It’s an especially silly thing for him to say when the only reason the movie got made was because George Harrison put his hand in his own pocket to pay for it… because… the studios weren’t interested!
Replies
Anything can get made if you have the time, talent and money. Whether anyone will show up is another story.
aug 30, 2025, 9:23 pm • 17 0 • view
Indeed
aug 30, 2025, 10:37 pm • 6 0 • view
Therefore, considering George Harrison is dead, he is perfectly right to say it would'nt be possible to make the film.
aug 31, 2025, 7:25 am • 0 0 • view
Strange, as well, as i reckon it's the most "current" of the Python movies in terms of its satire
aug 31, 2025, 7:31 am • 0 0 • view
why would we want to make 1970s humor in 2025? make that make sense. Palin should just go somewhere and retire quietly so not ruin his legacy talking stupid.
aug 30, 2025, 11:21 pm • 3 0 • view
Sad thing is he basically has done.
aug 30, 2025, 11:37 pm • 0 0 • view
People continuously say Blazing Saddles couldn't be made today but "R"-rated comedies handing a ration of shit to racists is always in style.
aug 30, 2025, 11:37 pm • 5 1 • view
The Sheriff is near
aug 31, 2025, 8:50 am • 0 0 • view
Michael Palin: Dotty in his old age.
aug 31, 2025, 2:00 am • 0 0 • view
I’m just very grateful and happy that the unique circumstances that came together to make that film happen DID happen… and may other such cosmic meetings of the moment bring about other memorable gems.
aug 30, 2025, 10:48 pm • 297 8 • view
Some bangers in this list! 💪🏼❤️👍🏼 en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/HandMad...
aug 30, 2025, 11:12 pm • 137 7 • view
Bizarrely I was thinking about en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullsho... today. Apparently on Amazon prime.
aug 31, 2025, 3:07 am • 0 0 • view
I went to the same drama school as Bruce Robinson, about 30 years apart though...but Withnail and I was utterly worshipped! Time Bandits was on Film4 just the other day, still utterly brilliant and weird and full of wonderful ideas!
aug 30, 2025, 11:23 pm • 5 0 • view
Yeah. Beatle George is the most beloved Beatle in this household, because of the films, the Wilburys,THAT triple album, the Slide guitar, the flicks the amp back on don't fvck with me 'tood on the 🍏 Office rooftop. The whole let's just wave at it all-ness of George...
aug 30, 2025, 11:25 pm • 0 0 • view
Actually, that's the thing isn't it? If you're mega rich, spend your money letting other people make interesting art
aug 31, 2025, 12:06 am • 0 0 • view
Cold Comfort Farm! I saw something nasty in the woodshed!!!
aug 30, 2025, 11:58 pm • 1 0 • view
I love this movie, too!
aug 31, 2025, 4:27 am • 1 0 • view
Yep, including this one and I’ll fight anyone who disagrees 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼🤣
aug 30, 2025, 11:26 pm • 0 0 • view
There was a Time Bandits TV series last year?! Why didn't anyone say anything?! 🤯
aug 30, 2025, 11:57 pm • 0 0 • view
They never made a bad movie. And their name really suited them. Their films really did feel “handmade,“ put together with limited resources but infinite love and passion by the artists behind and before the cameras.
aug 31, 2025, 1:41 am • 1 0 • view
I wouldn't be me without Withnail & I.
aug 31, 2025, 12:30 am • 2 0 • view
I must have some booze. I demand to have some booze!
aug 31, 2025, 2:03 am • 1 0 • view
It was English cinema for a while
aug 30, 2025, 11:58 pm • 0 0 • view
You’re right, Duncan, that list is incredible. The Long Good Friday and Mona Lisa, two of Bob Hoskins’ best. Sometimes this world gets lucky.
aug 31, 2025, 4:31 am • 2 0 • view
And this is how I learned that Taika Waititi did a remake of Time Bandits last year
aug 31, 2025, 4:03 am • 1 0 • view
Which is definitely worth checking out.
