Pythons bereft of life .. we’ve ceased to be
Cleese rules out reunion... but will bring Brian to stage
HOPES of a Monty Python reunion are as dead as a Norwegian Blue parrot, John Cleese has said.
But always look on the bright side of life – he’s planning to bring their classic film Life of Brian to the stage.
Cleese, 80, has ruled out working with remaining members Michael Palin, Eric Idle and Terry Gilliam under the Python banner after the death of Terry Jones.
Jones died aged 77 in January – the group’s second loss after Graham Chapman, who died aged 48 in 1989.
Cleese said: “With Terry and Graham gone I feel delighted to say I feel no obligation at all to carry on with the Python legacy. As they say... ‘It was what it was’.”
The comedy legends reunited for live gigs in 2014, but Cleese says their work will now live on in other ways instead.
He told fans in an online chat: “I am working to turn Life of Brian into a stage show. I am working with my daughter to turn A Fish Called Wanda into a musical and I have an idea for a movie which is a light comedy about cannibalism... it’s called Yummy.”
Telling of his decision to quit Monty Python after their 1983 film Meaning of Life, he said: “I think we made an extraordinary film with Life of Brian and I think Holy Grail, the first 45 minutes is really good. There’s also some great stuff in Meaning of Life but also quite a lot of stuff I didn’t like... which is kind of why I left Python at that point.”
He went on to write 1988 film A Fish Called Wanda, in which he starred alongside Palin. Continuing the online chat, Cleese left fans with two pearls of wisdom : “I believe there is an afterlife...The second thing is to realise that very, very few people have any idea what they are talking about.”