Terry Gilliam completed principal photography
on his new picture, The Zero Theorem in December 2012.
Postproduction finished in August 2013, in time for its world
premiere at the 70th Venice International Film Festival, at
the start of September. It has subsequently had many premieres
around the world, and opened on general release in the UK on
Friday 14 March 2014.
Gilliam has a terrific cast: he secured Christoph Waltz,
David Thewlis, Tilda Swinton and Matt Damon for the film. The
picture also has Lucas Hedges, Peter Stormare, Ben Whishaw,
Sanjeev Bhaskar, and Mélanie Thierry.
Features on The Zero Theorem within Dreams:
The picture will be released theatrically in the USA on September
19 2014, with an on-demand release one month earlier on August
19 2014. In June 2014, the MPAA censored the teaser poster below
due to the sight of a bare bottom.
The project was first linked to Gilliam back in Spring 2009,
and
at the time, the director told Dreams
that it was a very smart script, and easy to shoot. Yet Gilliam
turned it down in order to concentrate on both the publicity
for
The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus, and also development
work on his
Quixote project. Several years passed by,
and Gilliam turned to
The Zero Theorem again early in
2012. His agent called producer Nicolas Chartier, and having
gained the participation of Christoph Waltz, the project was
greenlit.
Bucharest was chosen for both studio and location work. Nicola
Pecorini is the Director of Photography, Dave Warren is the
Art Director, and Carlo Poggioli is in charge of costumes.
Gilliam
spoke to Dreams during
preproduction in August 2012: "It's actually very
containable. I've always liked the script, and it's always
been an interesting project. Two-thirds of it - if not more
- take place in a ruined chapel... and we're also doing it
for half the budget that we were talking about four years
ago - so it fitted into the new climate perfectly. And that
was also why we are in Bucharest - apparently it's the best,
cheapest place in Europe right now to work."
The main cast is as follows, alongside a poster released in
August 2013:
Qohen Leth
|
Christoph Waltz |
Bainsley
|
Mélanie Thierry |
Joby
|
David Thewlis |
Bob
|
Lucas Hedges |
Management
|
Matt Damon |
Dr Shrink-Rom |
Tilda Swinton |
Doctor 1
|
Sanjeev Bhaskar |
Doctor 2
|
Peter Stormare |
Doctor 3
|
Ben Whishaw |
Clone 1
|
Emil Hostina |
Clone 2
|
Pavlic Nemes |
|
 |
Shooting took place around Bucharest and also at the MediaPro
studios in Buftea, 20 miles outside the city. Scheduled as
a 36 day shoot, cast & crew actually took 37 days to complete.
Postproduction took place in London, and is due to complete
in August 2013. The picture is in competition at the 70th
Venice International Film Festival.
Some clips from the movie were presented at San Diego Comic
Con in July 2013. Producers Dean Zanuck, Zev Foreman and Terry
Gilliam's daughter Amy were present. The director himself was
unable to attend, but sent the following video:
Dreams spent a week on set in November 2012, and has
also been following the work on the project very closely. Many
reports, interviews and behind-the-scenes information will appear
here in the run-up to the picture's release.
Here is an image from Gilliam's facebook page (July 2013)
And early concept art from the Voltage Pictures website is below: