Terry Gilliam talks about working with the late Shelley Duvall on Time Bandits

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@scottbaker4534 4 ай бұрын

I would love to have had the chance to live-chat with Terry. It could have been a great way to publicize whatever he’s got going and coming down the conveyor belt. (ha ha). I liked the story idea for the Apocalypse Fair. I think many would. Also, I could have shared my ideas for how to incorporate his own vision of a Time Bandits sequel into the new show: Tying up the loose ends of the film and using the time-travel aspect to re-start, rather than reboot would, and still could, work. I like what they’ve done with the reboot, but I’ve always wanted to see grown-up Kevin in a sequel. The parents in this TV version are the ages the original Kevin’s CHILDREN would be. So Terry’s ideas could fit right in if new Kevin was the namesake of his grandfather. As old as it would make me feel (two years older than Craig Warnock) I think it could shut up all the whiners about the series not being exactly the same as the movie. It could, in fact, be a continuation, where the new “Bandits” discover, like Neo did in The Matrix, that they aren’t the first to steal the map. They could introduce Grandpa Kevin, who warns new Kevin that his old friend, Og (Mike Edmonds), the only surviving Bandit from the film, is acting smarter than usual, but very strangely lately. This is because he is now a cyber-enhanced version of his old character, (kind of like “Charly” from the Flowers for Algernon character, homage to Daniel Keyes) with computer-assisted intelligence. Unbeknownst to Og or anyone else but Evil Jr., played by someone with an orange-spray-on tan and hideously yellow-dyed hair with a slight Afrikaans accent, Og is actually under the control of an artificial intelligence created by Evil Jr. himself. Evil Jr. has his own fortress of Darkness, but it is neatly disguised as a gigantic tech firm that makes compressed methane-powered cars, and offers free computer-augmentation to people with cognitive dysfunction (like Og) or anyone with the money to be permanently connected to Evil Jr. new version of the internet. Og’s onboard AI is programmed by Evil Jr. specifically to befriend Kevin, gain his trust, and slowly turn him evil, (ala The Screwtape Letters, to echo Terry’s magic wardrobe homage to C.S. Lewis), which he does by attempting to thwart Kevin’s ethical reasoning with sophistry, false dichotomy and other clever fallacies. Early on, Og reveals he is computer enhanced and one of the enhancements is that he can project himself as a hologram (computer-assisted Astral projection) using the portals, which relieves Mike Edmonds (now 80) from a whole lot of physical work as this is an action show. Evil Jr. is no longer interested in “the map” because he’s already used it to build his tech empire, but now he needs “the Key” which is where Kevin’s undoing is involved. Evil Jr. wants to learn the ultimate secret of total mind control, but Kevin (and his grandfather) have proven that to truly control the universe, he must undo the good in all of us. Kevin is his ultimate guinea pig, the Key to this mystery. Kevin never suspects what Og is up to, but always chooses the best, honest path, rather than the expedient, often self-interested choices suggested by Og (which are really his A.I.). Og introduces Kevin to his daughter and her BFFs, the daughters of the late Wally and Strutter, who remember the tales of the older Time Bandits, including their brush with Robin Hood. They have taken up Robin Hood’s banner and now do their Time Banditry to help the poor and downtrodden. They still have disagreements and personality clashes for comedic effect, but they are more genuine to fully-imagined characters and less slap-stick and buffoonery. When Kevin’s sister, Saffron, joins up with them, they are a complete “Girl Power” team, though still teaming with Kevin and Og. Through the girls’ example of doing dishonest things for honest purposes, he hopes to influence Kevin into following that rabbit hole into complete corruption and cruelty. Og’s AI deftly flatters Kevin and shows him false deference, but is clearly manipulating him at every opportunity. As the series progresses, Evil Jr. is so impressed with his technology (like Kevin’s parents) that he becomes arrogant and loses control as the A.I grows a conscience by working with pure, innocent, young Kevin. Evil Jr. is too busy to micromanage the A.I. but has meetings to “check on his progress”. Eventually, the tables turn and Evil is vanquished once again. To make the series more viable for viewers, if it gets cancelled, they can do the vanquishing in one easy episode where Evil Jr. sees Kevin as too much of a threat and that he’ll never turn to evil (homage to Lucas). A clash ensues, which Kevin wins with the help of Og and the others. At the end, we see that hints have been dropped all along that Evil Jr. is just another iteration of the same original Evil, but more advanced, as he travelled to the future, came back and used future tech to build his empire. The “concentrated evil”, though is Evil’s real essence, which was sent back in time from the 21st century to 1981 as Evil was attempting to travel their (just after he stole the map AND was destroyed) to stop Kevin from meeting the original Time Bandits. He became an aborted “Terminator” (homage to Harlan Ellison, who penned the story James Cameron borrowed HEAVILY from to write his blockbuster. Kevin is NOT John Connor!) In the end, we learn that not just Kevin, but the kind heart of Og molded the A.I. mind into a conscientious artificial consciousness. Love and goodness triumph throughout. Old Kevin’s parents still die, as that was part of the time loop Kevin was in, but now they can live normal lives…well, mostly. The map is gone, no more time travel for Kevin. Evil is defeated. The Supreme Being goes on holiday. Terry does his sequel film with the girl team stealing the new map from the Supreme Substitute he spoke on in the interview.