At the Deauville American Film Festival filmmaker Terry Gilliam, who is in production in The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, admitted the project has stalled – again. Gilliam conceded, “The financing collapsed about a month and a half ago.”

Of course, this is Gilliam’s second attempt at mounting his Don Quixote film. The first’s production and collapse was heartbreakingly documented in Lost in La Mancha in 2002. That time around, Gilliam had Jean Rochefort (Tell No One) and Johnny Depp on board. Notably, this was before Depp became box office gold with Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.

Personally, I thought that after the blockbuster success of Pirates – Gilliam could get Depp back and have no troubles with funding. However, while Depp did come on board to help fill the role of the departed Heath Ledger in Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, it was Ewan McGregor who was ultimately cast in Depp’s old role, with Robert Duvall as Don Quixote.

Gilliam’s been trying to make his imagined Don Quixote production for decades. And despite this most recent setback, he gives no credence to the “curse of Quixote,” a superstition that those who attempt to bring the Cervantes’ novel to life are doomed to fail.

While frustrated, telling the film festival’s audience, “I shouldn’t be here. The plan was to be shooting ‘Quixote‘ right now,” Gilliam insisted he will continue to seek funding, and hopes to be in production soon, saying, “Don Quixote gives me something to look forward to, always. Maybe the most frightening thing is to actually make the film.”

Another worrisome factor for Gilliam’s production is that Joel Silver, with Warner Bros., has his own Don Quixote project in the works. Silver’s version will be a swashbuckler looking to capitalize on the Pirates frenzy. This action-adventure Don Quixote will in fact be a knight fighting dragons – not a nut tilting at windmills. The two films are undoubtedly very different takes on Don Quixote, but can Gilliam’s odd underdog undertaking make it through production when Silver’s got a better box office track record and easier access to funding?

Is Gilliam tilting at windmills?

Today Popsugar posted this sneak peak of Ian McShane from Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, where he will be playing the infamous pirate, Blackbeard.

Personally, since Deadwood’s gone off the air, I’ve watched any evil McShane role I can get my hands on. Recently, I slogged through all of the Starz miniseries, The Pillars of the Earth, for any semblance of the glower power McShane dished out as Al Swearegen. As a conniving priest, McShane was fine, but face-hairless and overall lacking in the punchy obscenities and burly rage that made him so much fun to watch on Deadwood. Anytime he said “sheriff” I was reminded of happier – more western times. So, I am personally stoked to see him with an intense beard-and-mustache combo next to Jack Sparrow. I don’t care about the premise or the director or how little sense the last film made; this snapshot guarantees my attendance opening weekend.

Are you excited about Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides?

Mark Millar is a man of hope, a true optimist. Not only does Millar see the glass as half-full, he can’t conceive of the glass being empty. Ever.

Millar is a comic book author who is known (arguably infamous) for creating comic book properties with the express desire to sell them as movies. His latest film was the action-and-obscenity-packed Kick-Ass, which earned about $250 million less than his previous venture, Wanted. Despite this, Millar is confident Kick-Ass 2: Balls to the Wall is a go, telling BBC Radio Five:

“The estimate is [Kick-Ass] will do 100 to 150 million on DVD based on the American sales, you know, so it’ll end up making a quarter of a billion on a 28 million investment. So it should be okay. So the sequel’s greenlit, we can go ahead and do the follow up now, you know. The first made so much compared to what it cost it would be crazy not to.”

There are several worrisome elements here. For one, the DVD has been out since the beginning of the month and earned only $16,275,154 to date according to The Numbers. Beyond that, Box Office Mojo estimates the film’s production costs were closer to $30 million, and some speculate that with P&A costs $40 million is more likely. Ultimately, the film’s done well – but nowhere near well enough to guarantee a sequel.

The idea of this film being greenlit without a script in place is dubious, and there’s little likelihood one exists with Kick-Ass‘s co-writers (Matthew Vaughn and Jane Goldman) working on the highly anticipated X-Men: First Class. This is something Millar half-acknowledges in an MTV interview posted yesterday:

“Matthew just wants to get ‘X-Men’ done next year then hopefully we’ll just go straight into ‘Kick-Ass 2,’ that’s the plan.”

I’m curious if Vaughn would return for the sequel when he himself has declared that the comic book genre is on its way out.

For his next feat, Millar presents Nemesis, a comic book whose pitch is basically ‘What if Batman was a total prick?’ The film is in development, and Millar claims it will be a big production with a hat trick of A-listers, saying to BBC:

“Tony Scott, brother of Ridley Scott… I just got a call from him, literally about a month ago… it was one of those very surreal things. This is a $150 million budget… he said “Who do you fancy for it?”… I said “I dunno, Brad Pitt, Johnny Depp” so he said “That’s good, we’ll give them a call.”

