First Look At Brothers Grimm

FIRST LOOK AT BROTHERS GRIMM

The December, 2003 issue of Empire magazine has a first look at director Terry Gilliam’s The Brothers Grimm, starring Matt Damon, Heath Ledger, Jonathan Pryce and Monica Bellucci. Included are quotes from Damon, Gilliam and production designer Guy Hendrix Dyas, as well as several spoilers.

In the fantasy/adventure/comedy, filmed at Barrandov Studios on the outskirts of Prague, Damon & Ledger star as the legendary German fairy tale authors, Will and Jacob Grimm, reinvented as 17th century con men who find themselves facing the perils of a real enchanted forest.

Gilliam took a break after his last production, The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, fell apart. ‘After the whole disaster with Don Quixote, I was really quite depressed. When this came along, it seemed to have all the right elements – it had fantasy, imagination, it was intelligent. And it had the money,’ laughs the one-time Python, oft-visionary director. He tells the magazine that ‘it was strange getting back in the saddle. In the first week I was out of practice and making stupid mistakes. But we seem to be getting there now.’

Joining Gilliam on the set was X2: X-Men United production designer Guy Hendrix Dyas. ‘Guy’s work on this is amazing,’ added Gilliam. Dyas has had the chance to build and entire fairy tale village on the backlot, ruined castles, and not one but two full sized forests – one studio-based, one outside.

‘We tried to find a real forest,’ Dyas explains. ‘Terry and I spent nearly a month scouting out here trying to find one. But then we realized that to control that environment we’d have to build it on set. So Terry can shoot day or night – do whatever he wants to do.’

The magazine visited the set where Matt Damon was licking a toad. Repeatedly, take after take after vomit-inducing take. ‘It was okay until the lady doctor told me to take these three infection pills afterwards,’ laughs Damon. ‘Then again, for the money they’re paying me, I can’t complain.’ Also, Gilliam was admiring one of his forests as it’s burnt to the ground by an army of Napoleonic soldiers. ‘Now that’s a fire!’ he shouts, an impish grin on his face.

Check out this first look at Terry Gilliam with Jonathan Pryce (as Delatombe) on the set, a picture of the village built at Barrandov, a preliminary drawing by Dyas, and the director taking a breather.

Click on the images for full view…