The UK's Miranda Richardson, Christopher Eccleston and Bill Paterson have joined the cast of Terry Gilliam's The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, Gilliam's office confirmed on Monday.

The actors join Johnny Depp, Vanessa Paradis and Jean Rochefort in the $30m plus production, which is to start shooting in Spain and the UK in September.

In Gilliam's update of Miguel de Cervantes' 17th Century classic, Depp plays a modern-day advertising executive who somehow ends up in the 17th century where Don Quixote believes him to be Sancho Panza.

In their contemporary roles, Richardson plays his boss' wife, Eccleston is a psychiatrist and Paterson a film director. Rochefort is playing the Don.

The project's UK and continental European backers include National Lottery studio franchise Pathe Pictures, Le Studio Canal Plus, French production outfit Hachette Premiere and German film fund KC Medien. France's Rene Cleitman is producing, while Los Angeles-based sales operation Pathe International is handling international sales.