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 Kurtzman's "Help!" magazine, one issue of which featured Cleese. Moving from the US to England, he animated features for "Do Not Adjust Your Set" and was then asked by its makers to join them on their next project: "Monty Python's Flying Circus". He co-directed "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" and directed short segments of other Python films (for instance "The Crimson Permanent Assurance", the short film that appears before "The Meaning of Life"). When Monty Python was first formed, two writing partnerships were already in place: Cleese and Chapman, Jones and Palin. That left two in their own corners: