Terry Gilliam: I was the perfect guy to do Harry Potter
Aug 28, 2005
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Terry Gilliam is interviewed in the September 2, 2005 issue of Entertainment Weekly, and mentions projects that have passed, and those that he’s developed and worked on. Interviewer Gillian Flynn noted that JK Rowling wanted Gilliam for the Harry Potter films, and Gilliam replied:
I was reading the script as I was flying to Los Angeles for the [Warner Bros] meeting and thought, “Oh, she’s seen Time Bandits, she’s seen Monty Python.” You know you’re not going to get the job. It’s just to keep her happy – due diligence. The terrible thing about it was during the course of the meeting, I started getting enthusiastic – I was even getting myself excited. I remember leaving the meeting, getting in my car and driving for about two hours along Mulholland Drive just so angry I’d allowed myself to get excited about it. I mean, Chris Columbus’ versions are terrible. Just dull. Pedestrian. But I thought Alfonso Cuaron did a great job with the last one. I thought, Yeah, you got really close to it.