Sopan Deb

The new Danny Boyle film, “Yesterday,” imagines a world without one of the most influential musical acts of all time, the Beatles. During a global blackout, Jack Malik (Himesh Patel), a middling songwriter, has a bike accident and is knocked unconscious. When he wakes up, he remembers the band, but no one else does.

But we never find out why a blackout causes the world to forget about the Beatles or why Jack remembers them.

It didn’t matter for the film’s primary screenwriter, Richard Curtis. Where many films go out of their way to justify elaborate or quirky premises, Curtis opted to focus only on the existential questions the story posed: How would the Beatles fare if they debuted in 2019? Are performances as important as compositions? And what about the ethics of claiming ownership of music that isn’t yours? Is it stealing if the band didn’t exist to begin with?

“You try and make it as logical as you can,” Curtis said in a phone interview. “But I think the problem is, if you really try and prove the point that something that can’t happen happened, you will tie yourself up in knots.”

This story got me thinking about other films whose plots are based on unique premises with minimal explanation. Since a lot of movie plots seem inexplicable, I came up with some arbitrary rules. Someone’s behavior cannot set the story in motion. (For instance, in the 2000 comedy “Family Man,” it’s implied that Don Cheadle’s character, Cash, causes the holiday ills that befall Nicolas Cage’s Jack Campbell.) The premise has to be almost entirely unexplained. So not “Big” (1988), because the story gets going with a wish, or “The Matrix” (1999), in which the origin story is explained by the characters. Superhero movies don’t count either.

I took a closer look at four such films, though honorable mentions should be given to “What Women Want” (2000), “Stranger Than Fiction” (2006) and “Being John Malkovich” (1999).

1993 ‘Groundhog Day’

Directed by Harold Ramis, the movie imagines the disgruntled weatherman Phil Connors (Bill Murray in his finest performance) living the same day over and over again in Punxsutawney,Pennsylvania.

We never learn why Connors keeps having to live the same day. It just happens, although there is some suggestion that the pattern is linked to Phil’s misanthropy. He eventually evolves from a bitter narcissist to a charitable, loving human being, all by going through the same motions everyday.

Danny Rubin came up with the original premise and wrote it on spec. Columbia Pictures, the studio behind the film, wanted to insert a reason Phil has to endure the punishment of not being able to get to tomorrow. Among the justifications Rubin and Ramis considered: a curse set by a woman whom Connors has wronged.

“It felt so arbitrary. And I thought, ‘Why do I have to do that at all?’ It’s just a waste of time,” Rubin said. “And I also realized the thing that excited me the most about the premise was that Phil was stuck having to deal with the day, he didn’t know how he got there. But he still has to deal with it.”

Rubin wrote scenes with the curse, but Ramis didn’t end up filming them. Sometimes, it’s best to disregard the studio’s notes.

1976 ‘Freaky Friday’

Ignore the 2003 version starring Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis. The one we are concerned with is the 1976 original with Barbara Harris and Jodie Foster. The film’s story is based on a children’s novel by Mary Rodgers, who also wrote the screenplay.

In the movie, a mother and a teenage daughter find themselves swapping bodies for unclear reasons following an argument. It may seem like I’m breaking my own rule about behavior: Yes, both make a wish at the exact same time before the switch. But it’s not in the presence of anyone in particular. Certainly not a robotic fortuneteller, as in “Big,” so I feel this is fine.

The 2003 version may be best known now because it further established Lohan as a budding star. But in that film, written by Heather Hach and Leslie Dixon, the swap is actually explained: It was a result of the consumption of fortune cookies.

2009 ‘The Invention of Lying’

This film received mixed reviews when it came out — many critics found it grating. But I’ll get on this hill and defend an ingenious premise from Ricky Gervais and Matthew Robinson, who wrote and directed the movie, which also starred Gervais.

The comic plays Mark Bellison, a screenwriter in a world where no one can tell a lie. Not white lies. Not big lies. Until Mark, somehow, manages to do it. Of course, he uses this to his advantage: winning money at a casino by saying he’s won when he hasn’t; withdrawing money he doesn’t have from bank accounts; keeping a police officer from arresting his friend for drunken driving.

However, the audience never learns why Mark develops the ability to lie. There is a fleeting look inside his brain, where he seemingly has been given the tool to do it, but really, not much else.

In actuality, there was a scene to explain the discrepancy. Robinson said in an email that they had shot an elaborate opening that took place in prehistoric times, in which a cave man (also played by Gervais) tells his tribe he killed a boar to impress them, when the boar had actually been killed by a falling boulder. It was the most expensive scene to shoot of the entire film, but it ended up on the cutting-room floor. Robinson and Gervais found it unnecessary.

“Ricky and I always felt we wanted to do the bare minimum necessary to explain the premise of the film, so we’d have as much time as possible for comedy and character,” Robinson said.