aug 31, 2025, 5:47 am • 2 0 • view
I'm absolutely going to
aug 31, 2025, 7:38 pm • 1 0 • view
PS: I miss Terry Jones
aug 31, 2025, 1:40 am • 1 0 • view
Saw several of these films, but think Time Bandits remains my favorite, (along with Life of Brian). Time Bandits was fantastic.
aug 31, 2025, 1:39 am • 0 0 • view
So many corkers in there. Husband hadn’t even seen this one when we went as Sister Inviolata of the Immaculate Conception & Sister Euphemia of the 5 Wounds to a fancy dress shindig 🤦🏻♀️
aug 30, 2025, 11:57 pm • 1 0 • view
Withnail and I. Incredible film.
aug 30, 2025, 11:15 pm • 21 0 • view
Time Bandits was wonderful for this kid.
aug 30, 2025, 11:18 pm • 6 0 • view
I rewatched Water the other day, that's a bonkers film. Absolutely teeters along the tightrope of racism but it's so heavy on the satire that it almost gets away with it, it's just Billy Connolly's singing guerrilla white saviour that lets it down at the end.
aug 30, 2025, 11:23 pm • 0 0 • view
oh wow, I had no idea they did Pow Wow Highway. that's a great little road movie.
aug 30, 2025, 11:38 pm • 3 0 • view
I love that movie.
aug 31, 2025, 4:26 am • 1 0 • view
Lock, Stock / Guy Richie! Hubs favorite.
aug 30, 2025, 11:18 pm • 1 0 • view
How to Get Ahead in Advertising - BRILLIANT Thatcher-era satire!
aug 30, 2025, 11:24 pm • 3 0 • view
We used to watch it once a year or so when I was in seminary. Absolute genius. And if you’ve never sat beside an Anglican priest as she sees it for the first time, you’re missing out.
aug 30, 2025, 11:05 pm • 3 0 • view
Pretty sure there is an youtube clip of Palin debating a bishop when the movie first came out.
aug 30, 2025, 10:54 pm • 2 0 • view
He was with John Cleese arguing the Python side and it was *Palin* who was the most agitated. The next week, Not The Nine of Clock News parodied the interview.
aug 30, 2025, 11:32 pm • 3 0 • view
As long as he wasn’t bashing one…
aug 30, 2025, 10:57 pm • 0 0 • view
It was Mervin Stockwood and other mad Christian Malcolm Muggeridge.
aug 30, 2025, 11:00 pm • 1 0 • view
Also had a hand in the making of Withnail and I, one of the best movies ever made
aug 30, 2025, 11:07 pm • 3 0 • view
It is my go-to despair-fighting weapon. Thanks to Mr Harrison. Wolf nipple chips and that.
aug 31, 2025, 1:16 am • 1 0 • view
I did not know it the one and only George Harrison who was HandMade Films. Nice factoid
aug 30, 2025, 11:04 pm • 1 0 • view
I swear when I see this kind of thing I’m reminded of the saying die a hero or live king enough to become the villain. Disappointing but not surprising.
aug 30, 2025, 10:52 pm • 2 0 • view
I'm used to people just ignoring the context of how things got made especially when they have no filmmaking experience, but it's weird when it's right from the source. All these "offensive" films constantly held up faced huge obstacles to even getting made let alone released.
aug 30, 2025, 11:36 pm • 0 0 • view
Also, and this is important, you don't make Life of Brian without WANTING to be adversarial.
aug 31, 2025, 1:31 pm • 1 0 • view
For real, as if 'cancel culture' and not that studios won't produce anything that's not algorithmically market tested and definitely won't cede any creative control isn't the actual reason nothing good can get made these days.
aug 31, 2025, 12:02 am • 2 0 • view
He probably got asked a very leading question, but yeah. Harrison did exactly what you’d hope someone with money and taste would do - take risks and make good stuff happen
aug 30, 2025, 11:40 pm • 8 0 • view
In an ideal world, this would be more universally seen as a positive thing for people with money to do - but we seem to have eliminated the concept of supporting creativity without immediate payback.
