Cinema of the United Kingdom as Goldcrest, HandMade Films and Merchant Ivory Productions. Handmade Films, which was partly owned by George Harrison, was originally formed to take over the production of "Monty Python's Life of Brian", after EMI's Bernard Delfont (Lew Grade's brother) had pulled out. Handmade also bought and released the gangster drama "The Long Good Friday" (1980), produced by a Lew Grade subsidiary, after its original backers became cautious. Members of the Python team were involved in other comedies during the decade, including Terry Gilliam's fantasy films "Time Bandits" (1981) and "Brazil" (1985), and John Cleese's hit "A Fish Called Wanda" (1988), while
Monty Python premiere of Idle's musical "Spamalot", based on "Monty Python and the Holy Grail". It opened in Chicago and has since played in New York on Broadway, London, and numerous other major cities across the world. In 2004, it was nominated for 14 Tony Awards and won three: Best Musical, Best Direction of a Musical for Mike Nichols, and Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical for Sara Ramirez, who played the Lady of the Lake, a character specially added for the musical. Cleese played the voice of God, played in the film by Chapman. Owing in part to