The beloved British comedy troupe Monty Python, well-known for their films and sketch shows from the late ’60s through to the early ’80s, are set to return once more to the big screen together for a new sci-fi farce, Absolutely Anything.
The film will be a mixture of CGI and live-action, Variety report, with Terry Jones directing and Mike Medavoy (Black Swan, Life of Brian) producing. The Pythons will be lending their voices to,
“a group of aliens who endow an earthling with the power to do “absolutely anything” to see what a mess he’ll make of things — which is precisely what happens. There’s also a talking dog named Dennis who seems to understand more about the mayhem that ensues than anyone else does.”
And to add even more excellence to this story, guess who’s going to be voicing the dog, Dennis.
Robin Williams.
In his description of the film, Jones says,
“It’s not a Monty Python picture, but it certainly has that sensibility.”
He also says that Terry Gilliam, John Cleese, and Michael Palin have all agreed to perform, and that the producers are trying to sign Eric Idle too. Idle said many years ago that he wouldn’t ever perform as part of a reunion, but with Jones saying that this isn’t a Monty Python picture, it’s at least possible they’ll all be lending their voices for the film.
The sixth original member, Graham Chapman, died of cancer back in 1989, and the group are in fact working together on an animated adaptation of Chapman’s autobiography, entitled, A Liar’s Autobiography: The True Story of Monty Python’s Graham Chapman, for which they will be lending their voices as well, and which is expected to be released later this year.
Speaking about the project, Medavoy says,
“Terry and Gavin have crafted a classic farce — something I feel I know a little bit about after all the ‘Pink Panther’ pictures we did with Blake Edwards at United Artists,” Medavoy said. “In fact, the movie even has a pompous Frenchman reminiscent of Inspector Clouseau — but there the similarity ends. Like all projects originated by any of the Monty Python guys, ‘Absolutely Anything’ delightfully defies a logline.”
And he adds that he and the other producers are in talks with Williams to play the Frenchman, so we could well see him taking on more than one role.
Jones has been working on the script for Absolutely Anything for the past two decades with Gavin Scott (The Borrowers), and the plan is for filming to begin here in the UK this spring. As you can imagine, this definitely sounds like something to get excited about, and we’ll be bringing you more news on the project as soon as we get it.
And in case you missed it last week, you can read all about Gilliams’ latest project, The Wholly Family, right here, which became available to stream on Monday.
