Saturday just gone I made my way into London town and exited the tube at Tottenham Court Road station. From there I walked briskly towards the Forbidden Planet store on Bloomsbury and upon arrival joined the tail of the line snaking it’s way from the back entrance. We were all queuing for a chance to meet Terry Gilliam who was in town to promote the release of his latest movie on DVD.
The movie was Tideland and while I haven’t as yet seen the movie I have read the book it it based on (by Mitch Cullin) and am a fan of Terry’s other movies so the opportunity to meet the man wasn’t to be passed on. So I waited and before long the queue started to move, people disappearing from the front in smart fashion. As we moved I slowly got things ready (two items to be signed which were reduced to one when I read the sign on the door about limitations, and my camera) and before long found myself inside and about to have my two minutes of conversation.
I handed my camera to the friendly guy who had been ahead of me in the queue and talked briefly with Terry about script rights while be signed the proffered DVD cover for the documentary Lost in La Mancha. He also signed the Tideland DVD I was about to purchase and with a shake of the hand I was done. It was a very brief conversation but I enjoyed my brief chat, Terry is a friendly and eternally optimistic man (the script rights in question were for the doomed movie that led to the Lost in La Mancha documentary and he was expecting the script to be back in his possession by Christmas. It hasn’t turned up yet but he’s hopeful, especially as Johnny Depp is in town soon and Terry would like to talk to him about making the movie).
Unfortunately while removing my camera from my bag I had knocked the lens and the focus switch has been set to manual – which led to some rather soft focus photos. To combat this lack of definition please find below some rather smaller than you might expect photos of myself and Terry Gilliam.
Talking and signing
Shake and goodbye
