The 1981 film Time Bandits is a curious one: While not officially a Monty Python project, the legendary British comedy troupe’s voice can be felt in the writing and direction, given that Python members Michael Palin and Terry Gilliam co-wrote the script, with Gilliam directing. Fortunately, Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement, two of the creators behind Apple TV+’s new series adaptation of the original film, weren’t intimidated by taking that on — given the impact that Python had already had on them as comedians.
Thanks to their past collaborations on projects like the original film version of What We Do in the Shadows, Waititi and Clement have a pretty clear comedic sensibility between them. But as Waititi tells Consequence, “I think in a lot of ways, our sense of comedy and sense of humor has been influenced by Monty Python and Terry Gilliam in the first place. There are a lot of influences we’ve had just growing up and developing our sense of comedy, but it’s almost like, yeah, they helped create this.”
Adds Clement, “We’re never going to think of the exact same things. We’re going to think of the things that we think of. But we try and make it Gilliam-esque or Python-esque — though it’s going to be our version of it.”
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This new Time Bandits features Lisa Kudrow as the leader of a gang of time travelers who bop around the continuum in search of things to steal — though their mission changes slightly with the addition of 10-year-old Kevin (Kal-El Tuck), a history buff, as well as the threat of apocalypse courtesy of two supernatural threats: The Supreme Being (played by Waititi) and The Wrongness (played by Clement).
Originally, the plan had not been for the co-creators to appear in the series. “We had no intention of playing any role. And that’s a new thing for me, because I’ll crowbar myself into just about anything I do,” Waititi laughs. (He did indeed make his position on that clear to Consequence last fall, while discussing casting himself in 2023’s Next Goal Wins.)
But, “very late” into the development process, according to Clement, the idea came to pass. “We had, like, Grace Jones and Ian McKellan or just these different groups of people [in mind],” Clement says. “But it was not logistically possible to get people to stay in New Zealand to do five hours shooting over six months. So it made sense for it to be us.”
Time Bandits (Apple TV+)