2017 ‘Colossal’

An explanation of this plot cannot do any justice to the premise of this movie. Written and directed by Nacho Vigalondo, it centers on a down-on-her-luck, unpredictable woman named Gloria (played by Anne Hathaway), who goes back to her hometown, where she strikes up a relationship with Oscar, a bartender she grew up with (Jason Sudeikis).

The two find that simply by being at a playground at a certain time, they have the ability to control a monster and robot that are terrorizing Seoul on the other side of the world. Eventually, Oscar turns villainous, and by proxy, so does the robot, causing a showdown with Gloria’s monster and putting the fate of millions of civilians at stake.

There is next to zero explanation as to how this was possible. You’re just supposed to enjoy the ride. (And I did.)

“The reason my characters have giant monster avatars is explained only emotionally,” Vigalondo said in an email. “A rational or scientific origin story would have worked if my movie was centered around the mystery of the monster’s appearance. In this case, the characters never try to solve the mystery. They are just affected by the consequences.”

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/22/movies/from-groundhog-day-to-yesterday-the-twists-we-cant-explain.html" id="7476e502-6618-3a76-a59d-59485cfe11d3">The New York Times</a>.

Most stories explore the basics: who, what, where, when and especially why. But some movies skip that last one.

From 'Groundhog Day' to 'Yesterday,' the Twists We Can't Explain

But Luhrmann couldn’t get the rights.

The film, starring Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor, did mighty fine anyway. It grossed $180 million and racked up eight Oscar nominations, including best picture. It spawned a Stones-less soundtrack that went double platinum, and a risqué music video that gave cancan a pop culture makeover. Just try to get through this piece without singing “Giuchie, giuchie, ya-ya, da-da” to yourself.

Roughly 15 years later, Justin Levine, the 33-year-old music supervisor for the lush new Broadway adaptation of the movie, wanted to try again. He had to solve a creative problem: how the villainous Duke of Monroth, played by Tam Mutu, would meet the heroine, Satine, portrayed here by Karen Olivo.

Levine made obtaining the rights a personal point of pride. While on a trip to Germany, Levine set up his GarageBand editing software in a closet and recorded himself singing and playing demos of how the music might be used in the show, before sending them off to the Rolling Stones’ management. Carmen Pavlovic, the production’s lead producer, had already brought on board a former music executive with Stones connections to help with the whole process.

This time the answer was yes. The Duke now greets Satine with “Sympathy for the Devil,” a new addition to a very crowded song list in “Moulin Rouge! The Musical,” the larger-than-life stage version of Luhrmann’s film.

If it all works right — and based on a tryout run in Boston and hot-selling early Broadway previews at the Hirschfeld Theater, the odds look good — the musical adaptation of Luhrmann’s film will give audiences the same rush as the movie did.

But the giddiness onstage is in contrast to the arduous negotiations it took getting there. “I have tried to come up with another example that is as complex and I can’t,” said Pavlovic.

And it started before a single word was written.

Supersizing the score

From the outset, “Moulin Rouge” was a jukebox musical with a difference.

The Moulin Rouge itself is a storied Parisian venue that has gone through many incarnations — cabaret, theater, music hall — since its founding in the late-19th century. The movie’s master stroke was to tell a tragic turn-of-the-century love story through alternate renditions of anachronistic pop songs.

Pavlovic, who runs Global Creatures, a Sydney-based theatrical production company, spent about six years securing the stage rights to the film, part of her company’s major move into stage musicals. Along with getting Luhrmann, a fellow Australian, to sign off, she had to persuade another screenwriter and even the Moulin Rouge itself, which had licensed its name and imagery.

And while the $28 million musical, with a book by John Logan and direction by Alex Timbers, doesn’t stint on the film’s lavish visual style, it made one other big commitment: More music. Much more.

As in the film, sometimes it’s an entire song. In other moments, it’s just a line. More than a third of the songs are mashed-up in one number.

“Lady Marmalade,” the most famous song from the movie, is in the show of course, and now given even more prominence. So are many other core numbers. But much of the music debuted after the film, giving the production a fresher, more contemporary feel.

The grand total: 70 songs credited to 161 writers.

Which meant that along with its recognizable Broadway stars like Olivo, Aaron Tveit and Danny Burstein, the musical’s key players would include the team in charge of song rights and clearances. Really.

A hotel room summit

First things first: How to retell the story of Christian, the wide-eyed writer, Satine, the dying courtesan, and their love-, sex- and absinthe-crazed bohemian world.

As filmmaker, Luhrmann had the luxury of quick cuts and dissolves to move things along. The musical has to tell a story in real time. And beyond that, the creators believed their production couldn’t simply mimic the movie — a common pitfall for the many shows adapted from beloved films.

“We felt very strongly that we had to create our own beast, with its own DNA,” said Logan, a Tony-winning playwright and screenwriter. “We couldn’t slavishly ape the movie because that would be very disappointing to everyone.”

In 2016, he and Levine gathered for a three-day summit in a Times Square hotel. Logan brought notecards outlining what he thought the story could look like. Levine brought a keyboard.

Both brought in songs they thought would serve the story and their characters.

