Terry Gilliam was part of the legendary Monty Python group and directed the cult classic ‘The Knights of the Coconut’ for them, but then stayed loyal to directing. What connects almost all of Gilliam’s films: more than just a touch of madness, whether in the crazy time travel thriller ’12 Monkeys’, in the drug road trip ‘Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas’ or in the sci-fi vision ‘ The Zero Setting”.
Now Gilliam has another strange idea in the works and would ideally like to work with an actor he has had in front of the camera a few times: Gilliam wishes that Johnny Depp plays the devil himself in “Carnival At The End Of Days”!
How Gilliam reportedly dropped this casting request during an appearance at the Red Sea Film Festival when describing his new project: “God is destroying humanity and the only one who wants to save it is Satan, and Johnny Depp plays Satan.”
“Carnival At The End Of Days”: Satan doesn’t want to be unemployed
Gilliam did not comment on whether any discussions have taken place, but he is “confident” in the project even though it is still in its early stages. A human Satan in an apocalyptic comedy – that suits not only Terry Gilliam, but also Depp, who repeatedly appears in strange roles, be it as Captain Jack Sparrow in the series ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ or as a crazy Hatter in the Alice in Wonderland movies.
Gilliam co-writes the screenplay for “Carnival At The End Of Days” with Christopher Brett Bailey. The filmmaker also talked in more detail about the plot of his new film: “It’s a simple story, God wants to wipe out humanity because they ruined his beautiful Garden of Eden. And there is only one who wants to save people, and that is Satan, because without people he no longer has a job, and he is an immortal being, and living without a job is terrible.”
So Satan goes looking for two young people who he wants God to believe are the new Adam and Eve. “But God still wants to destroy people. It’s a comedy,” Gilliam said.
It has been known for some time that the director is working on a film about the apocalypse, but the production of ‘Carnival At The End Of Days’ has not really gotten off the ground yet. It remains to be seen when the comedy will go into production – and whether Johnny Depp will actually be on board.