‘Time Bandits’ Boss on Expanding Lost Classics, Charlyne Yi Accusations

To a generation of Brits, Iain Morris may forever be known as one half of the duo that created ‘The Inbetweeners’, the wildly rude sitcom about a group of mostly unpopular teenage boys that ran from 2008 to 2010 and was followed by two hugely successful films . .

But the multi-talented creative has since been busy reuniting some of the main cast of “The Inbetweeners” for the BBC comedy series “White Gold”, creating a new BBC comedy “First Team”, working on FX’s “What We Do in the Shadows,” who co-wrote Taika Waititi’s football comedy “Next Goal Wins” and was recently tapped to direct the Netflix rom-com film “My Oxford Year.”

In recent years, he’s also been hard at work on “Time Bandits,” Apple TV+’s small-screen adaptation of Terry Gilliam’s 1981 cult fantasy comedy about a young boy who is taken on an adventure through time with a gang of thieves (played mostly by actors with dwarfism). . The original featured an all-star cast including Sean Connery (who famously agreed to appear after meeting producer Denis O’Brien on a golf course), plus Shelley Duvall, Ralph Richardson, Katherine Helmond, Ian Holm, Peter Vaughan and Gilliam’s ‘Monty Python’. ‘collaborators John Cleese and Michael Palin. It ultimately became one of the biggest hits for ex-Beatle George Harrison’s HandMade Films, opening at No. 1 in the US and earning over $40 million on a $5 million budget.

The TV series – which Morris co-wrote with Waititi and Jemaine Clement, and also served as showrunner with Clement – ​​comes from Paramount TV and features a cast led by Lisa Kudrow. While most of the original feature film was shot in Britain, much of the new “Time Bandits” was filmed around Wellington, New Zealand (a city so windy that Morris says “he really thought the house would blow away”).

Speak with Variety Ahead of the show’s launch on Wednesday, Morris discusses being able to delve into more history than the film, why Gilliam – despite rumors to the contrary – was never on set (or even in New Zealand) and what happened next will happen for Fudge Park , the production company he founded with his “Inbetweeners” co-creator, Damon Beesley. Morris also addresses allegations from Charlyne Yi, who claimed they were physically assaulted on the set of “Time Bandits” by a fellow actor.

How did you get involved with a show like “Time Bandits”?

Taika and Jemaine called me years ago, I think before COVID, and said they needed to have a pilot script written – and would I like to do that with them? I’ve worked with both over the years and loved it – I’m a fan of them both.

But I also realized that it might be because I’m a bit boring when it comes to history. We’ve been friends for at least 20 years now, and I think I bored them so hard about history that they thought, “Who’s someone we can work with who knows a little bit about history?” Well, Iain is always boring about it.’

Were you a fan of the original film?

I was too young to see it when it came out. But I was such a Monty Python fan in my teens that I became a Python completist — what else can I watch that has John Cleese in it, that has Michael Palin in it, that was created by Terry Gilliam? That’s why I watched it a few times as a kid. It was terrifying, that’s for sure.

How close is the new series to the original?

It’s kind of inspired by it. But there are a lot of similarities, this is set up with Kevin and the map and the portal and the gang of crazy thieves. That’s very similar, but I think we go a little deeper into the characters of the bands. And we go to more different places.

But this time no dwarves in it.

There are some little people there. But it is a new version of the film. It’s a very diverse cast in many ways. We spent a lot of time on that, and we thought about diversity and progress. And it’s something we’ve played with, hopefully successfully, throughout the story.

So the lack of a gang of dwarves – played by actors with dwarfism – wasn’t intended to prevent potential transgressions? 2024 is obviously a very different time than 1981.

No. But we cast all kinds of people, from people who were incredibly tall to people who were very short.

You have more time to play with than the movie. So do you have more historical figures at home than Napoleon and Agamemnon?

Yes. We see Mansa Musa, we go to 1920s Harlem, we go to the time of the Neanderthals. The Earl of Sandwich appears.

