Jack O'Connell has signed on to star in Terry Gilliam's long-awaited Don Quixote, which will start shooting next spring for a May 2016 release. John Hurt is expected to appear as the title character, although he was not mentioned in Variety's article.

The project offers a modern-day satirical take on Miguel de Cervantes y Saavedra's original novel, following a jaded commercial director named Toby (Jack O'Connell), who arrives in Spain for a shoot. There, a gypsy sneaks his student film, a "lyrical re-working" of Don Quixote set in a Spanish village, into Toby's possession. After watching the movie, Toby sets off on a quest to find the village where it was shot, getting in a series of misadventures along the way.

This is actually Terry Gilliam's seventh attempt at tackling the Don Quixote story. The director had started shooting The Man Who Killed Don Quixote in 2000, with Johnny Depp playing an ad man named Toby Grisoni, who becomes transported back in time and turned into Don Quixote's companion Sancho Panza. The production was plagued by a number of difficulties before it was eventually shut down, all of which was chronicled in the 2003 documentary Lost in La Mancha.

When asked about his seventh attempt to make this feature, Terry Gilliam had this to say.

"Seven is my lucky number so let's break the curse and make it!"

Gregoire Melin, whose company Kinology will start pre-sales at the American Film Market, had this to say.

"We believe this film will capture the essence of everything audiences loved in Gilliam's unforgettable masterpieces such as Brazil, Time Bandits and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen."

Terry Gilliam is directing from a script he co-wrote with Tony Grisoni, with Adrián Guerra producing for Nostromo Pictures.