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 future Python writing partner, Chapman, in Cambridge. Outside of Python, he is best known for setting up the Video Arts group and for the sitcom "Fawlty Towers" (co-written with Connie Booth, whom Cleese met during work on Python and to whom he was married for a decade). Cleese has also co-authored several books on psychology and wrote the screenplay for the award-winning "A Fish Called Wanda", in which he starred with Michael Palin. Terry Gilliam, an American by birth, is the only member of the troupe of non-British origin. He started off as an animator and strip cartoonist for Harvey