We know all about the movies whose production timelines were completely thrown off by Covid-19. But how about the projects that never even got off their feet? In a recent interview with La Repubblica (via The Playlist), director Terry Gilliam revealed his plans to begin shooting a new movie this September. “I was doing a film that was originally an idea by Stanley Kubrick,” Gilliam explained. “There was a script and I had a cast, but the lockdown has ruined everything.”

The idea in question is based on a 1956 short story “Lunatic at Large,” written by pulp novelist Jim Thompson. Kubrick began developing the story into a treatment, but lost interest by 1962. Over 50 years later in 2010, it was announced that Sam Rockwell and Scarlett Johansson were attached to a version of the project, but obviously that incarnation of the script never came to pass.

The postponing of Gilliam’s movie is more than a little ironic, considering his last film — The Man Who Killed Don Quixote — took 29 years to complete. Budgeting issues and actor recasts plagued the movie until it was finally released in 2018. Gilliam has a history of projects that have never seen the light of day, including an ’80s Watchmen adaptation that Alan Moore endorsed himself. Hopefully Lunatic At Large can pick up momentum once conditions change. Earlier in the year, a September shoot would have seemed plausible. But with the way the coronavirus has unfolded, it's going to be a while before a movie like Gilliam’s can begin filming from square one.

Gallery — Movies With Incredibly Short Filming Schedules:

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