That’s when the stage musical was born. But the question remained: Would they ever actually be able to use those songs?

Hire an expert

Using the wish list provided by Logan and Levine, Pavlovic set in motion the difficult work of getting to yes.

The source material on the list was vast and varied, from pop ballads like Elton John’s “Your Song” (featured in the film) to dance workouts written since, like OutKast’s “Hey Ya!” and Katy Perry’s “Firework.”

Pavlovic brought in Janet Billig Rich, a producer with a deep well of experience in the music industry, to help with the clearances. The show had to obtain what is called a “grand rights license” for each composition, which allows for music to be used in the context of a narrative. The permissions and costs vary depending on how much of an individual song is in the musical and for how long.

Contemporary pop songs are often written by committee, and many feature samples of material written by a whole other set of creators. “Moulin Rouge” had to get the approval of each of the composers and publishers who hold song rights — though not necessarily the performer who originated the material. For example, “Toxic,” a song recorded and released by Britney Spears on her 2003 album, “In the Zone,” did not require Spears’ permission to use in the show, but four songwriters had to give the thumbs up.

If that’s not confusing enough, sometimes a song might have multiple writers and publishers and the mix of publishers controlling the song is often different outside of the United States.

Each night the cast takes the stage, the 161 composers receive a royalty payment, which is proportional to how long a given song is in the show and based on a cut of revenue.

If a composer or a publisher demanded an exorbitant sum, the creative team was willing to improvise.

“Part of it was so much — coming into it — the producing team saying, ‘This is the deal: We’re willing to walk away. Not one song has to make the show,’ ” Billig Rich said. “And that to me was so badass.”

You can’t always get what you want

Near the beginning of the film, there’s a dance scene inside the club to a version of “Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana. You won’t see that in the musical, because Courtney Love, who was married to the band’s frontman, Kurt Cobain, wouldn’t allow it. She’s been developing her own Nirvana stage musical and owns the majority of the rights to Nirvana’s music.

Queen’s “The Show Must Go On” was a no because “Bohemian Rhapsody,” the Freddie Mercury biopic, was moving along, and the team behind the band’s estate didn’t want there to be conflict.

And then there’s the case of “Uptown Funk,” one of the biggest hits of the last decade, performed by Bruno Mars and Mark Ronson.

This was a song with 11 credited songwriters, meaning Pavlovic had to obtain approval from each one of them.

She did. All except for one: Mars.

About that mash-up

If there’s any scene that captures the spirit of the “Moulin Rouge” movie, it’s the “Elephant Love Medley,” a duet in which Christian (McGregor) and Satine (Kidman) trade off lines about their romance. Each line is from a different pop song.

In the musical it’s placed at a different moment — we won’t spoil it here — and forced the creative trio to make an adjustment.

Levine holed himself in his office for several days, spreading lyric sheets on the floor to piece together songs that might work. (Or, as he put it, he “grabbed the football and ran with it.”)

About 25 of the show’s 70 songs are featured in this number, performed by Tveit and Olivo.

The solution, Levine found, was for Olivo to answer Tveit’s ardor with “anti-love” songs, allowing their relationship to warm up much more slowly. So if you happen to hear a bit of Tina Turner’s “What’s Love Got to Do With It,” that’s why.

Come what may

Even after “Moulin Rouge” opens on July 25, the musical challenges will continue.

A cast album seems inevitable, and Pavlovic and her team have already begun to clear a whole new set of hurdles. Each recorded track will be its own unique copyright — meaning the team is going back to all the individuals and publishers who own stakes in the music and asking permission to present the songs as they are specifically done in the show.

And if the show is produced internationally, song rights will have to be cleared for these territories. But no matter how complex, the 161 songwriters have every incentive to sign off.

“If this wins, you’re getting checks for the next couple decades,” Billig Rich said. “On a loss, if the show fails, you don’t have any association with it. The producers are the ones who lose millions.”

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/17/theater/moulin-rouge-musical-songs.html" id="491551e0-69ea-376f-a2a8-4a1705e57f0d">The New York Times</a>.

How Can 'Moulin Rouge! The Musical' Upstage the Movie? With 70 Songs

If Baz Luhrmann had his way, the music of the Rolling Stones would have been featured in his 2001 movie, the cult favorite “Moulin Rouge,” alongside David Bowie, Sting and Madonna.

“It was actually kind of emotional when I walked in because I hadn’t seen it,” Youssef, 28, said last fall as he stood outside his faux-home, which was built in a Brooklyn studio. He added: “It doesn’t feel exactly like my house but the emotional correctness is totally there. It’s the right vibe.”

The house looks like many middle-class suburban homes: A living room, dining room, kitchen, all unremarkable.

But what is remarkable about “Ramy” isn’t that it significantly differs from other millennial coming-of-age stories. It’s that it doesn’t.