Let’s ignore that Millar felt the need to explain who Tony Scott is. While Scott is signed on for Nemesis, Scott’s last film, The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, had a budget of $100 million, while his upcoming Unstoppable, has a budget of $90 million. So, I’d like to know from where Millar is getting this estimate. Anyway, this is not the first time Millar‘s told the public he wants Depp and Pitt on board. He recently told Empire:

“With Nemesis, you’ve got two great roles for two A-list stars…You’ve got Holmes versus Moriarty here or Batman versus The Joker, so each one has got to be a $20 million actor, really. I think you could go for the A+ list and get Johnny Depp as Nemesis and Brad Pitt as Blake Morrow.”

So, if Millar‘s estimate is correct, the fee for his leads alone will be $40 million – the cost of Kick-Ass.

Now the film is in the works, but it’s doubtful it will be the tent pole attraction Millar‘s selling to the press. As a big fan of Kick-Ass, I’m hoping for a sequel. Plus my comic-nerd friends say Nemesis could be a great flick. But the more Millar speaks to the press the more I wonder…

What do you think? Will Kick-Ass 2 make it into production? Will Nemesis score big names and a bigger budget? Will Millar and his movie ideas hold your interest?

Since busting on to the scene with Arrested Development in 2003, Michael Cera has worked with many of today’s most popular comedians, and you’d have to be living under a rock to not have seen at least one of his films. Some say he is risking overexposure. But I say Cera has been steadily working toward Kevin Bacon status, developing a film career worthy of his own 6 degrees game.

To be a truly effective Party Game Icon, Cera would have to link to a variety of film actors to allow for a range of players to participate:

• a major Hollywood star (for casual movie fans)
• an international film star (for film students)
• an independent film star (for hipsters)
• a film star from Hollywood’s golden age (for anyone over 25).

As you can see below – Cera’s plotted his course well:

Do you believe Michael Cera has reached Kevin Bacon status? Give us your examples in the comments below.

This one should be good. Sony’s spy thriller The Tourist, starring Angelina Jolie, Johnny Depp, Paul Bettany, Rufus Sewell and Timothy Dalton, will indeed sliver its way into theaters this year – December 10th to be exact. [The Playlist]

Directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck (The Lives of Others) and written by Julian Fellowes (Gosford Park), Christopher McQuarrie (Valkyrie, The Usual Suspects) and Jeffrey Nachmanoff (The Day After Tomorrow, Traitor), this film’s pedigree couldn’t get much more impressive, making it one of the most anticipated films of late 2010.

Based on the 2005 French film Anthony Zimmer, the film concerns an aloof American tourist (Depp) who gets caught up in espionage with a vivacious international spy (Jolie). Those who’ve read it suggest it’s not Oscar material and more light, fun and, potentially, a little shallow.

It’s hard to imagine with a cast and crew like this, but it happens all the time. At least we know Jolie can play a spy and Depp can mumble and be awkward.

Are you excited for The Tourist? What are you expecting it’ll be like?

E-mail Dan Mecca and be sure to follow him on Twitter. You can also interact with him on our Facebook page!

Well, this looks promising. After a couple of dormant months in regards to news of Paul Thomas Anderson‘s Scientology film The Master, starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, getting off the ground, it seems it may be doing just that.

From PTA fansite Cigarettes and Red Vines (via /Film):

“we can exclusively tell you, despite everything else circulating the net that it sounds like The Master is set to shoot sometime next month. More details about things hopefully soon.”

We know it’s not Universal putting up the cash for the $35 million budget. So who is?

Whoever it is, let’s hope they don’t back out. The Master currently has Hoffman and Reese Witherspoon as husband and wife, respectively and Jeremy Renner (?) as Hoffman’s right-hand man.

In other filming news, it would appear Tim Burton and Johnny Depp have lined up their next project, an adaptation of the 1960s melodrama Dark Shadows. Depp will star as a vampire. The film is set to start shooting in January. [The Playlist]

The show Dark Shadows followed the strange adventures of the Collins family, led by Barnabas Collins (who Depp would play), a vampire himself. Sounds right up the collaborative team’s alley, and perhaps too much so.

Which film are you more excited for? Dark Shadows or The Master?

E-mail Dan Mecca and be sure to follow him on Twitter. You can also interact with him on our Facebook page!

