliam wrote his first career-suicide note back in 1985, when he took out a full-page advertisement in Variety addressed to the boss at Universal: 'Dear Sid Sheinberg,' he wrote. 'When are you going to release my film, 'Brazil?'

Since then, the professional obituarists have been kept busy. Gilliam was unfairly blamed when the budget doubled during production of 'The Adventures of Baron Munchausen' in 1989.

He bounced back with 'The Fisher King', '12 Monkeys' and, less successfully, 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas', only for history to repeat itself when his cherished Don Quixote film fell apart mid-shoot after a series of natural disasters culminated in star Jean Rochefort falling ill. The whole farrago was caught on camera in Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe’s tragi-comic documentary 'Lost in La Mancha'.

Since then, Gilliam has tried and failed to get a number of ambitious projects off the ground – coming closest with Neil Gaiman’s ironically titled 'Good Omens'. Par for the course for any director, except that it’s now been six years since we saw a new Gilliam movie – and (though he sure doesn’t look it) the man turns 64 later this month.

Don’t go re-writing him off, though. The good news is that Gilliam has two films due for release next year: 'The Brothers Grimm' and 'Tideland'. In fact, by an odd quirk of showbiz fate, they're both due for completion on the exact same day, which should present an interesting challenge for editor Lesley Walker.

The two films are very different. 'The Brothers Grimm' is a $90 million period epic starring Matt Damon and Heath Ledger which Gilliam shot last year in Prague. A troubled production from the start, it has been delayed by the uncertainty surrounding Miramax and Dimension Films.

Meanwhile, Gilliam has plunged straight into 'Tideland', which is currently shooting in Saskatchewan, Canada, on approximately one sixth of the 'Grimm' budget. A ripe slice of contemporary Southern Gothic produced by our own Jeremy Thomas, 'Tideland' is the story of a nine-year-old girl who retreats into a fantasy world to escape the horrors of her lonely, junkie upbringing.

Gilliam pitches it as 'Alice in Wonderland' meets 'Psycho' (and having read the script, I can only say it’s a shocker, potentially the darkest, bravest, purest film he’s ever made – more on that at a later date).

As for 'Grimm', the signs are mixed. Gilliam is pretty upbeat about the results, if not the process. 'I'm not supposed to talk about it,' he says. 'I'm keeping my lips very closed until we know where it ends up.'

This isn't just discretion, it's by legal agreement with Miramax. In return, the director hopes to get approval for his cut of the film. Ironically, the recent corporate confusion at Miramax has allowed him the luxury of putting the film aside for four months so that he can return to fine-tune it with fresh eyes. Nevertheless, it's clear from the comments of some of his team that the production was anything but easy.

Even before cameras rolled, the Weinsteins made their presence felt in a last-minute intervention overruling the casting of Samantha Morton as the female lead. (The role eventually went to Lena Headey.) Then, early in the marathon 111-day shoot, Gilliam’s DP Nicola Pecorini got his marching orders. 'I prepped the movie, started it, then they decided it was a bad thing Gilliam was shooting the movie the way Gilliam wanted to, so they fired me,' the Italian explains, back at his friend's side on 'Tideland'. He adds: 'Of course, he shot it his way anyway.'

One thing Gilliam will discuss is the budget discrepancy between the two films. 'Brothers Grimm' has 750 fx shots in it. They built villages and entire forests; it's the most expensive film he's made.

'I think it’s going to look amazing,' he says. 'But the pressure! It cost a quarter of a million dollars a day to shoot it. Imagine what that feels like. You find yourself waiting 45 minutes for something, and you go crazy – $50,000 disappears just like that.'

'Tideland' is low-budget; I don't give a fuck! It's a very contained film. We can control it. There's no studio, no $100m at stake. There’s no Them on this movie, it's just Us. We're running madly at this thing; it's exhilarating. We had three weeks' shooting out in the country, and we knew the weather was about to hit us. The day after we wrapped on location it started to snow. Sometimes you have to think: There are forces at work here, let's ride the tiger and see where it goes!'

Gilliam is having fun again. And the gods are smiling.

'The Brothers Grimm' and 'Tideland' will be released next year.