There’s that great scene in the movie where Agamemnon’s mask is taken off and it’s revealed that it’s Sean Connery playing him. Are there any surprising star roles in this?

Well, Mark Gatiss plays the Earl of Sandwich, which was an incredible treat. I couldn’t be a bigger fan of his, so spending time with him in New Zealand was just amazing. But we do have a few celebrity sightings in the series. Lisa Kudrow, of course, leads the cast.

Was anyone from the team behind the original involved? Have you heard anything from Terry Gilliam?

No, but I think HandMade Films got cuts and made notes, but they were very careful about it. I’m actually friends with Michael Palin. Well, his son is a very good friend of mine, and through my friend he said, “Good luck with that.” And I saw a story that said Gilliam was on set. But it wasn’t, and I would have known. Because even my mother wasn’t allowed on set. Wellington is such a small town that people told me I had seen my mother, so there was no way Terry Gilliam could have turned up without anyone noticing!

I have to ask about the allegations made by Charlyne Yi, who left the shoot claiming they were physically assaulted by a fellow cast member. Were you aware of this at the time and what was your reaction?

At the time, it was clearly incredibly upsetting for everyone involved. It was a very tight-knit cast and crew, so every step was taken at the right time, involving the right people: the heads of HR at Paramount, who did a full investigation. Everyone was informed. The entire process was followed as correctly as possible and investigated as thoroughly as possible. And they actually came to the conclusions they came to.

As one of the co-showrunners, have you spoken to Charlyne about the situation?

Yes. They made me aware of what was happening, and part of my job was to make sure everyone was safe. So part of that was, let’s do the most thorough research we can, talk about it and make sure it’s all done right. I found the whole process extremely sad. But I have no doubt that everything was followed to the letter, that everything was taken very seriously from the beginning, and that Paramount’s investigation was conducted in the best possible way.

But they’re still in the finished series?

Yes absolutely. They did a great job and it was a very difficult time. But it was only a short time and we had a lot of fun.

“Time Bandits” is one of the few projects I’ve seen recently that are sequels or retreads of cult films made decades ago. The original ‘Time Bandits’ came out in 1982. Is this due to a lack of new ideas or the rediscovery of beloved old stories to breathe new life into?

Haha, I’m curious which one I’ll go for! Let me think. But I would say it’s a reinvention of new ideas to reintroduce them to new audiences. I think “Time Bandits” is actually almost the lost classic. You tell a lot of people and they’ve never heard of it, but you meet other people and it’s their favorite movie. But they are quite rare. So when you bring these brilliant ideas of people and these brilliant worlds and expand them and change them and introduce them to new audiences, I think that’s great. Some of the best songs ever made are covers.

“Time Bandits” was not made as part of Fudge Park, the production company founded with “The Inbetweeners” co-creator Damon Beesley. How does that continue?

Yes, it’s going great. Damon has just filmed a fantastic sitcom for the BBC called ‘Daddy Issues’ with David Morrissey and Aimee Lou Wood, which I think will be out in August. So we are extremely enthusiastic about that. And we are developing many more things. Damon and I are working on some scripts together, and hopefully we want to make some more films. We had a pretty glorious six-year period making British comedy films, so we thought, “Why don’t we make more?”

I see you’ll also be directing the Netflix comedy ‘My Oxford Year’.

Yes, I’m working on that now. We start shooting in three weeks. But that’s with Temple Hill. And it’s me moving in a more dramatic, more rom-com direction than straight forward com. It was quite interesting trying to understand some parts of it. It definitely uses different parts of my brain than just joking.

I’m sure this gets asked all the time, but given the penchant for returning to beloved old material, could you one day see “The Inbetweeners” get a reboot, or maybe even a big return to catch up with the boys now that they approaching middle age? ?

I’m waiting for someone to take over for me, like ‘Time Bandits’. And then someone can say that Iain Morris came to the set… in Guatemala.

This interview has been edited and condensed.