The comedy, which debuted April 19, tells the story of a young American Muslim grappling with his faith along with the usual array of 20-something pressures: romance, career aspirations, drugs, parents. It’s a simple formula, but after decades of Muslims being depicted on screen as terrorists and villains or otherwise pushed to the side, it’s practically revolutionary.

“On one level, it’s very clear that there’s nothing out like it,” Youssef said. “There’s this initial reaction that you have of: ‘Oh, man. I have a lot of responsibility. I have this responsibility to speak for my people.’ Then you start to make the thing and you’re like: ‘That’s an impossible goal. If I try to do that, it just won’t work.’”

He continued, “The more that I got into the process, I realized all I can do is really offer my singular point of view, and make sure that it’s as much me as possible, and that will speak to who we need to speak to.”

Portrayals of Muslims in Western pop culture have historically lacked nuance. If they’re depicted at all, it is usually as the bad guys — see “True Lies,” “24” and “Homeland,” among many other examples. Jack G. Shaheen, a professor and author who spent much of his life cataloging how Hollywood has stereotyped Muslims and Arabs, said before his death in 2017 that anti-Muslim prejudices on screen were as bad as they’ve ever been, which he cited as a contributing factor to a low view of Islam among Americans. In 2017, a poll conducted by the Pew Research Center showed a warming view of Muslims in the United States, but still the lowest among other religious groups in the survey, including Jews, Catholics, and evangelical Christians.

In 2010, broadcaster Katie Couric suggested a possible solution to change attitudes about Islam in the United States: “Maybe we need a Muslim version of ‘The Cosby Show.’” Aasif Mandvi, the former correspondent for “The Daily Show,” gave it a shot with a 2015 Funny or Die spoof called “Halal in the Family.”

But attempts to seriously address the issue have become more common in recent years. In 2017, in a widely hailed speech in the British House of Commons, actor Riz Ahmed spoke about the importance of on-screen representation.

“If we fail to represent, we are in danger of losing people to extremism,” Ahmed said.

After Ahmed’s speech gained publicity, Sadia Habib and Shaf Choudry, an academic and a tech consultant in Britain, created the Riz Test, the Muslim equivalent of the Bechdel Test, which set criteria for judging Muslim portrayals in film and television. (A representative for Ahmed said he was unavailable for comment.)

Among the categories: Are the characters “presented as irrationally angry?” or “talking about, the victim of, or the perpetrator of terrorism?”

“The general portrayal is obviously quite negative,” Habib said. “It almost serves to perpetuate this idea that Muslims are quite backward, culturally deficit, and you get quite a lot of contradictions.”

Recent projects that failed the test include the BBC hit “Bodyguard,” Amazon’s “Jack Ryan” and even the smash Marvel movie “Black Panther” where, in an early scene, a terrorist screams, “Wallahi, I will shoot her!” — Wallahi, in Arabic, means “I swear to Allah” — after the main character T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman) goes to rescue Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o).

“The awareness that there was nothing like it was what pushed me to make it even more unique, because there’s never been a Muslim family show,” Youssef said. “I didn’t want to give the Muslim family the same treatment that is given to the Asian family show and the Hispanic family show. There are almost kind of tropes of how an immigrant family is treated on television, and I felt like, ‘No, this needs to go even further than that.’”

“All those things were driven by the reality that we have no other portrayal outside of the news,” he added.

In “Ramy” Youssef plays a version of himself embracing Islam. It’s not the only authentically Muslim story told in recent years: “The Big Sick,” the 2017 movie written by Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon, was nominated for an Oscar and told the story about Nanjiani and Gordon’s real-life romance.

The difference between “Ramy” and “The Big Sick” is that Nanjiani spent much of that story trying to run away from his faith, whereas Youssef fully welcomes religious aspects of Islam. And in the non-scripted realm, comedian Hasan Minhaj discusses his culture and faith with regularity on his Netflix show, “Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj.”

If “Ramy” is not exactly a Muslim “Cosby Show” — this version is far more vulgar — Youssef, who also has a stand-up special debuting on HBO on June 29, can claim credit for acing the Riz Test.

“If that’s how it is, I have hopes for it,” Habib said. “It will change the narrative and it will maybe open the floodgates for more shows like this about Muslims.”

The Ramy of the show has to reconcile his faith with the demands of being a young adult in New Jersey. He said that while his character on the show wasn’t an exact replica of himself, “a lot of the rules that are in the show are kind of the ones that I do have for myself personally.” Most of his love interests early in the season are white and do not understand why he doesn’t drink or do drugs. He has deep conversations at his mosque about how to properly wash his feet and what his place is in the world. (Youssef doesn’t completely avoid caricatures in the show: His uncle, played by Laith Nakli, is cartoonishly homophobic and anti-Semitic.)

At the same time, “Ramy” explores many of the same issues as other contemporary shows about young adults trying to get by, like HBO’s “Girls” and “Insecure.” Along with the push-and-pull of his faith, Ramy contends with meddling relatives, selfish friends, dating woes and career struggles.

