If you had any doubt that Terry Gilliam was one of the most brilliantly stubborn directors currently working, check out the exclusive news that Empire posted on Friday.  It would seem that Gilliam, having finally secured a tentative US release date for his "Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassuss" (September 24), is back to work on his dream project – his own original adaptation of Cervantes' classic "Don Quixote".

Of course dream projects sometimes turn into nightmares, to which anyone who has watched the documentary "Lost in La Mancha" can testify.  The film chronicled Gilliam's first quest to film the story of the knight-errant Hidalgo back in 2000.  The crew shot for all of five days before a plague of trouble (including a flash flood) rained down upon them – forcing the end of production and leading to years of insurance lawsuits and battles over the story rights.

Winning the rights back in 2008, Gilliam has now told Empire that he and his partner Tony Grisoni will be tilting at their own giant windmill once again:

"Tony and I have started rewriting "Don Quixote" just this last week. [We] finally got the script back. I re-read the greatest script ever written and realize we gotta get rewriting! I really wanna knock that one out in the next month or so."

Gilliam never planned a faithful adaptation of the famed source material – adding modern characters like 'Toby Grisoni" who was to be played by Johnny Depp.  On the subject of what might be different this time around Gilliam was vague, admitting only that he had some "very different ideas" for the story. 

Of course, with the commitments currently in front of Johnny Depp ("The Rum Diaries", "Pirates 4", "Dark Shadows") it is doubtful that the actor would be able to squeeze in a return to the material – especially as the director would like to begin shooting sometime this year.  But Gilliam still remains hopeful that he will have better luck with this latest attempt:

"[I'm] starting to think I was lucky, because maybe the film will be better seven years later. It will have matured a bit longer."