Terry Gilliam, look away now; Disney has issued the green light for a movie based on Don Quixote, the chivalrous Spanish madcap created by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra.
The Hollywood Reporter has the scoop, revealing that it is Billy Ray of The Hunger Games and Captain Phillips fame that has been elected to write a modern spin on the 1605 tome. Sources claim that the House of Mouse is angling for a Pirates of the Caribbean-like romp, though whether that indicates the studio sense franchise potential is another question entirely.
As for the Ingenious Gentleman known as Don Quixote, he began life as lower-class aristocrat Alanso Quixano. Driven to the point of madness after indulging in too many fantasy novels, our naive hero swears blind that such fantastical tropes as giants, dragons, knights and princesses trapped in high castles exist in the real world, leading him to christen himself Don Quixote and begin his delirious crusade. It didn’t come to much, though. Soon after enlisting a squire in Sancho Panza, the wide-eyed character spent more time tilting at windmills than, you know, fending off evil.
THR didn’t disclose a production timeline for Disney’s version of Don Quixote, but we’ll be keeping an eye on this new project as it develops.