[insert shameful squeeing here]

[slipjig3]

When Terry Gilliam's `Tideland came out, a lot of critics began harrumphing that this was likely the end of Gilliam's career. (For the record: I loved it, the majority of critics despised it. Give it a chance, if you haven't already done so, with a bit of caution.) Given its response, I was terrified that they'd be right.

Wrong, comrade: Gilliam has just received funding for his next picture, The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus. Heath Ledger, Verne Troyer and Tom Waits are all tentatively cast. Better yet, the script was co-written by Gilliam and Charles McKeown, with whom he worked on Time Bandits, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen and Brazil. Please, cinema gods, please, make this work! (And please swat Terry on the wrist if he begins to slide too far into excess.)

Oh, and also on Gilliam's plate? An animated movie in conjunction with the fictional indie band the Gorillaz. Seriously.

Comments

[chris-walsh.livejournal.com]

Trivia time: Charles McKeown was also one of the last writers to work on the script to the 1989 Batman (he was uncredited, but well-paid). He was the one who decided that it was younger Jack/future Joker who killed Bruce's parents.

I still haven't seen Tideland, but I can't not see it, considering how important Gilliam and his work have been to me.

I hope both Parnassus and the Gorillaz thing happen. I got the impression from the rumors I've heard that the latter could be done pretty quickly, and the weird mind of Gilliam would work well with the weird minds of Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett. I'll hope...

[slipjig.livejournal.com]

You need to see Tideland. It's not an easy movie to watch in places (let's just say that the themes of romance and taxidermy should be separated by a much wider margin than they are), but it's amazing, thought-provoking, and very, very Gilliam. As Michael Palin told him after he screened it for him, "It's either the best movie you've ever done or the worst, and I don't know which."