“I do believe in God,” Youssef said. “I realized that there was this void in entertainment of someone talking about that genuine construct. I have a bit about it I do all the time about how there’s Friday prayers, and then there’s Friday night, where it’s like: ‘No, I want to do both. I want to pray, and then, I also go out, and I have a girlfriend.’”

Born in Queens and raised mostly in Rutherford, New Jersey, Youssef began conceiving the show when he dropped out of Rutgers University at 20 and moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in acting. Being on the opposite coast of his family, he found more solace in Islam than he had ever found before.

During one of his first acting jobs, on Nickelodeon’s “See Dad Run,” the show was “shooting at Paramount Pictures and I remember praying at Paramount,” Youssef said. “I had this thought where I was like: ‘Who else has done this? Who has prayed on this lot?’”

His stand-up and acting career started taking off. (I have performed multiple stand-up shows with Youssef over the years.) Youssef began dabbling in comedy with a sketch group in high school and then stand-up in Los Angeles.He started touring with Jerrod Carmichael. In 2017, he landed his most high-profile appearance to date: a set on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.” That same year, he pitched his own show to several outlets, including Hulu.

“For someone who was doing a show for the first time, he just knew what his show was,” Beatrice Springborn, Hulu’s vice president of original programming, said. “He also knew how to take his experience of being a first generation Muslim-American and make it feel like every millennial’s experience.”

Youssef acknowledged that he would not have been able to make this show a decade ago — the explosion of streaming platforms has created more opportunities for more diverse perspectives and talent. (Steve Way, an actor born with muscular dystrophy, plays a close friend of Youssef.) It has also created room for formal experimentation.

“We take a lot of tonal and storytelling risks,” he said. “We have episodes that I’m not even in.”

One episode depicts experiencing the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks solely through a young version of the central character. The episode, which Youssef directed but does not appear in, is indicative of the show’s balancing act — it delivers Youssef’s distinct point of view while also giving a broader portrayal of the Muslim experience in the United States.

“I think a lot of people look at Muslims and they think every day, the moderate Muslim or the good Muslim — it’s almost like we all have this choice every morning that’s like, ISIS or breakfast,” Youssef said.

“As if that’s like a genuine temptation,” he continued. “I don’t know anyone who knows anything about anyone who’s ever been in ISIS. We’ve got nothing to do with any of that. Really placing what our actual issues are, and what our actual things are at the forefront is the thing that I think makes us most human. That’s what I want people to see.”

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/18/arts/television/ramy-youssef-hulu.html" id="84d53497-ef62-3ed2-afe3-7de870f205d8">The New York Times</a>.

Ramy Youssef was home, in a manner of speaking. The Egyptian-American stand-up comedian had just finished shooting several takes of a scene for his new Hulu show, “Ramy.” The set was a mock-up of his childhood New Jersey home and the scene took place inside the dining room. Pictures of Youssef and his sister were hanging on the wall.

'Ramy' Is a Quietly Revolutionary Comedy

That would be Gilliam’s daughter, Amy, who is now 41.

The movie has to be one of the unluckiest passion projects in history: In a three-decade stretch, Gilliam, now 78, endured several financing stops and starts, a rotating cast of committed and uncommitted cast members, and a brutal flash flood that wiped out an entire set. In fact, a documentary about the failure to make the movie — the 2002 “Lost in La Mancha” — was completed before the actual movie.

But finally, “The Man Who Killed Don Quixote” is no longer just a project. Sisyphus moved the boulder to the top of the hill. After debuting at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival, it is a completed work that will make its U.S. debut April 10 in a one-night showing at 700 theaters across the country, before a limited theatrical run with an unknown date.

Gilliam himself, in his effort to make the film, has been likened to Quixote, but he prefers a different comparison: “The film is Quixote. I’m Sancho Panza because I’m the guy who just keeps pushing it forward,” he said from London. “My feet are on the ground most of the time.”

While he didn’t make the journey alone, Gilliam had very little of the same company along the way. Only a few people involved in the final product were there when he first tried to film it in 2000: They include his daughter; co-writer Tony Grisoni; cinematographer Nicola Pecorini; and production designer Benjamín Fernández. The Quixote costume designed for the original production was used in the finished version.

In interviews, those who had stayed with Gilliam on this ride could be described as the director’s own Sancho Panzas: equal parts loyal and astounded that Gilliam kept pressing on, even under the most challenging circumstances.

The director had a script in hand that he wrote in the late 1980s with Charles McKeown, one of his collaborators on “Brazil” (1985), but it wasn’t quite to Gilliam’s liking. He recruited Grisoni, a British screenwriter, to help on rewrites. The two had adapted another book for the screen, for the 1998 movie “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” but Grisoni had reservations about doing the same with “Don Quixote.”

“It’s a fantastic two volumes,” he said. “Maybe every book doesn’t need to be a film. Is that heresy? It’s heresy I know in the film world. But sometimes, a book can just be left alone.”

