In a new interview in Italy, during the Umbria Film Festival, where Terry Gilliam is a citizen of honor, the filmmaker revealed that Asa Butterfield has been cast as Adam in "The Carnival at the End of Days.” The part of Eve has not yet been cast.
Filming on the film is set to take place in Spain and Saudi Arabia. It should be noted that this, in all likelihood, means that Gilliam got some, if not all, of the funding for the film from Saudi-backed the Red Sea Film Foundation, as was the case for Johnny Depp's previous two films, "Jeanne Du Barry" and "Modi.”
Johnny Depp was the key to Gilliam finally getting the financing needed for his long-gestating passion project. Gilliam has had such a hard time trying to fund his last few projects that he even hinted about retirement. Depp’s participation has given him a lifeline here.
We already know that Depp will be playing Satan in ‘Carnival at the End of Days,’ and he will be joined by Jeff Bridges, Adam Driver and Jason Momoa (via Premiere). Gilliam has stated that production is set to begin in 2025. The budget on the film is said to be around $40M.
Here’s Gilliam giving us plot details for ‘Carnival’:
This is a simple tale of God wiping out humanity for fucking up his beautiful garden Earth. There’s only one character who’s trying to save humanity and that’s Satan, because without humanity he’s lost his job and he’s an eternal character and so to live without a job is terrible. So he finds some young people and he tries to convince God that these young people are the new Adam and Eve. God still gets to wipe out humanity. It’s a comedy.
Gilliam already spoke about this project last September in this interview. He mentioned working with a "young screenwriter” on the script and that final draft had, more or less, been completed. That screenwriter was later revealed to be Christopher Brett Bailey, 33.
Terry Gilliam was a vital cinematic voice 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” “The Fisher King” and “12 Monkeys.”