WELCOME TO THE WEIRD AND WONDERFUL WORLD OF WILL AND JAKE GRIMM AND THEIR FAIRYTALES, AS FILTERED THROUGH THE EQUALLY WEIRD AND WONDERFUL IMAGINATION OF TERRY GILLIAM. ELEANOR SINGER IS YOUR GUIDE TO THE UNIVERSE OF THE BROTHERS GRIMM.

Enter a Terry Gilliam film and you enter a whole different world. The Minnesota-born film-maker who, almost 30 years after the last episode was recorded, is still frequently referred to as a ‘former Python’, has spent the past quarter-century creating a series of innovative and visually distinctive movies, from Brazil through 12 Monkeys to Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, all of which have existed in a curiously skewed but entirely consistent universe.

Rarely, however, has he done it as completely or on the same scale as in his latest outing, The Brothers Grimm, a fictional period fantasy/adventure whose two central characters are based on the 19th-century German creators of volumes of unforgettable fairytales, of which the details and themes are both entirely contemporary and totally timeless.

“It’s just so great to be able to go completely into that world you believed in as a kid,” says British actress Lena Headey, who co-stars in the film. “I used to read the Grimms’ tales when I was a child, so it’s really cool to suddenly be inside of one. And the way that Terry Gilliam and the crew have created it, it’s sort of like how you would see a dream, yet clearer and funnier and even spookier.”