Nevertheless Gilliam’s idea of making Quixote a contemporary story drew Grisoni in. With Johnny Depp and French actor Jean Rochefort attached as leads, shooting began in 2000 with a disastrous expedition in Spain. Rochefort had to withdraw because of health problems, and the production was routinely disrupted by thunder, flash floods and flyovers from a nearby NATO base. The filmmakers gave up after about a week.

But Gilliam spent nearly two more decades trying to bring it to fruition. “It’s partly that everybody else says, ‘Forget it, move on,’” Gilliam said. “I think that’s the main driving force. I don’t like reasonable people telling me to be reasonable.”

Multiple times a year, Grisoni said, Gilliam would call him to work on the script. Michael Palin, Gilliam’s fellow Monty Python member; Robert Duvall; and John Hurt were among the stars attached in those years, but all of them fell through. (Gilliam dedicated the movie to Hurt and Rochefort, who both died in 2017.) The financing, in place for the first script, was thrown in doubt during the initial rewrites, came together for the Depp version and fell apart repeatedly after that.

Pecorini, also a “Fear and Loathing” alumnus, said that according to his records, since he signed on, there had been a dozen attempts to make the film. Each time, Pecorini said in an interview, he was “totally skeptical.”

But still, he added, he has deep affection for the project and for Gilliam: “I love working with Terry. He drives me nuts, but I love it.”

When asked what sometimes irked him about working with Gilliam, Pecorini said stubbornness, a quality Amy Gilliam also cited about her father and one that she shares with him. It’s likely a big reason “Quixote” finally debuted at Cannes.

She was working in the production office when Gilliam first tried to shoot “Quixote.” For this version, she was crucial in securing the final investment — the budget was about half the $32 million allotted for the original version. She saw firsthand how much the project weighed on Gilliam, saying that the topic routinely came up at dinner conversations.

“As a family, we really were like, ‘Oh my God, this is too much for all of us,’” Amy Gilliam said. “And we were fed up with dealing with the struggles and the suffering and the heartache and the trauma.”

“Well, I’m kind of relieved to now just get on with my life,” Amy Gilliam said. “It’s a bit scary. What do I have to torment myself with?”

This round of filming, which finished in 2017, went smoothly. “There were no signs of God’s wrath,” Pecorini said.

Or as Gilliam put it: “I guess God liked me this time.”

What made it to the screen stars Jonathan Pryce as Don Quixote, the delusional but chivalrous man from La Mancha, who sets off to become a hero, as described in the 17th-century novel by Miguel de Cervantes. Gilliam’s story takes place in contemporary times: Toby, played by Adam Driver, is a self-centered advertising director who, years after casting a Spanish shoemaker as Quixote in a student film, returns to Spain to find that the man, played by Pryce, thinks he’s actually Quixote. The man takes Toby to be his loyal companion, Sancho Panza. (In the novels, Sancho is crucial in telling the story to delineate from Quixote’s warped mind.)

Gilliam wasn’t able to get everyone he wanted to work on this version of the film, like one of the extras who played a shirtless giant in the original version. “I wanted him so desperately but we couldn’t make contact with him. It was very sad,” Gilliam said. Instead, in a scene that features the filming of a commercial, Gilliam said, a model of the extra’s head can be seen.

Gilliam was able to get Jorge Calvo, who played a version of Sancho in the first version, to come back and play him again in this one. Actress Rossy de Palma, who plays a farmer’s wife, and Ismael Fritschi, who portrays another version of Sancho, also were part of the original production.

The revived production wasn’t completely trouble-free. The Portuguese government investigated accusations that a UNESCO World Heritage site, the 12th-century Convent of Christ in Tomar, was damaged during filming, something Gilliam vigorously denied. A former producer of the film who had fallen out with Gilliam, Paulo Branco, filed a lawsuit over rights ownership and tried to block its debut at Cannes. A Paris court ruled that the movie could debut as planned.

And with that, an endeavor that has taken up almost half of Gilliam’s life has been completed. Now, he has a new windmill to tilt at: how the film’s rollout is being handled.

“I’m not convinced with the way it is being released in many countries, particularly in America,” Gilliam said. “I’m told by other people that if you have a studio picture with millions to spend, this idea of one screening across the country works. I don’t know. We’ll find out. I’m in the middle of trying to get these guys to promote it properly.”

Still, Gilliam described himself as exhausted and, for the first time in 30 years, finds himself with nothing on his plate.

Whenever he finished a film, he would “go into a postnatal depression, and there was always something waiting. There was a little Quixote standing back there waving to me. ‘Hey, let’s do me again!’ It was always something to keep me moving forward. And right now, I never felt quite like I do at the moment: It’s just I have no idea what to do.”

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/04/movies/terry-gilliam-don-quixote.html" id="4a61a2c4-863f-3ae0-a554-bd47deb87eba">The New York Times</a>.

When Terry Gilliam began work on “The Man Who Killed Don Quixote,” one of its producers was about 11 years old.

