There\u2019s been a lot of silly talk about Python re-unions, and whether a few Pythons doing a few Voice Overs constitute a genuine Monty Python film (duh, of course not) so I thought I\u2019d share what happened the last time there was a real<\/i> attempt to make a Python Movie.\u00a0 It was in 1997 and I had come up with an idea called The Final Crusade<\/i>.\u00a0 I liked the idea of a film about a group of grumpy old men being pressured to get back together again for a last quest, as it would allow us to mock ourselves.\u00a0 So I sent them all a draft outline of what such a thing might look like. (See Previous Blog<\/i>.) Surprisingly there was a very positive response, even from John, so I went down to visit him in Santa Barbara and we had a splendid lunch and then a walk on the beach, and he expressed genuine interest in the idea, enough to encourage everyone to meet up in England.\u00a0 Unfortunately by the time we all got together at a hotel in Buckinghamshire he had changed his mind.<\/p>\n
When I got back I wrote about it for PythOnline, and here is what I published then.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
5\/24\/1997<\/p>\n
What a delight it all was, a twenty-four hour Python re-union at Cliveden, a spectacular Mansion rising above the River Thames in Buckinghamshire, built by George Villiers in the reign of Charles the Second.\u00a0\u00a0 I don\u2019t think I have laughed so much since\u2026 well since the last time Python met, and no one can quite remember when that was, seven, ten years ago?<\/p>\n
I hurried in from London by cab.\u00a0 Gilliam was already there having flown overnight from LA where he begins shooting Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas<\/i> with Johnny Depp in less than seven weeks.\u00a0\u00a0 Mike arrives by Mercedes, Terry Jones in some kind of battered Audi, and finally John arrives in his Bentley.\u00a0 Everyone hugs and handshakes as they come in.\u00a0\u00a0 John ignores us and goes off to his room.\u00a0 Ah, the same effusive Python as ever.\u00a0\u00a0 We all have splendid staterooms.\u00a0 Mine was the former billiard room and is called the Mountbatten Room<\/i>, named I assume after the legendary \u201cLeggy\u201d Mountbatten, which is highly appropriate as I am still limping following an operation in March.\u00a0\u00a0 You can just about see the oak-paneled walls from the bed.\u00a0\u00a0 The ceiling is like a Renaissance palace.<\/p>\n
About a mile away, along long and windy corridors hung with portraits of the Astors, we have a Business Conference Room booked for twenty four hours, which comes complete with a black-tied, morning-coated gentleman, who rapidly fills our orders for cappucini and snacks.\u00a0\u00a0 Gilliam fiddles with the high tech controls and makes the curtains open and close several times, plunging the room into darkness.\u00a0 He then discovers the projecting sketch pad and proceeds to doodle, throwing great outlines on a screen which fills one side of the room.\u00a0\u00a0 Is there any other major film director so endearingly silly?<\/p>\n
The first two hours seem exactly like old times, as Graham is still absent.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s off writing a series for Ronnie Corbett\u201d someone quips.<\/p>\n
His lateness was legendary.\u00a0 In fact it seems altogether appropriate that he now really is the late Graham Chapman.<\/p>\n
The meeting opens with a shock:\u00a0 John announces that he does not want to do a film.\u00a0 Gilliam, who has flown overnight all the way from LA, raises a weary eyebrow.\u00a0 \u00a0\u201cDon\u2019t you think you might have mentioned this sooner?\u201d<\/p>\n
Cleese remains unflappable.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019ve only just realized\u201d he says.\u00a0 \u201cI simply hate filming.\u00a0 I am going to retire to a beach and read books.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gilliam giggles.\u00a0 The line does seem very familiar from old Python meetings.\u00a0 Later when John informs us he can\u2019t meet in the spring as he will be \u201cfilming in New York\u201d several heads snap up.\u00a0 Filming?<\/i>\u00a0 Aha, so it\u2019s just filming with us<\/i> he doesn\u2019t want to do.\u00a0\u00a0 By then though we had wrested several concessions out of him.\u00a0\u00a0 At Mike\u2019s gentle prodding he conceded that he would be prepared to do three weeks filming.\u00a0\u00a0 Terry J. thought that might be sufficient.\u00a0\u00a0 We decided to discuss the idea anyway since two of us had flown across the Atlantic for this meeting.\u00a0\u00a0 Besides, a simple creative discussion would legitimize this whole thing as a tax write-off.<\/p>\n
