MADRID (AFP) - Terry Gilliam, the US-born director famous for a string of dark fantasy films, has finally finished his version of Don Quixote after 17 years battling one disaster after another.

"Sorry for the long silence..., " he posted to Facebook on Sunday.

"After 17 years, we have completed the shoot of The Man Who Killed Don Quixote."

Gilliam said he and his crew had just finished shooting in Spain.

But it has been a long haul for the director of Brazil and Twelve Monkeys.

Like the ageing knight at the centre of Miguel de Cervantes' classic tale, Gilliam, now 76, has had to deal with one mishap after another to complete his quest.

His first tilt at adapting the 17th-century novel was with US star Johnny Depp.

That came to grief back in 2000, hit by setbacks that included torrential rain and constant flyovers by military jets from a nearby Nato base.

"Shooting my version of Don Quixote is a medical obligation," he told Spanish daily El Pais last year. "It's a brain tumour I have to eradicate."