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
Monty Python and the Holy Grail on new material, parodying the legend of King Arthur's quest for the Holy Grail. 30 years later, Idle used the film as the basis for the musical "Spamalot". "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" grossed more than any British film exhibited in the US in 1975. In the US, it was selected as the second best comedy of all time in the ABC special "". In the UK, readers of "Total Film" magazine ranked it the fifth greatest comedy film of all time; a similar poll of Channel 4 viewers placed it sixth (2000). In 932 AD, King Arthur and