Ideas began to flow just like the old days.\u00a0\u00a0 After a short while John began to nod off.\u00a0\u00a0 His eyes closed.\u00a0\u00a0 His attitude was clear, this was a day off, nothing was going to come between him and relaxation.\u00a0 We continued to throw ideas around.\u00a0\u00a0 John slept on regardless.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 After a short nap he suddenly woke up and looked around bleary eyed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe thing is I\u2019m very tired\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
We encouraged him to go off and lie down.\u00a0 He accepted the offer gratefully and went to his room.\u00a0 Now the ideas began to flow quite fast.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe should just make the Do Not Adjust Your Set<\/i> film\u201d said Jonesy.<\/p>\n
It was true, the four of us had been in rooms writing together since the mid-Sixties.\u00a0\u00a0 It felt comfortable and familiar.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s get it down\u201d I suggested, grabbing a marker and writing Act One <\/i>on the fresh paper on the Executive Board.\u00a0\u00a0 I outlined the first beat in a different color.\u00a0 Now it really was <\/i>tax deductible.\u00a0\u00a0 Of course this being Python the first idea immediately went off in the wrong direction and I was forced to start writing before<\/i> Act One.<\/p>\n
\u201cTypical Python\u201d I said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s right\u201d said Michael \u201cstart at the beginning and work backwards!\u201d<\/p>\n
All concerns that we might no longer be funny fell away as we carved and chalked and marked and a rough shape grew on the Executive Board.\u00a0 In fact only the return of John from his nap stopped the flow and by then we were well into Act Two.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 John seemed rather dazed and suddenly wanted to discuss Las Vegas, and so we abandoned the creative and turned to the planning stage again.\u00a0\u00a0 John was proposing that we spend a month together \u201cleisurely writing some new material for a new show.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 Several of us pointed out the unlikelihood of this ever happening, and indeed the simple fact that an audience needs to see familiar Python material.\u00a0\u00a0 Everyone hates that moment in a concert when the old British group say \u201cand now here\u2019s some new stuff from our latest album\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe very point of concerts,\u201d I argue \u201cis their predictability.\u00a0 It\u2019s like Church, it\u2019s important the audience know what is going on.\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s a ritual.\u00a0 They don\u2019t want <\/i>new material.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s agreed that Jonesy will draw up a list of new<\/i> old material for consideration.\u00a0 Someone suggests we do the Hollywood Bowl again.\u00a0 Someone else suggests we play a tiny venue like Littlehampton.\u00a0 Gilliam is keen on planning elaborate Vegas type effects.\u00a0\u00a0 John suggests we come on in wheelchairs with a coffin.\u00a0 Everyone agrees there should be showgirls.\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s getting late by now and John proposes a walk.\u00a0\u00a0 We\u2019ll meet up later for cocktails and dinner.\u00a0\u00a0 We haven\u2019t done badly.\u00a0 In four hours we have outlined a movie and proposed a way of going forward towards a Vegas Re-Union Concert.\u00a0 Of course no one is exactly committed to anything at all, but still, it is now genuinely<\/i> tax deductible, and the laughs have been great.<\/p>\n
Dinner is even more hilarious.\u00a0 Fortified by some Crystal Louis Roederer (\u201989) a tax-deductible gift from our Management Company, a white Macon enjoyed by Jonesy, (itself the recipient of much caustic abuse from John) we leave the Blue Gainsborough Withdrawing room and withdraw into the large ornate gilded Dining Room.\u00a0\u00a0 John calmly orders two<\/i> bottles of red, the more expensive of which is roundly condemned by Jonesy, and which indeed is rather uninteresting at over a hundred quid the bottle.\u00a0 The second is a much more spectacular Chateau Eric Cantona, at least I think that\u2019s what it was, several bottles came and went, though I clung gamely to the champagne.\u00a0 (I am a champagne <\/i>teetotaler I discover.)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 After much laughter, very tolerable risottos, oysters, salmon, Chateaubriand\u00a0 (Chateau Brian?) and\u00a0 some fine cheeses, John announces he is ready for bed.\u00a0\u00a0 I think he quite enjoyed himself.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s still early once John retires so we decide to have one more bottle of Chateau Cantona in the Snooker room.<\/p>\n
