They grew up with Time Bandits by Terry Gilliam and now, Jemaine Clement (Flight of the Conchords), Taika Waititi (Jojo Rabbit) and Iain Morris (The Inbetweeners) are imagining a new take on this classic youth comedy. While in the film, the protagonists visit as many places as possible in an hour and a half, the series they wrote and created for Apple TV+ allows them not only to delve deeper into the dramatic elements, especially between the characters, but also to explore different territories and historical moments. “We have access to VFX that didn’t exist at the time, so now we can have dinosaurs and mammoths on screen,” says Jemaine Clement, who is also co-showrunner and executive producer of the series.
In 2024, Kevin, played by Kal-El Tuck (Unseeing Evil), 11, is still passionate about history when he joins the “bandits” on a thrilling quest through time to save his parents and the world. So far, nothing really changes. But this time, a woman is among these famous “bandits”: Penelope, wonderfully played by Lisa Kudrow (Friends). “I like that she is simply herself, always incompetent and arrogant, without ever apologizing because she is not even aware of it,” says the actress with enthusiasm. For her, Time Bandits was all the more fun to shoot because she took a mischievous pleasure in lending a dose of courage and carefree attitude in the face of danger to her character.
“What makes me laugh is when someone seems completely oblivious to the image they’re projecting and is adamant even though they’re wrong on all counts no matter what,” adds Lisa Kudrow. And she’s not the only one who’s happy about it, since it’s impossible to remain unmoved by Penelope’s craziness.
High fidelity
For his part, Taika Waititi, also screenwriter, director and executive producer of Time Banditssees in the sense of adventure of the initial story an inexhaustible source of inspiration.
What he finds appealing about the feature film is that you never really know if what the characters are experiencing is real or not. “At any point in the film, you can wonder if they’re going to wake up and realize it was all a dream or, on the contrary, think they’re never going to go home,” he notes. An atmosphere that he and his collaborators have managed to maintain in the series.
In order to have fun with the nostalgic effect of those who, like him, watched Time Bandits During their childhood, Jemaine Clement played at least as much with old camera techniques as with new technologies. “For the bit with the giant head, we have a real giant head, and when we’re on the boat, the ships are models, and all the temples are miniatures to try to keep a bit of the atmosphere of the big adventure movies of the 1980s,” he explains.
Laughing at the story
Humor Time Banditsintact. Nostalgia Time Banditstotal. All that remained was to tell a story that was off the beaten track.
“The history we learned in New Zealand with Taika, as Māori, was quite sad and we were often told about our ancestors being attacked and the land being taken from them,” says Jemaine Clement. “But through my son, who loves history, I saw that it could be really fun and interesting.”
During the development of the series, the writers were able to talk to historians. “We can ask them all kinds of questions, about who stood out in this era, who was the richest person in history, etc.,” says Jemaine Clement, who admits, somewhat mischievously, that he was never very good at history. Lisa Kudrow, for her part, had a field day learning more about non-European history. “I was very interested in looking at the figure of Mansa Moussa [souverain du Mali au XIVe siècle]for example,” she notes. Time Bandits is therefore, for some, the opportunity to make up for lost time. Or to immerse oneself in the good old days.
“I was always obsessed with Greek and Trojan armor, medieval swords,” continues Taika Waititi, who spent a lot of time as a child designing his own armor pieces with his friends. “We would handcraft each piece of chainmail out of cardboard and paint it silver,” he recalls cheerfully.
If several levels of reading – historical references, biting dialogues or even cultural references from the 1980s-1990s – can be attributed to Time Banditsthis is still a series for all ages. “We tried to make jokes that everyone will understand, adults and children alike, and that forced us to be even more creative,” assures Jemaine Clement.