‘Time Bandits’ Show Reinvigorates Monty Python Film With Lisa Kudrow-Led Ensemble

Taking a cult favorite film and transforming it into a TV show is never easy; however, for Lisa Kudrow and the team behind “Time Bandits,” that simply meant there was a lot more space for creativity. 
 
“Series version of a film means you’re gonna expand and really go into some more details of that world, and that’s what I was up for,” Kudrow said in an interview with The Associated Press recently. Here is the excerpt of what the responder said: “It was really fun. ” 
 
An Apple TV+ series of “Time Bandits” debuts on July 24th, and it also derives from the 1981 British-American film written and directed by Terry Gilliam with the scripts provided by Michael Palin, Gilliam’s frequent partner. The movie and the show tell the story of a group of thieves, comprising Kudrow as Penelope, who travel through time with their new member, Kevin, an 11-year-old history enthusiast, to protect the boy’s parents from malevolent factions. 
 
The series remains faithful to some principal aspects and gags of the film, although Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement, simplifying the creation of the series together with Iain Morris, emphasized that they adapted the show not as an imitation of the movie. 
 
“We had to be different in order not to mimic them or simply be thieving or tracing over what they had”, Clement said. 
 
Fans of the original film will find many differences in the show: most notably, the bandits are not portrayed by little people, which, the duo found in the course of the show’s creation, was bitterly condemned by the dwarfism community when the casting was unveiled. Abbie Purvis, the granddaughter of Jack Purvis, the actor at the original film, also expressed her dissatisfaction of the casting choice of the next generation of fans as “for a generation that is so big on diversity and making sure everyone’s heard, this whole casting choice just seems absurd. ” ” 
 
Waititi said that he and his co-writers first wrote some of the key characters as people with dwarfism; however, he does not believe that the film should be categorised solely because there are little people in it. 
 
That’s a different bowl of soup but they actually got different actors. Clement said the creative team wrestled with the casting decision, referencing “two big sides of this debate”: “Whether it is correct to portray little people as fairies, and then whether, in not doing so, you deny employment to individuals of petite stature. ” 
 
Clement said that after the casting announcement they responded to those complaints and created roles for some of the smaller actors, stating that if the series was to be renewed they would be more focused on in the second season. 
 
Clement has a recurring character on the show and Waititi does as well. Their credits for a movie are in ‘What We Do in the Shadows’ both the movie and the FX series; Waititi has co-directed and starred in significant movies such as ‘Jojo Rabbit’ and ‘Thor: Ragnarok’ and ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’. 
 
The child actor who coalesdes the entire show as Kevin is Kal-El Tuck and he had acted in few number of short movies prior to holding the tapes of the series’ protagonist. Speaking of it, he added that he did not watch the original film as he did not want this specific film to influence him. 
 
“I wanted to be my Kevin, no one else’s Kevin,” Tuck said – “Parenthood” Quote. “I wanted to be my way of doing Kevin. ” 
 
Kudrow praised her young co-star, saying that he is a ‘giving actor’ and pointing out such details as many of the jokes and a bulk of the banter between the bandits were ad-libbed. The Friends alumni also said she was hesitant at first to be a part of the project. 
 
“I was, of course, scared like: ‘Uh oh when they’ll see that, they’ll think they made the mistake’, you know that insecurity ‘do I have the right tone for this, do I do that right’ But it was just fun and it felt like I was playing. ” 
 
Though it deviates from the movie, “Time Bandits” introduces the story to a younger audience and tries to make the viewers happy as the movie did. 
 
“There’s always a pressure of making anything, but we don’t want to anger fans of the original movie, of course,” Clement said before Waititi quipped: “Boys are scared of fans. ” 
 
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