Sometimes reality trumps fiction. It’s hard to imagine anyone taking over a screenplay that had sent so many plagues to its director — let’s call him Terry Gilliam — to stop him from making the film — let’s call it The Man Who Killed Don Quixote. But reality turned the planned “making of” into a catalogue of failure. The crew arrived in Spain with more than $30 million in European currency. Once there, noise from jet planes constantly interfered with the set. A powerful storm washed away expensive equipment. The lead actor developed back problems and could no longer ride a horse. By the time Gilliam finally threw in the towel, the insurance claim was on a record-breaking scale. Today we know the happy ending to this decades-long story, and we marvel at how long an enthusiast like Gilliam can keep the fire going when it comes to an idea.
STARRING
Terry Gilliam
Johnny Deep
Jean Rochefort
Tony Grisoni
René Cleitman
Ray Cooper
Nicola Pecorini
Gabriella Pescucci
Pierre Gamet
DIRECTOR
Keith Fulton
Louis Pepe
FILM EDITING
Jacob Bricca
SOUND
Michael Kowalski
MUSIC
Miriam Cutler
CREDITS IMAGES
François Duhamel
PRODUCTION
Quixote Films
Low Key Pictures production
Keith Fulton & Louis Pepe
Low Key Pictures is the directing team of Keith Fulton and Lou Pepe. Fulton and Pepe have been writing and directing feature and documentary films together since 1995.
With The Bad Kids Fulton and Pepe received support from the Sundance Institute’s Catalyst Initiative and Documentary Film Program, as well as grants from the Threshold Foundation, The Filmmaker Fund, and the International Documentary Association. The Bad Kids received the Special Jury Prize for Verité Filmmaking at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, was selected for the U.S. State Department’s American Film Showcase and was nominated for a Peabody Award.
Fulton is a native of Boston, Massachusetts and holds a B.A. in Art History from Haverford College and an MFA in Film Production from Temple University. He is a fellow of the Sundance Institute’s Writers and Documentary Labs.
Pepe was born in Philadelphia and holds a B.A. in Computer Science and Film Studies from M.I.T. and an MFA from Temple University. He is a fellow of the Sundance Institute’s Directors and Documentary Labs. Pepe is also an Associate Professor at Temple University and directs Temple’s Los Angeles Study Away Program.
FILMOGRAPHY
Keith Fulton & Louis Pepe
1996: Hamster Factor and Other Tales of Twelves Monkeys
2003: Lost in la Mancha
2005: Brothers of the Head
2016: The Bad Kids