Terry Gilliam Says Trump’s Return Ruined His Anti-Woke Comedy
A Terry Gilliam satire starring Jeff Bridges, Johnny Depp, Adam Driver, Jason Momoa and Tom Waits? Sounds amazing — except we’ll probably never get the chance to see it. And Gilliam blames the return of Donald Trump.
His next project, Carnival at the End of Days, was supposed to be a movie that’s “great fun for all of those who enjoy taking offense,” Gilliam told The Hollywood Reporter. His script was a spoof of “woke activists with a very narrow, self-righteous point of view. That’s frightened so many people, and so many people have been very timid about telling jokes.”
If that’s true, you’d think that the Monty Python alum would welcome the return of an anti-woke President. But that’s not the case either. For one thing, “he’s fucked up my latest film,” Gilliam explained. “He’s turned the world upside down. So he’s killed my movie.”
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“I think Trump has destroyed satire,” he continued. “I mean, how can you be satirical about what’s going on in the way he’s doing the world?”
Is there a bright side? Gilliam doesn’t know if Trump’s leadership will get people laughing more, “but they’re probably less frightened to laugh.”
Hooray?
Gilliam wrote his new script in a Joe Biden world where kindness killed comedy. “If you tell a joke, these people say you’re punching down at somebody,” he griped. “No, you’re finding humor in humanity!”
Carnival at the End of Days was intended to signal the return of irony. “Irony, satire were basically dead. And humor, to me, is probably one of the most essential things in life. You’ve got six senses, and the seventh sense is humor, and if you don’t have that, life is going to be miserable.”
It’s confusing to decipher who Gilliam blames for the death of satire — four years ago, it was woke activists. Today, Trump has destroyed it — again. Either way, his movie no longer works. He considered adding a preamble — “What you’re about to see takes place during the period historians refer to as the Trump lost years from 2020 to 2024” — but understands that likely won’t fly.
Now he figures Carnival at the End of Days requires a do-over. “I think I’ve got to rewrite a lot of it,” he admitted. “I’m still trying to decide how to approach that.”
That means you won’t be hitting up Fandango for advance Gilliam tickets anytime soon. “We’ll see where it goes,” he told Deadline about the stalled project. “At the moment, I may be out of a job for another 10 years.”