aug 31, 2025, 12:30 pm • 1 0 • view
That, and Cunk On Life exists.
aug 31, 2025, 12:14 pm • 1 0 • view
Dogma anyone? OK it was 25 years ago. Christ I feel old. www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwSR...
aug 31, 2025, 9:24 am • 0 0 • view
He's not wrong -- George Harrison has been dead for 25 years. I'm sure that's not what he means though, sadly.
aug 30, 2025, 9:31 pm • 19 0 • view
From what I gathered... Most of the people who say shit like this don't understand what Political Correctness means and they don't realize that the movies they comment on WERE in most cases politically correct. A lot of stuff like that is said on Blazing Saddles, a turbo woke movie.
aug 30, 2025, 11:25 pm • 0 0 • view
Mel Brooks was told to not make the Sherrif black. Audiences wouldn't relate to a black protagonist, after all. He famously had trouble making it *at the time*. He just promised to act on feedback like that and then ignored it.
aug 30, 2025, 11:37 pm • 1 0 • view
The goat!
aug 30, 2025, 11:44 pm • 2 0 • view
He's right though - I know cock all about making movies. I'd make a complete pig's bumhole of it TBH.
aug 30, 2025, 10:10 pm • 1 0 • view
Perhaps HE couldn’t make a movie like that. That’s a reflection of HIM not the industry or the world.
aug 31, 2025, 3:55 am • 1 0 • view
Life of Brian would perhaps be the least controversial film you could make today. Mockery of religion is standard
aug 30, 2025, 9:26 pm • 1 0 • view
I thought I saw an entire comic-dramatization about the making of Life of Brian (starring Darren Boyd et al) and how controversial and politicizing LofB was back in the day. Guess I dreamed it.
aug 30, 2025, 11:52 pm • 0 0 • view
The best version of this is Blazing Saddles which they couldn't make then, Gene Wilder just tricked and conned a bunch of people until they had too much money invested
aug 30, 2025, 11:30 pm • 4 0 • view
It was supposed to fail, you see, so they could run off with the investors’ money quasi-legally
aug 30, 2025, 11:35 pm • 3 0 • view
So, that's the plot of The Producers, which is also an awesome movie.
aug 31, 2025, 7:51 am • 1 0 • view
maybe if it was an already popular existing property and Palin was a jobbing work for hire with a famous daddy.
aug 30, 2025, 11:19 pm • 0 0 • view
So, he’s not wrong: it couldn’t get made today because the tax incentives for the ultra-rich are different
aug 30, 2025, 9:28 pm • 1 0 • view
You're right, but what I think what Michael Palin is saying is that Harry Styles is unlikely to personally fund a new Python film. Which, to be fair, is extremely true.
aug 30, 2025, 10:09 pm • 2 0 • view
The PC police is a totally recent thing!
aug 30, 2025, 9:27 pm • 0 0 • view
You either die the Graham Chapman, or you live long enough to become the John Cleese
aug 30, 2025, 10:34 pm • 3 0 • view
Might just be talking about trying to get along with John Cleese🤷♂️
aug 30, 2025, 10:01 pm • 7 0 • view
Yeah, I think what Palin is getting at is that all art that needs funding is at the mercy of the funders.
aug 30, 2025, 9:31 pm • 0 0 • view
I'm pretty sure what he's getting at is that culture has changed and he's an old man now not a young up and Comer, so he's mad that people don't praise him for burnt old and curmogeony. He is not making a point about the funders.
aug 30, 2025, 9:34 pm • 1 0 • view
That’s a given, as it happens to every generation. Someday today’s humor will in turn not be considered acceptable.
aug 31, 2025, 2:57 am • 1 0 • view
Movies that are critical of religion have always been difficult to make. Maybe it'd be harder now, but it was also very hard then. So, basically, there's no news here.
