Dreams: The Zero Theorem

Terry Gilliam has complete principal photography on his new picture, The Zero Theorem. The director secured Christoph Waltz, David Thewlis, Tilda Swinton and Matt Damon for the film, which completed shooting in Bucharest early in December 2012.



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.

Gilliam has a terrific cast: besides the names above, the picture has Peter Stormare, Ben Whishaw, Sanjeev Bhaskar, and Mélanie Thierry.

Bucharest is being used 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:

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.

Post production will now take place in London.

Further information will appear here at Dreams as it becomes available.