Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement say Monty Python “helped create” their new Time Bandits

The 1981 film Bandits of time It's funny: although it's not officially a Monty Python project, the voice of the legendary British comedy troupe can be heard in the writing and direction, as 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 The new adaptation of the Apple TV+ series from the original film, they weren't intimidated by taking that on, given the impact Python had already had on them as comedians.

Thanks to their past collaborations on projects such as the original film version of What we do in the shadowsWaititi and Clement have a pretty clear comedic sensibility between them. But as Waititi tells it, Consequence“I think in a lot of ways our sense of humour and comedy has been influenced by Monty Python and Terry Gilliam. We’ve had a lot of influences growing up and developing our sense of humour, but it’s almost like they helped create this.”

Clement adds: “We’re never going to think exactly the same things. We’re going to think the things we think. But we’ll try to make it Gilliam-esque or Python-esque, but it will be our version.”

This new Bandits of time stars Lisa Kudrow as the leader of a gang of time travelers who traverse 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 the apocalypse courtesy of two supernatural menaces: The Supreme Being (played by Waititi) and The Wrongness (played by Clement).

Originally the plan was No It had been a pleasure for the co-creators to appear on the series. “We had no intention of playing any part. And that’s something new for me, because I force my way into almost everything I do,” Waititi laughs. (In fact, he made his position on the matter clear in Consequence Last fall, while discussing his involvement in the 2023 film Next goal wins.)

But “very late” in the development process, according to Clement, the idea became a reality. “We had, for example, Grace Jones and Ian McKellan or just these different groups of people [in mind]“But it wasn’t logistically possible to get people to stay in New Zealand to film five hours for six months. So it made sense for us to go.”