Amusing update. In a new interview with THR, Gilliam now blames Donald Trump for the delays on ‘Carnival,’ and says he needs to rewrite much of the screenplay. lol.
He’s fucked up the latest film I was working on. Because it was a satire about the last several years when things were going as they were. He’s turned it upside down. So he’s killed my movie […] I think Trump has destroyed satire […] With ‘Carnival,’ the other day I was thinking I was going to put a little preamble on it saying that what you’re about to see takes place during the period historians refer to as the Trump lost years from 2020 to 2024 […] I think I’ve got to rewrite a lot of it. I’m still trying to decide how to approach that.
Gilliam might be frustrated over the long and troubled history of his passion project, but he doesn’t seem all that bitter about the current state of things — in fact, he credits Trump with making it okay to laugh again.
I think Trump has changed things considerably. He’s turned the world upside down. I don’t know if people are going to be laughing more, but they’re probably less frightened to laugh. There have been woke activists with a very narrow, self-righteous point of view. That’s frightened so many people, and so many people have been very timid about telling jokes, making fun of things, because if you tell a joke, these people say you’re punching down at somebody. No, you’re finding humor in humanity!
Gilliam’s been a target for years now. The Monty Python legend saw a major gig at London’s Old Vic canceled after internal backlash over past remarks — the kind that rattle the usual gatekeepers.
Among his supposed offenses? Saying he was “tired of white men being blamed for everything wrong with the world,” and recommending Dave Chappelle’s “The Closer,” a stand-up special that pushed buttons on trans issues.
Naturally, the media pounced. The Independent ran a piece in 2020 telling Gilliam to “grow up.”
EARLIER. Terry Gilliam’s latest fever-dream of a project, “Carnival at the End of Days,” might be stuck in cinematic purgatory—if not outright dead.
In a new, refreshingly candid interview with Deadline, the 84-year-old director revealed both the scope and the struggle of getting his apocalyptic comedy off the ground, and—reading between the lines—it sounds increasingly unlikely the film will ever get made.
The script was reportedly well received by actors—including Johnny Depp, Adam Driver, Jeff Bridges, Jason Momoa, Tom Waits, Asa Butterfield, and Emma Laird—all of whom signed on, or at least expressed willingness to work for below their usual rates.
So what’s the hold-up?
“We’ve been pissing around for almost another year,” Gilliam shrugs. He candidly admits he bypassed Hollywood agents—“cautious, concerned people”—and sent the script directly to the actors himself. One Hollywood insider even warned him: “Don’t let anybody else read this in Hollywood. You’ll never work again, mate.”
The script, according to Gilliam, is “very, very funny,” centered on a plot where God decides to wipe out humanity for destroying Earth—a “comedy,” as he dryly emphasizes. But he concedes that even with the cast assembled, the budget he needs is well above the indie film threshold of $10M. “The apocalypse is always going to be expensive,” he quips.
Reading between the lines, Gilliam seems fully aware the project may be losing its relevance, and steam. He acknowledges the satirical nature of the script was tailored to a pre-2024 Trump resurgence world, saying, “Parts of it was very specific about the wonderful world of woke before The Donald took over again […] We may have to rework some of the story.”
There’s also a telling sense of resignation when he mentions being “kind of caught in this trap between independent film budgets and studio budgets.”
So, while Gilliam may have a script, a cast, and a passion for the big screen, “Carnival at the End of Days” seems fated to remain just that—a carnival in his head, swirling with good ideas, chaos, and maybe a few laughs—but ultimately, nowhere near a greenlight.
At this point, don’t hold your breath.