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Mike Todd planned a version in the late 50's but it was canceled when Todd tragically died in a plane crash. Jack Cardiff was intended to direct, and Cantinflas, who had shone so brightly for Todd in Around the World in 80 Days (1956), was going to play Sancho Panza.
Unlike other unfinished Orson Welles films, "Don Quixote's" incomplete state was not because of lack of finances. Welles always considered his Don Quixote a "private exercise". Or as he put it, he worked on it like an author works on a novel; under no obligations, no time constraints, and could finish it whenever he feels like it.
According to Spanish film critic Juan Cobos, who had watched an early rough cut of the movie while Orson Welles was still filming material for it, this new version cut and reshaped by Jesús Franco doesn't resemble Welles' vision at all.
The film doesn't include all known footage of "Don Quixote." There is footage being privately held in at least two collections in Europe.