\u201cTerry\u2019s v. the rest\u201d yells Michael, and so on Lady Astor\u2019s table where Christine Keeler had once lain naked and brought down a Conservative government we banged our little red balls around.<\/p>\n
It soon became evident that while we were all fairly hopeless at snooker, the two Terrys were more hopeless than anyone.\u00a0\u00a0 Balls shot off the table, leaped spectacularly over other balls, banged into the balks accompanied by shouts and curses, anywhere and everywhere except in the holes provided.\u00a0 \u00a0After an hour or so things began to sink for me and Mike and I sailed into an unassailable lead of 40 – 3.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight\u201d said Jonesy in a masterly Zen way \u201ctime to stop thinking\u201d and he instantly slammed in a red.\u00a0\u00a0 Within a few minutes, and aided by a generous helping of foul shots from me, he rolled up the blue, pink and black in consecutive shots and the Terry\u2019s had won!\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Unbelievable.\u00a0 Never trust film directors.\u00a0\u00a0 Mike and I as befits our lowly status as mere actors, were nauseatingly decent about it.\u00a0\u00a0 This contrasted starkly with the two Terrys\u2019 habit of jumping up and down and screaming abuse at Michael as he attempted to pot.\u00a0\u00a0 I expect that\u2019s allowed in the rules though.\u00a0\u00a0 I\u2019m sure the Duke of Buckingham behaved that way, and God knows the lucky fellows who ploughed the lovely Christine Keeler on that table must have made quite a noise\u2026<\/p>\n
So to the very big question: will we or won\u2019t we?\u00a0\u00a0 To be honest I haven\u2019t a fucking clue.\u00a0 I think Mike, Terry J. and I agreed to come up with a first draft screenplay by sometime next year.\u00a0\u00a0 John proposed another re-union in mid-September when TG finishes his shoot. He is alternately happy to see us and very keen to leave, but he is very endearing in his old age. One thing for sure, we are all still happily bonkers.\u00a0 Lack of money has not spoiled us.\u00a0\u00a0 Also we are all still funny.\u00a0\u00a0 Hilarious in fact, though you may have to take my word for it.\u00a0\u00a0 The banter was incessant, affectionate and deeply personal.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It was a great re-union.\u00a0 I wouldn\u2019t have missed it for the world.\u00a0\u00a0 I do hope we can all make another one.<\/p>\n
Postscript<\/em><\/p>\n This was published on PythOnline in 1997.\u00a0 Nothing came of the film. The distances were just too great and by this time we hadn\u2019t worked together in 15 years.\u00a0 It certainly wasn\u2019t John\u2019s fault, but with the death of Graham in 1989 John had lost both a friend and a peer.\u00a0 Graham was in many ways the glue that bonded the older 1948 Show<\/i> pair with the younger and more unruly Do Not Adjust Your Set<\/i> quartet.\u00a0 Without Graham John had no one of his age or generation to turn to for sympathy or advice.\u00a0 I understand his isolation and lack of enthusiasm now.\u00a0 I would continue to work on PythOnline at Seventh Level where I became Producer of a CD-ROM game based on The Holy Grail<\/i> which would open my eyes to the potential of adapting this Python material into other forms, a quest that ultimately led to Spamalot. <\/i><\/p>\n We would all have a glorious re-union at the Aspen Comedy Festival in 1998 and another very fine and funny re-union in New York in 2009.\u00a0 Despite newspaper reports to the contrary we all still get on very well.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There\u2019s been a lot of silly talk about Python re-unions, and whether a few Pythons doing a few Voice Overs constitute a genuine Monty Python film (duh, of course not) so I thought I\u2019d share what happened the last time there was a real attempt to make a Python Movie.\u00a0 It was in 1997 and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ericidle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ericidle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ericidle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ericidle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ericidle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.ericidle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":313,"href":"https:\/\/www.ericidle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310\/revisions\/313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ericidle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ericidle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ericidle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}