Gilliam's Cursed 'Don Quixote' Could Be Banned From Cannes

The world premiere of one of the most cursed films in cinema history at the Cannes film festival was thrown into serious doubt Wednesday when it was hit by a new legal challenge.

Paris, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 25th Apr, 2018 ) :The world premiere of one of the most cursed films in cinema history at the Cannes film festival was thrown into serious doubt Wednesday when it was hit by a new legal challenge.

Lawyers for a former producer of Terry Gilliam's disaster-plagued "The Man Who Killed Don Quixote" -- which was to close the world's top film festival next month -- said they will to try to stop it being shown.

They said they would ask French judges to ban the screening and halt the release of the film which the Monty Python veteran has laboured on for nearly two decades. Showing the movie at Cannes would be "in defiance of three judicial decisions", they claimed in a statement to AFP.

A judicial source confirmed that their demand for a ban will be heard on May 7, the day before the Cannes film festival begins.

Producer Paulo Branco claims that the film, with "Star Wars" actor Adam Driver and Jonathan Pryce, is "illegal" and that his Alfama Films rather than Gilliam owns the rights to it.

Judges in France and Britain have sided with the Portuguese producer but the American-born director has challenged the French ruling and a Paris appeal court will give its decision in June. Branco's son, lawyer Juan Branco -- who also represents WikiLeaks' Julian Assange -- accused Gilliam and the festival organisers of trying to "railroad" through the Cannes premiere and a subsequent release in France before the courts had their final say.

He told AFP Tuesday that "we could end up with the closing film (of the festival) at risk of being cancelled."