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Arts & Entertainment

Is Director Terry Gilliam Working On Paul Auster Adaptation?


By

Jamie Feldmar

Published Jul 28, 2011

Modified Jul 28, 2011


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By

Jamie Feldmar

Published Jul 28, 2011

Modified Jul 28, 2011


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Fans of the fantastically twisted brain of director Terry Gilliam, who's been laying relatively low since the 2009 release of The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus and last year's Arcade Fire concert, tentatively rejoice! The auteur has announced plans to bring New York author Paul Auster's Mr. Vertigo to the big screen. Maybe.

"I got a book. It's called Mr. Vertigo by Paul Auster. And I'm actually working on a script of it at the moment. Doesn't mean it will be a film; but I'm working on a script," he said at a Q&A at Era New Horizons Film Festival. The 1995 book follows the misadventures of a Depression-era boy who learns to levitate and joins the circus, traveling the country with a mysterious master, which sounds just about right for a Gilliam flick.

Of course, fanboys and girls are jumping all over the news, with cautious optimism: "We’d like to say we’re doing back-flips over the news...it’s hard to fathom Auster didn’t infiltrate Gilliam’s imagination like some kind of brain bandit and lift the concept straight out the director’s left-brain grey matter. But we’ve been burned by Gilliam too many times recently to allow ourselves to raise our hopes too high," writes Word & Film, referencing Gilliam's history of failed projects. And other directors have circled the project as well, though not in years, so this might very well be the perfect time for Gilliam to swoop in and dazzle audiences like he did with Brazil and Twelve Monkeys all those years ago.

Tagged

director

film

movies

mr. vertigo

paul auster

terry gilliam


Jamie Feldmar

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