aug 30, 2025, 10:54 pm • 2 0 • view
I had to wade through protesters to see Last Temptation of Christ.
aug 30, 2025, 11:03 pm • 2 0 • view
If anything, its even easier to get it made now because of mechanisms like Crowdfunding if you've got a huge number of fans like Monty Python does.
aug 31, 2025, 9:47 am • 0 0 • view
Does it matter? Does anyone disagree with the fundamental point that Michael Palin is a pretty good guy and he’s entitled to say things that may be questionable and not be condemned for it?
aug 31, 2025, 7:12 am • 0 0 • view
Isn't this how everything works though, most things are done not because they are inevitable but because people make them happen Life isn't a bystander sport
aug 30, 2025, 10:56 pm • 2 0 • view
Age makes them forgetful and silly, gotta love him anyway. Still not sure if he literally said that in the interview. We've been hearing that "you can't make jokes anymore" BS by this point it's a meme.
aug 30, 2025, 11:11 pm • 2 0 • view
He’s a treasure. Ripping Yarns, Golden Gordon is one of my favorite things.
aug 30, 2025, 11:14 pm • 9 0 • view
It was famously "the world's most expensive movie ticket."
aug 30, 2025, 9:24 pm • 10 0 • view
Well you know make something satirical about that then, fucking dinosaurs.
aug 30, 2025, 9:28 pm • 0 0 • view
we just gotta let old men (almost always men) yell at clouds. it's the circle of life.
aug 31, 2025, 12:08 am • 6 0 • view
Absolutely! 😂
aug 31, 2025, 12:20 am • 5 0 • view
I think he’s saying that it would be a career-ender today. I adore the Pythons and I don’t think Michael in particular is being a martyr here (pun intended).
aug 30, 2025, 9:24 pm • 1 0 • view
And here I thought he was one of the less cooked pythons. Guess it's happened to them all
aug 31, 2025, 12:10 am • 0 0 • view
Good point, well made Side note: has he not been watching this series of Southpark? Beautifully subversive as shit. A different medium perhaps, but just as beautifully subversive. That’s the problem - Palin may choose not to watch ‘modern stuff’. It’s easier to revel in the past. And moan. Nowadays
aug 30, 2025, 10:09 pm • 4 0 • view
You hear folks say this same thing, x amount of years after they were part of something even a wee bit edgy. Anything that has ever made could be made again. Your audience might be different, but you can still make absolutely anything.
aug 31, 2025, 5:08 pm • 1 0 • view
The OG start up?
aug 31, 2025, 2:16 am • 0 0 • view
I remember reading about the resistance to that movie and how it only got made because of George Harrison. George Harrison and his Handmade Films were real cultural revolutionaries.
aug 31, 2025, 2:24 am • 0 0 • view
And doubly stupid because of this...! I mean Life of Brian was a *famously* controversial film *at the time*. youtu.be/XgKFWnZLgdc?...
aug 30, 2025, 11:35 pm • 1 0 • view
That's what I remember. IIRC it was banned in various places, picketed in others and some cinemas refused to show it.
aug 31, 2025, 9:06 am • 1 0 • view
There's some delicious irony from that video of the guy complaining about the sermon on the mound scene where a guy on the outskirts doesn't understand what's being said.
aug 31, 2025, 12:51 pm • 0 0 • view
And they LITERALLY caused controversy doing it. They weren't supposed to make it then, either!
aug 30, 2025, 10:48 pm • 67 1 • view
I’m old enough to remember the wailing and gnashing of teeth.
aug 30, 2025, 10:53 pm • 11 0 • view
"this hero, Jesus Christ, even has the same initials as John Cleese, the comic messiah"
aug 31, 2025, 8:47 am • 2 0 • view
The movie still causes gnashing teeth among conservative religious acquaintances.
sep 1, 2025, 4:13 pm • 0 0 • view
That's part of his point. That while it was controversial then, it's worse now. “...now there would be much more of a battle. Sides would be taken and people would be influencing others over whether to see it. Everything is very adversarial and everyone flies off the handle much more quickly...”
