Time Bandits, the 1981 fantasy from director Terry Gilliam, has been lined up against the remake wall and fingers are tightening on the triggers.
Collider pointed us to this Variety article which details the plans a number of ex-Handmade Films executives have for Time Bandits and a TV series based around The Long Good Friday with Ray Winstone in the role of Harold Shand, played in the 1980 film by Bob Hoskins.
The dreaded word ‘reboot’ crops up in the article, as does a mysterious ‘Hollywood co-producer’ (played by David Warner naturally) and apart from the assertation that any new film version of Time Bandits would be the start of a ‘bigscreen kids action franchise’ there is not a lot to go on. But is it a case of this?
I love Terry Gilliam’s film. It acted as a gateway to the worlds of Monty Python and Gilliam’s other films and I have a great fondness for it. I don’t baulk at the idea of remaking it, as a franchise it has the plot mechanics to sustain numerous adventures, but I do worry that it would jettison the dark elements of the original film and the dollar signs spinning in the eyes of the producers would deny the story the harsh edges which made Time Bandits so compelling (and enjoyable for a child) and we end up with a sanitised jaunt through time with celebrity cameos for historical figures.
And do we really think that any studio would include something as brilliant and subversive as this for their family-friendly production?
Spoiler: This is a scene from the very end of Time Bandits – if you’ve never seen it then don’t click this – go and watch the film.
[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6X9KcrXHwg’]
