Yes, you read that headline correctly. Time Bandits could be coming to the small screen, if Terry Gilliam’s recent Q&A at The Guardian is to be believed. For the uninformed, Gilliam is the Monty Python veteran and innovative director of films including 12 Monkeys, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus and, of course, 1981’s Time Bandits.

According to SlashFilm, Gilliam made mention of the show’s development thusly:

We are involved in two possibilities — one, a TV series based on Time Bandits, another based on a script by Richard LaGravanese and I wrote after Fisher King, called The Defective Detective. We’re currently adapting a two hour film into a six hour series. It’s about a middle aged New York cop who was once a hero who has grown fat and cynical and is in the middle of a breakdown, ending up in a child’s fantasy world where the rules of the mean streets of New York no longer apply. The best way to kill a dragon is no longer a gun, but a tree branch you think is a sword.

Granted, he merely touches on the concept of a series as a possibility, but this is clearly something important enough to mention first. Would a Time Bandits series work? It’s surely the time for futuristic fantasy on television, but would it hold true to the original and cast all dwarves as the leads? Would it work without Michael Palin’s input? Who knows. What we do know is if Gilliam were to see it through to completion, the world would be a better place for having more of his special brand of weird in it.

We want to know what you think. Could a Time Bandits series make it in today’s TV world? Let us know in the comments below.

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HT: SlashFilm
Image: Avco Embassy Pictures