aug 31, 2025, 12:24 am • 0 0 • view
Worse than being banned in at least one supposedly liberal European democracy and in parts of the UK?
aug 31, 2025, 10:16 am • 0 0 • view
That seems to be his assertion, based on what he's saying in the interview. It's possible I'm misinterpreting his words, you can have a read for yourself if you want to make sure. www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/0/michael...
aug 31, 2025, 2:31 pm • 0 0 • view
It couldn’t be made today, because George Harrison is dead.
aug 30, 2025, 11:14 pm • 0 0 • view
It couldn’t be made with George Harrison, is more accurate.
aug 30, 2025, 11:14 pm • 0 0 • view
Exactly
aug 31, 2025, 8:58 am • 0 0 • view
Sorry if I missed this in replies but "Life of Brian" was banned in many countries and in assorted UK towns for years--a few places for decades. If someone spent $30m and made a similar movie now, it wouldn't be banned like that.
aug 30, 2025, 11:16 pm • 3 0 • view
Even then they had distribution problems because of the controversy.
aug 30, 2025, 10:54 pm • 0 0 • view
True!
aug 30, 2025, 11:13 pm • 1 0 • view
A. John Cleese. The old fart who famously doesn't understand HE was the butt of the Loretta joke, not Loretta.
aug 30, 2025, 11:29 pm • 2 0 • view
THANK YOU! It is why the movie got made. They weren't having then and they most likely won't have it now. We are at the mercy of Matt Groening's capable hands to push some buttons.
aug 30, 2025, 9:57 pm • 0 0 • view
Also given the fights over its release and the fallout from the church.
aug 30, 2025, 11:31 pm • 1 0 • view
Working Title: Life of Brian: The Resurrection Outline: And so it was, in the year of our lord 2026, Brian Cohen finally arrives back on Earth having been mistakenly beamed aboard a passing UFO and lived the past 2000+ years living on another planet where he has gained superhuman powers.
aug 30, 2025, 10:48 pm • 1 0 • view
Whenever people say "Everything's too PC, you can't make anything offensive anymore" I usually just point out Jojo Rabbit, a comedy about a Nazi boy and his imaginary friend Hitler. That was offensive (complimentary), and it got a freaking Oscar!
aug 30, 2025, 11:36 pm • 5 1 • view
'You couldn't make this nowadays', I tell myself, watching Young Sheldon with the lifeless eyes of a carp.
aug 31, 2025, 12:21 am • 0 0 • view
Yes. Did Michael forget the movie struggled to be released, was banned and boycotted? And who boycotted?
aug 30, 2025, 10:28 pm • 0 0 • view
Literally a HandMade film. Maybe he was in Camelot when he said that 😬
aug 30, 2025, 9:30 pm • 1 0 • view
Warner is literally publishing the Swamp Thing issues that were considered too controversial in the 80s.
aug 30, 2025, 9:36 pm • 0 0 • view
Where'd you hear that? Swamp Thing #88, the only controversial one, is still unpublished, and the just announced TPB of that era of Veitch still doesn't include it.
aug 30, 2025, 9:46 pm • 2 0 • view
It seems I have have been fed misinformation by a friend. He thought this was confirmed but it is not. I stand corrected and should have looked into it instead of taking his claim at face value. bleedingcool.com/comics/dc-to...
aug 30, 2025, 9:50 pm • 2 0 • view
No worries, I was just wondering if I'd missed a newer announcement. (This has been a bee in my bonnet for awhile.)
aug 30, 2025, 10:10 pm • 0 0 • view
💯 Good to have a friend like George! @ericidle.bsky.social
aug 30, 2025, 10:07 pm • 21 1 • view
George Harrison funded Life of Brian? How did I not know this?
aug 31, 2025, 8:52 pm • 2 0 • view
When the "It was better in the old days" propaganda has got to Michael Palin, you know the rot runs deep. He could be losing his marbles, I guess. Of course they'll all go mad except Gilliam, who was mad to start with.
