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
His Name Is Legs (Ladies and Gentlemen) of "The Lumberjack Song", for which he again used the Ohnothimagen moniker, their collaborations began with his guest appearance on "Rutland Weekend Television", which aired on BBC2 on 26 December 1975. In 1978, Harrison participated in "", a TV film starring Idle, Innes and Palin that satirised the Beatles' history, and he formed HandMade Films that year in order to fund the production of Monty Python's third movie, "Life of Brian" (1979), in which he also appeared. HandMade became Britain's most successful independent film company and went on to make other films involving one or more members of Monty Python,