Coconutdaddy Productions

When Terry Gilliam began making Time Bandits (1981), landing a superstar like Sean Connery seemed almost impossible. At the time, Gilliam was still building his reputation as a filmmaker. While he had co-directed Monty Python and the Holy Grail and directed Jabberwocky , he was nowhere near the Hollywood heavyweight he would later become with films like Brazil and The Fisher King . Ironically, Connery's casting reportedly began as something of a joke. Gilliam and co-writer Michael Palin wrote a scene featuring King Agamemnon and jokingly suggested that the character would be played by Sean Connery, never expecting the former James Bond actor to actually accept the role. According to Gilliam, producer Denis O'Brien mentioned the project to Connery, and to everyone's surprise, Connery was enthusiastic about the idea. [imdb.com] , [slashfilm.com] The Timing Was Perfect By the early 1980s, Connery was actively looking beyond the shadow of James Bond. He had already shown aud...

  Few films occupy the strange corner of cinema quite like Terry Gilliam's Jabberwocky (1977). Released between the glory days of Monty Python and the Holy Grail and the visionary madness of Time Bandits and Brazil , the film has often lived in the shadow of Gilliam's more celebrated works. Yet nearly fifty years later, Jabberwocky remains a fascinating question for cult film fans: Is it an underrated monster movie or an underrated comedy? The answer may be both. A Monster Movie Hiding in Plain Sight At first glance, Jabberwocky looks like a traditional monster film. The kingdom is terrorized by a gigantic beast lurking in the countryside, devouring villagers and spreading fear wherever it roams. Knights dream of glory, rulers panic, and ordinary citizens live under the shadow of destruction. The titular Jabberwock is an impressive creature for its era. Unlike many fantasy monsters of the 1970s, it feels genuinely threatening. Its design is grotesque, birdlike, reptilian, ...