aug 31, 2025, 5:56 am • 2 0 • view
I didn’t know that!
aug 31, 2025, 12:36 am • 0 0 • view
Well you'd probably cut out the trans jokes, but that's pretty much it.
aug 31, 2025, 2:10 am • 0 0 • view
aug 30, 2025, 9:23 pm • 0 0 • view
It's a cop out They claim it's some PC pressure that might make introducing a movie from then now: 1) it's been done, so it won't be made now because it's derivative 2) what's funny is always a reflection of the current times, and because "Life of Brian" exists, no one needs make it
aug 30, 2025, 10:00 pm • 1 0 • view
3) major studios HAVE made bigger budget, edgier films since 4) accessibility of other media with wider distribution make "movies" the less controversial place to push boundaries M Python had something to say then, but now? Shut it Boomer
aug 30, 2025, 10:00 pm • 0 0 • view
Well, that’s true, but I won’t criticize Michael Palin.
aug 30, 2025, 9:41 pm • 5 0 • view
He's getting on a bit. Let him decay in peace
aug 31, 2025, 8:48 am • 0 0 • view
Might be what he means. Nobody anywhere would have put money up.
aug 31, 2025, 9:32 am • 0 0 • view
With some of these articles I do wonder how many words are put into their mouths and twisted. He is a straight talking Yorkshire man and this article felt flip floppy in parts to me.
aug 31, 2025, 12:58 am • 1 0 • view
I think there's so much fear of commercial/creative risk now that pioneering work of the past like Life of Brian looks impossible to replicate today? And so many who challenged authority went on to accept MBEs, etc. I admire people like your Dad who never did that.. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...
aug 31, 2025, 2:42 am • 0 0 • view
The People’s Front of Judea!!
aug 31, 2025, 1:08 am • 0 0 • view
There’s (great) videos of him debating various bishops who mounted campaigns against it, documentaries showing the protests, actual censorship—what the hell is he going on about ?
aug 30, 2025, 10:52 pm • 0 0 • view
Yeah, the financing they had set up fell through before Harrison came in and set up Handmade Films. It was controversial in several countries when it came out. Some of the jokes don’t land today, but that’s with any comedy.
aug 30, 2025, 11:42 pm • 0 0 • view
Famously "the most expensive movie ticket in history"
aug 31, 2025, 9:32 am • 0 0 • view
Hello everyone here I'm new, and am here looking for a serious relationship. Thank u for your time!
aug 31, 2025, 11:19 am • 0 0 • view
If you're talking about studio movies, if it were made today, it would be The New Life Of Brian Part VIII, and you could buy a Lego set with the graffiti on the temple and one with the stoning scene. (Which I might actually buy 😁).
aug 31, 2025, 8:00 am • 1 0 • view
Oh, but he's absolutely right; it could be made today: as a YouTube video with a shitty mobile, a bad script, and 50 views. I watched it at least five times with my kids alone. Thanks, George!
aug 31, 2025, 7:48 am • 0 0 • view
You could definitely never make something like this these days…oh.
aug 30, 2025, 9:35 pm • 1 0 • view
The fact is the George Harrison supply is dangerously low at present.
aug 30, 2025, 10:53 pm • 3 0 • view
Michael Palin is feeling irrelevant. This only proves he is
aug 30, 2025, 11:06 pm • 0 0 • view
I could read that headline as a joke (given the history of the film), but sadly, the bit of the interview attached feels like he's gotten conflict-avoidant following his wife's death.
aug 31, 2025, 12:11 am • 0 0 • view
It wouldn’t get made these days because rich people no longer fund independent films with pocket change to get out of paying taxes. Maybe the solution is to tax the rich more?
aug 30, 2025, 10:57 pm • 0 0 • view
You wonder whether the “you couldn’t make this today” brigade have seen recent episodes of South Park?
aug 31, 2025, 8:24 am • 4 0 • view