Terry Gilliam, right, directs Christopher Plummer in the role of the mysterious Dr. Parnassus in 2009's The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus. Gilliam made his mark with Monty Python's Flying Circus. (Alliance Films)

Filmmakers Terry Gilliam and Mike Figgis will be making their debuts directing opera with the English National Opera.

Gilliam, whose oeuvre includes Brazil and The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, is to helm The Damnation of Faust, while Figgis, who directed Leaving Las Vegas, is set to take charge of Lucrezia Borgia for the company's 2010/2011 season.

The ENO acknowledged that welcoming newcomers to the genre could be risky.

"It can be like a car crash coming at you from every angle," John Berry, artistic director of the ENO, told The Guardian newspaper. Though he noted that the ENO did have a successful run with Madame Butterfly, directed in 2005 by the late Anthony Minghella.

Minghella, who captured a directing Oscar for The English Patient, died suddenly in 2008 after a cancer operation.

In addition, Gilliam, who launched his career as the creator of the animated segments in Monty Python's Flying Circus, has a reputation for bad luck.

Heath Ledger died halfway through the filming of The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus and Gilliam was forced to abandon The Man Who Killed Don Quixote back in 1999 after its star, Jean Rochefort, suffered a herniated disc and the set flooded.

Edward Gardner, the ENO's music director, says he's looking forward to Gilliam's production.

"You have to create a world for The Damnation of Faust, and that is something Gilliam is incredibly brilliant at doing — if not several worlds at once."

Figgis, in a statement, declared that he was ready to get his "teeth into a very traditional opera."