The Impossible Dream? It Came True

The newest “SNL” spoofed Wednesday’s widely watched congressional hearing in which President Donald Trump’s former personal attorney testified under oath before the House Oversight and Reform Committee that Trump was a “racist” and a “con-man,” and detailed what he said was a pattern of criminal behavior. Cohen has pleaded guilty to lying to Congress under oath, something Stiller himself poked fun at in character.

“Of course the first time I testified was under oath, but this time I, like really mean it,” Stiller said.

The sketch began with Kenan Thompson playing the role of Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the committee chairman, who quipped, “For any other president, this hearing would be the most damning and humiliating moment of their lives, but for Trump, it’s just Wednesday,” before handing the floor to Cohen.

Stiller, as Cohen, said in his opening statement that he had help in writing it “from the guys who wrote ‘Green Book.'”

“I know that I was wrong,” Stiller said. “And I know it, because I got caught.”

He concluded with this missive: “But now, I’m all out of faith. This is how I feel. I’m cold and I’m ashamed and lying naked on the floor. Illusion never changed into something real. I’m wide-awake and I can see the perfect sky is torn.”

If this bit went over your head — and we wouldn’t blame you — Stiller was reciting lyrics from the song “Torn,” a ‘90s hit for Australian singer Natalie Imbruglia.

The main target of the “SNL” writing team was Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, the ranking Republican. The show brought in a pinch-hitter, one of its most famous alums, Bill Hader, to play a furious version of Jordan.

“You’re right that I’m angry,” Hader said. “I’m angry that I have to sit here through this two-bit dirtbag flea circus. I’m so angry I couldn’t even wear a jacket today. You know something, Mr. Cohen, I’ve never even heard of you!” Hader said.

“Your mother has,” Stiller responded.

The rest of the sketch featured Democrats ceding their time to Jordan, hoping he would make a fool of himself, as well as a lampoon of Rep. Mark Meadows of North Carolina, who at the testimony Wednesday brought Lynne Patton, a black Department of Housing and Urban Development official and longtime Trump ally, to counter Cohen’s claim that Trump is a racist.

“SNL” re-created the moment, with Alex Moffat portraying Meadows, and Ego Nwodim as Patton. With one problem, courtesy of Moffatt:

“Her name is Omarosa,” Moffat said, a reference to the former Trump aide, who is also black. Nwodim tried to correct him, but Moffat would have none of it.

— Weekend Update Jokes of the Week

Colin Jost and Michael Che teed off on the Cohen testimony as well from the update desk, among other topics. At one point — perhaps illustrating the difficulty of mocking Trump — the hosts simply played clips of Trump giving his more than two-hour speech at the annual gathering of conservatives in Washington, CPAC.

“Did you guys see this picture online of a chubby sewer rat that got stuck in a manhole? It’s this creature that usually seems gross, but under these circumstances, it’s kind of adorable and you almost feel sorry for it. That’s how I felt about watching Michael Cohen testify in Congress.”

“Cohen also provided Congress with copies of letters threatening Trump’s high schools and colleges not to reveal his SAT scores. And while Cohen did not reveal what those scores were, let’s just say Trump lives a little closer to 920 Pennsylvania Ave. than to 1600.”

“Michael Cohen told Congress about all the dirty little nasty freaky things that Donald Trump made him do. I don’t know why I just made that sexual but I am tired of Michael Cohen’s whole damsel-in-distress routine. ‘Oh, Mr. Trump took advantage of me. I guess I’m a fool.’ You stole a United States presidency. Why are you acting like a [expletive] now? Your voice wasn’t trembling when you was threatening schoolteachers and shaking down porn stars. I want to hear that guy talk to Congress. At least Donald Trump has the decency to slowly fall apart until he is dragged off in handcuffs like a boss. I mean, that’s how I want to leave ‘SNL.'”

“This week, President Trump met with North Korean dictator — and let’s face it, one of his top five closest friends — Kim Jong Un. Talks broke down when the two leaders could not agree on sanctions. Another problem was Kim Jong Un used an interpreter, while Trump just spoke English, but louder.”

— Weekend Update Deskside Bit of the Week

We love a good character break, especially when it comes from cast members who typically hold it together. Jost led into the bit telling the story about a pig named Picasso who was saved from a slaughterhouse because of his ability to paint.

He invited the owners of “Smokery Farms Meat Gift Delivery Service,” on to comment: cousins Vaneta and Wylene Starkie, played by Kate McKinnon and Aidy Bryant. In deep Southern accents, the two lamented the preponderance of heartwarming animal stories.

“People going vegan left and right because the damn internet keeps showing people videos like ‘Pig Teaches Deaf Dog To Bark,'” McKinnon said.

The sketch almost derailed immediately after, as McKinnon and Bryant had trouble containing their laughter. They brought on raw cuts to describe the quality of their well-known Smokery cuts of meat. The lines barely mattered at that point, as the spectacle of the duo losing it had the audience in stitches.

