Don Quixote is a 2000 three-part television film adaptation of the classic novel Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, made by Hallmark Entertainment and distributed by Turner Network Television (TNT) and Divisa Home Video (2004) (Spain) (DVD).
The film was directed by Peter Yates and the teleplay adapted by John Mortimer from the Cervantes novel, produced by Dyson Lovell and Robert Halmi Sr. and John Lithgow as executive producers. The original music was by Richard Hartley and the cinematography by David Connell.
The film stars John Lithgow as Don Quixote de La Mancha/Alonso Quixano and Bob Hoskins as Sancho Panza with Isabella Rossellini, Vanessa L. Williams, Lambert Wilson, Tony Haygarth, Peter Eyre, Lilo Baur, James Purefoy and Trevor Peacock.
As of 2007, this has been made available on DVD in Europe (subtitled and/or dubbed into a foreign language), but never in the United States.
In Spain, in the sixteenth century, an elderly gentleman named Don Quixote has gone mad from reading too many books on chivalry. Proclaiming himself a knight, he sets out with his squire, Sancho Panza, to reform the world and revive the age of chivalry, choosing a slut to be his noble lady Dulcinea. He mistakes inns for castles, a play about chivalry for the real thing, flocks of sheep for armies, convicts for wronged prisoners, and windmills for giants. While he and Sancho are off on their adventures, his niece, her fiancee, and the local priest think up a strategy to get him back home. Written by Albert Sanchez Moreno
Alonso Quijano is a country gentleman who imagines himself to be a knight named Don Quixote de la Mancha. He sets out to right the wrongs of the world which sees him as he is, a comical figure. But his chivalry and sense of purpose drive him on to great deeds, even if he is laughed at. Written by Jim Beaver
