Thursday, July 13, 2006

Oh No! Johnny Depp No Longer Willing, Able And Available For Long Awaited Terry Gilliam Film

Gilliam is hopping soapbox to soapbox, mouth at full throttle now that Tideland is finally getting released. In recent interviews he's mentioned that his movie of Good Omens is very much moving forward again, with Stephen Evans (The Madness of King George, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, The Wings of the Dove) now producing.

The production is pencilled in for this Winter, and that actually seems pretty likely, but as Johnny Depp won't be available until next summer, he's now off the project. In fact, Gilliam has noted that his entire range of first and second choice actors for the main roles are signed up to other projects, which probably means no Robin Williams and could even mean no Jonathan Pryce.

It could also mean that a lot of currently unsuspecting thesps are about to get offered the role of their careers. Crowley and Aziraphale are parts to kill for.

Good Omens will be an adaptation of the genuinely laugh-out-loud Apocalypse scomedy by Terry Pratchett and (more to the point?) Neil Gaiman. If you haven't read it, go support your local library.

Of course, there is a growing hope that Gilliam will get The Man Who Killed Don Quixote into production again, a film that, as this same round of interviews has confirmed, he is still determined to make with Depp, and that Depp, thankfully, is still determined to make with him.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

As much as I LOVE Good Omens (I've read it too many times to count and have given it as gifts frequently), I don't think it would be a good movie--adaptation would require too much condensation and consolidation to make it worth watching. That said, Good Omens would make a splendid BBC miniseries.