— Wedding Guest of the Week

Who knew that John Mulaney, hosting the show for the second time, was so versed in black culture? In this sketch, Mulaney attends a wedding with his girlfriend, played by Nwodim. The wedding is her cousin’s, and Mulaney is the only white attendee. He repeatedly keeps expressing nervousness about not having enough in common with the other guests, especially because he’s a “software engineer from Indiana.”

Except, as we learn during a long dance sequence to a remix of “Cha-Cha Slide,” Mulaney fits in as well as anybody in the room. He is a Howard University graduate and knows when to wave a church fan — perhaps from the spades tournament we find out that Mulaney competed in with Nwodim’s aunt, Georgette, played by Leslie Jones.

He’s also, apparently, a humble master of Beyoncé's “Single Ladies” moves.

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/03/arts/television/saturday-night-live-michael-cohen-ben-stiller-bill-hader.html" id="c4d7e2be-55b5-37d9-a303-0c62a02c30f5">The New York Times</a>.

There are certain guarantees in life. Death, the rising sun and Ben Stiller returning to play Michael Cohen in this week’s cold open of “Saturday Night Live” are among them.

'SNL' Cold Open Skewers Cohen Hearings With Stiller and Hader

Law enforcement officials said a grand jury had heard evidence that Smollett falsely reported being attacked in a case that quickly drew national attention, and that local prosecutors had then charged him with a felony count of disorderly conduct.

Smollett, who is black and openly gay, had told police that, while walking in downtown Chicago, he had been confronted by masked men who hurled homophobic and racial slurs at him, and announced it was “MAGA country,” a reference to President Donald Trump’s campaign slogan.

Smollett had received an immediate outpouring of public support. Many cited his account as an example of another in a rising tide of hate crimes, which the FBI reported last fall had increased for the third straight year.

But the change in thinking by investigators as the case progressed began to unleash criticism against the news media and politicians who many critics said were too quick to embrace a sketchy account in their drive to tarnish the president.

It became a nightly topic on Fox News for Tucker Carlson, who called it a case of identity politics run amok. “Identity politics is a scam,” he said, “and it is not so different from the one that Jussie Smollett just pulled.”

Ramesh Ponnuru, a senior editor at National Review, said Wednesday: “I think that the initial reaction suggested that there is a lot of credulity, especially among liberals who were looking at a story that seemed to confirm their impressions about Trump supporters.”

Smollett has continued to vehemently insist the incident occurred just as he reported it.

His lawyers, Todd S. Pugh and Victor P. Henderson, released a statement that said: “Like any other citizen, Mr. Smollett enjoys the presumption of innocence, particularly when there has been an investigation like this one where information, both true and false, has been repeatedly leaked. Given these circumstances, we intend to conduct a thorough investigation and to mount an aggressive defense.”

From the start, investigators had difficulty corroborating Smollett’s story, even with about a dozen detectives assigned to the case.

No surveillance cameras caught the attack. There were no witnesses. He had not reported it from the scene, and when he got home was still wearing a noose that he said the perpetrators had placed around his neck.

Investigators, though, were able to track two men who appeared on video footage not far from the scene that night. Using ride share data, they discovered the two were brothers who in fact knew Smollett. One had acted as an extra on “Empire.”

Police initially identified the brothers as possible suspects in the attack, but then released them without filing any charges. The men told investigators that Smollett had coordinated a faux attack and paid them to participate in it.

The brothers, Olabinjo and Abimbola Osundairo, were brought in as witnesses to the grand jury Wednesday evening with their lawyer.

Afterward, Gloria Schmidt, the lawyer, declined to say how much the brothers had been paid but said they had testified before the grand jury for more than two hours.

She said the two men wanted to clear the record, and she urged Smollett to do the same.

“I think Jussie’s conscience is probably not letting him sleep at night,” she said, “so he should probably unload that conscience and just come out and tell the American people what actually happened.”

Filing a false police report in Illinois is technically referred to as disorderly conduct and can be charged as either a misdemeanor or a felony. In Smollett’s case, he was charged with a felony count, which carries a maximum sentence of three years in prison.

Smollett’s lawyers, Pugh and Henderson, have said their client denies the police account. “Jussie Smollett is angered and devastated by recent reports that the perpetrators are individuals he is familiar with,” they said in a statement Saturday.

It added: “One of these purported suspects was Jussie’s personal trainer who he hired to ready him physically for a music video. It is impossible to believe that this person could have played a role in the crime against Jussie or would falsely claim Jussie’s complicity.”

Smollett’s possible motive in pursuing a plan the police now suspect him of drafting remains mysterious. Various theories have surfaced, one suggesting he might have been worried he was about to be relegated to a lower profile on “Empire,” perhaps being written out of the Fox series entirely. The network later declined comment on the criminal charge..

On Wednesday, in fact, before police made their announcement, Fox had put out another statement saying it was standing by Smollett. It called him “a consummate professional on set” and said, “as we have previously stated, he is not being written out of the show.”

Jussie Smollett, the “Empire” actor who said he was the victim of a hate crime, was charged Wednesday night with staging the assault he reported to Chicago police in January.

Sopan Deb

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