A film based on Miguel de Cervantes’ classic picaresque tale Don Quixote is in development at Disney, it has emerged.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, screenwriter Billy Ray is working on an adaptation of Quixote that recalls “the madcap and fantastical nature of Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean movies”. If successful, it could become the basis for a Pirates-style franchise. Ray, writer on Captain Phillips and The Hunger Games, is also on board as producer.

Published in two volumes in 1605 and 1615, Quixote follows the adventures of delusional “knight” Alonso Quixano, who decides to revive medieval-style chivalry after reading too many knightly romances. No director or cast has yet been announced.

This film is not connected with director Terry Gilliam’s long-running attempts to get a Quixote project off the ground, chronicled most famously in the 2002 documentary, Lost in La Mancha, which followed the unravelling of Gilliam’s version with Johnny Depp and Jean Rochefort. However, the latest incarnation of the project – starring Adam Driver, Michael Palin and Olga Kurylenko – has also been delayed after finance failed to come together at the 11th hour.