Here’s the first real taste of Gore Verbinski‘s upcoming animated feature Rango, which has Johnny Depp voicing the title character, a chameleon on the run from everyone and everything in the Mojave Desert.

Everything starts in the desert, the beginning of a long, funny chase scene in which Rango runs away from a preying bird. This scene stretches through the teaser, with little clips from a small desert town of animals spliced in between. It looks like Don Quixote meets High Noon meets any animated animal movie of your choice. John Logan (The Aviator, Sweeney Todd) wrote the script, so there are a lot of talented people involved.

Check out the teaser below [First Showing]:

Rango hits theaters March 18th, 2011.

What do you think of this trailer? Are you excited for Rango?

E-mail Dan Mecca and be sure to follow him on Twitter. You can also interact with him on our Facebook page!

Today /Film brings us news that plot details for both X-Men: First Class and Pirates of the Carribean: On Stranger Tides have been released. Although the details are fairly vague and touch on things that we either knew already or could have easily figured out, they are still welcome.

First up is a official press release from Disney which tells us a lot of information about the film but only a few things that we didn’t know. For the full press release check out /Film. We’ve included the only important part which is also really the only new information.

“In this action-packed tale of truth, betrayal, youth and demise, Captain Jack Sparrow crosses paths with a woman from his past (Penelope Cruz), and he’s not sure if it’s love–or if she’s a ruthless con artist who’s using him to find the fabled Fountain of Youth. When she forces him aboard the Queen Anne’s Revenge, the ship of the formidable pirate Blackbeard (Ian McShane), Jack finds himself on an unexpected adventure in which he doesn’t know who to fear more: Blackbeard or the woman from his past.”

Next we have a very vague and small plot reveal for Matthew Vaughn’s X-Men: First Class. This comes from an auction for a visit to the set. In the description for the auction, a plot summary is included. Here it is:

Before Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr took the names Professor X and Magneto, they were two young men discovering their powers for the first time. Before they were archenemies, they were closest of friends, working together, with other Mutants (some familiar, some new), to stop the greatest threat the world has ever known. In the process, a rift between them opened, which began the eternal war between Magneto’s Brotherhood and Professor X’s X-MEN.

Once again, not much but it does give us a general idea of what we can expect to see.  Hopefully more details will emerge in the near future. We’ll be sure to keep you posted. Both films hit next summer.

Are you looking forward to these films?

E-mail Matt Tyler and be sure to follow him on Twitter. You can also interact with him on our Facebook page!

Thanks to /Film we get a look at some new photos from a few upcoming films. Pirates of the Carribean 4, The Rum Diary and Cowboys and Aliens all have new photos from the set that have been released. Check out the photos after the jump.

Most of these photos have come from the filmmakers themselves, a lot of them were posted their twitter accounts. The Daniel Craig one in costume is from May but I thought I’d post it anyway in case you missed it earlier.

The Rum Diary, being directed by Bruce Robinson, tells the story of a writer, who after becoming tired of America, travels to Puerto Rico where he finds comfort in rum and women. The film is set for a September 2010 release.

Cowboys and Aliens, being directed by Jon Favreau is set for a July 2011 release date and tells the story of aliens in the wild west who try to enslave humanity. Unfortunately for the aliens though, the cowboys won’t go down without a fight.

Lastly, Pirates of the Carribean: On Stranger Tides is set to hit theatres in May of 2011 and is the fourth film in the Pirates series. It will have our beloved Captain Jack Sparrow searching for the fountain of youth.

Not much to be seen but still nice to get a peak at these highly anticipated films.

What do you think? Which one are you looking most forward to?

E-mail Matt Tyler and be sure to follow him on Twitter. You can also interact with him on our Facebook page!

The first official still (pictured above) has been released for the upcoming spy thriller The Tourist, starring Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie. The film is directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck who, as you may recall, helmed the excellent German drama The Lives of Others. [The Playlist]

The Tourist is based on a 2005 film titled Anthony Zimmer. Depp will star as an American tourist visiting France who runs into an extraordinary woman (Jolie) during his trip. Rounding out the supporting cast will be Rufus Sewell, Paul Bettany, Timothy Dalton and Steven Berkoff. The script, which has been revised several times, includes works from the likes of Julian Fellowes (Gosford Park), Christopher McQuarrie (The Usual Suspects), Jeffrey Nachmanoff (The Day After Tomorrow) and William Wheeler (The Hoax).

The film is currently in post production, and is scheduled for an early 2011 release, although The Sun curiously describes the film as “set for release in December.”

When do you think The Tourist should be released?