How Terry Gilliam Landed Sean Connery for Time Bandits and Why It Changed the Film
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...
