Monty Python's Life of Brian December 1976, with a first draft completed by mid-1977. The final pre-production draft was ready in January 1978, following "a concentrated two-week writing and water-skiing period in Barbados". The film would not have been made without Python fan former Beatle George Harrison, who set up HandMade Films to help fund it at a cost of £3 million. Harrison put up the money for it as he "wanted to see the movie" — later described by Terry Jones as the "world's most expensive cinema ticket." The original backers, EMI Films, had been scared off at the last minute by the subject
Python Night – 30 Years of Monty Python Python Night – 30 Years of Monty Python Python Night was an evening of Monty Python-related programmes broadcast on BBC2 on 9 October 1999, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the first broadcast of "Monty Python's Flying Circus". It featured newly written sketches, three documentaries and a screening of "Monty Python's Life of Brian". Only the documentaries were screened in the US, broadcast under the title "The Life of Python" on A&E Biography on 9 April 2000. Most of the evening's content was released in the US later in 2000 on the first disc of the A&E DVD box set