It has been six years since Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement’s TV reimaging of Terry Gilliam’s cult fantasy film Time Bandits was announced. The pair are the first to admit that some people have been skeptical about the project, but the duo are used to it.
“Taika and I had done the first two seasons of What We Do in the Shadows, and people were still really worried,” Clement laughs. “Even with that show, they thought that us, the guys who made the original movie it was inspired by, were going to f**k it up. I think we took the same attitude with Time Bandits that we did with What We Do in the Shadows, trying to make it its own thing. It’s worth watching both, and you don’t compare them too much.”
“With Time Bandits, you’re benefiting from much more time between the movie and the TV show. Hopefully, it will get kids watching this to look back at the original if they haven’t seen it. It’s a classic; you can still watch it, and hopefully, a whole new audience will find the movie through this. Here in America, it’s 50-50 whether people have heard of it. It endures, though.”
The original 1981 movie and ten-episode TV adaptation tell the story of a young boy who accidentally joins a band of time travelers who jump from era to era looking for treasure.
“We made an effort to make something that the entire family will enjoy, which is not something I would ever think I’d say in describing anything I was doing,” Waititi adds. Making anything for the whole family is something I’ve shied away from my whole life.”
‘Time Bandits’ Took Waititi And Clement Back To Their Childhoods
Both Waititi and Clement have have a connection to the source material since they were kids.
“There are so many freaky moments in it,” Thor: Ragnarok and Jojo Rabbit director Waititi recalls. “I remember feeling so worried for that child as a kid. I was like, ‘Oh my God. Imagine being stuck with these idiots who don’t know what they’re doing.’ When he was with Sean Connery and he was going to grow up as a prince, I was like, ‘Stay there, dude. You’re safe, and this is going to be amazing.’ What’s amazing about it is that you feel this worry for the main character, and it’s having an emotional effect on you, and you’re feeling something.”
“It’s quite amazing for a film like that, which is Python-esque and quite ridiculous, sometimes, so the fact that you’re worried, happy, and excited is pretty cool for the audience member. I watch so much stuff now, and I feel nothing.”
“I’m not sure if I saw Time Bandits in the cinema, but I was about eight, ” Clement adds. “The movie delighted me and scared me. Some of the funniest things that have ever been made are in that movie.”
However, when co-creator Iain Morris, who also co-created the classic British sitcom The Inbetweeners, purchased a copy of the original script, it put a new spin on the legacy and gave them their first new hook.
“I think it contained Kevin’s family name of Haddock, which we didn’t know before we had that script,” Clement adds. We loved that name. We watched it a few times again, and I’ve seen it several times over my life but never got that. We didn’t want to be enslaved to the original, though. We wanted to take it and make our own version of it. We also didn’t want to copy it. You can feel that you’re ripping it off.”
“Even with What We Do in the Shadows, sometimes I felt like we were ripping ourselves off in parts, like, ‘Well, the scene is very similar to something from the movie,’ or,’ This scene is one we wanted to put in the movie so we can put it in the show.’ That’s great, but you don’t want to steal from other work. We didn’t get to meet Terry Gilliam or Michael Palin or talk to them about remaking it. We didn’t want to steal their style or exact ideas, but we wanted to use the great ideas and try and do something new.”
Waititi clarifies, “I know Terry was like, ‘I made one already, so I guess you guys can go off and do your version.’ It’s quite nice and helps to have that freedom to take the thing because, eventually, you’ll have to let that go and run with the thing you’ve got.”
This Version Of ‘Time Bandits’ Tweaks A Few Things
The Time Bandits show, now streaming on Apple TV+ with new episodes dropping every Wednesday through August 21, 2024, makes several noticeable changes, including the pirates no longer being little people and their leader being a woman, played here by Friends alum Lisa Kudrow.
“Whenever we have talked about making things, Taika has often said, ‘Is there a part for Lisa Kudrow?’ That came up again with this, and there was,” explains the Flight of the Conchords‘ Clement. We managed to make it work, matching the project and the actor, but we didn’t think of her at first.”
Kudrow adds, “He called and asked if I would ever work in New Zealand, and I went, ‘For you, yeah, but it depends on what it is,’ and he said, ‘Jemaine and I are writing this series based on Time Bandits,’ so I was like,’ Well, yeah, I want to do that.’ I’d met Taika once at my friend’s Jen’s house. It was really brief because he and his wife, Rita Ora, came late, and I was wrapping things up for myself. We chatted for a little while, and then I left.”
Kudrow’s Penelope is absurdly confident even though she doesn’t know what is going on a lot of the time, something that’s usually reserved for cocky male leaders. There’s a reason for the vibe.
“We did originally write it as a male character. That’s what we had in mind when we sat down and wrote the pilot,” Clement says. Hopefully, that makes a unique character, but I think it feels like some people I know.”
It landed for Kudrow, and it was the opportunity she wanted.
“I really love over-the-top bossy and arrogant characters for no good reason,” she enthuses. There’s the appeal of a character with a huge amount of ineptness who throws arrogance at something and thinks that it’s going to be okay. I love people who have no idea how they come off or what they think they’re pulling off, and I just saw that in her.”
“The description of the character as the man was that he’s a leader who is afraid of his own shadow, so I was meant to be cowardly. But we spoke, and I think they were a little nervous about this. I said, ‘I don’t think cowardly will work. She’s courageous to the point of idiocy.’ I wanted a fearless person, so you’re never sure if she knows what she’s doing.
Clement Gave Himself An Iconic ‘Time Bandits’ Role For A Reason
As well as co-creators of the show, Waititi and Clement have roles in Time Bandits as Supreme Being and Evil Genius, aka Wrongness, respectively. Clement leans into his character’s pantomime and maleficent campness, giving hints of Jeremy Irons’ Mufasa from The Lion King and Terence Stamp’s Bernadette from The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.
“I haven’t seen Priscilla, but that’s a funny comparison, and I like it,” he chuckles. “I remember being so delighted by the Evil Genius character as a kid. It’s probably my favorite, and it is greedy of me that I have just chosen my favorite character from the movie to play.”
“Mark Gatiss, who is in episode three, was friends with David Warner, who played the role in the original film, and he said to him, ‘You never guess what I’m doing. I’m going down to New Zealand to do a version of Time Bandits,’ and David said, ‘Who’s playing me, darling?’ When he answered, that’s when I felt intimidated because it was like, ‘Oh, the original guy who played the role knows that I’m taking over his part.'”
Gilliam’s Time Bandits was the first in his ‘Trilogy of Imagination’ films, followed by Brazil and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. Would Clement and Waititi want to follow in his footsteps and reimagine those, too?
“That would take us all the way to retirement,” Clement laughs. That’s a great creative idea because it’s about the different ages of a person’s life: childhood, being a young person, and being an older person. I think if we do make another season of Time Bandits, the kids will be older, and they’ll be teenagers, and we’d do it in that way.”
“The characters would have changed as they’d be dealing with teenage things and trying to save the universe or whatever it is. We wouldn’t take on all those projects.”
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