Terry Gilliam Says ‘Carnival at the End of Days' Will Be His “Swan Song"

Last month, Terry Gilliam stated the cast for his upcoming “The Carnival at the End of Days” would include Johnny Depp, Adam Driver, Jeff Bridges and Jason Momoa.

Gilliam was a guest of honor at the recent Annecy Film Festival, and it is there that he confirmed the cast for his next film has been set. He’s currently storyboarding ‘carnival’ and says that the next few weeks will be “very decisive,” but that he has all the reasons to be optimistic about it happening.

This movie will probably be my swan song. The welcome I received in Annecy encourages me to continue working. I realize that I haven't gone out of fashion when I see young people stopping me in the street and telling me how my films have influenced them.

Gilliam describes the film as taking place inside a “delusional universe” and says it will play like “an enemy of political correctness." Shooting on ‘Carnival’ is supposed to begin in January 2025.

It’s understandable that the 83-year-old filmmaker sees this one as his final film. Gilliam’s had such a hard time trying to fund his last few projects that he’d previously hinted about retirement. The fact that he’s somehow managed to find the money for ‘Carnival’ is an absolute gift for us.

The last time Gilliam directed a feature was 2018’s “The Man Who Killed Don Quixote,” a film he was trying to make for more than two decades. It came and went without much excitement, although I thought it was his, de facto, best film since the late ‘90s.

His output these last 25 years hasn’t been very good, but many forget just how important and vital a cinematic voice Gilliam was during his peak years, especially when he was battling Universal for the final cut of his 1985 masterpiece, “Brazil.” He’s given us other great films over the years, including “Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” and “12 Monkeys.”