Our eyebrows raised last July when we learned that Apple had landed a deal to turn Terry Gilliam's cult fantasy time travel heist road movie Time Bandits into a TV series. We were heartened to learn that Gilliam would have input, and we're further happy to report that Taika Waititi has signed up to write and direct the pilot for the series.
Gilliam's 1981 movie follows the time-traveling adventures of an 11-year-old history buff named Kevin who, one night, stumbles on six dwarfs who emerge from his closet. They are former workers of the Supreme Being (Ralph Richardson) who have stolen a map that charts all the holes in the space-time fabric, using it to hop from one historical era to the next in order to steal riches. Throughout the movie, they meet various historical and fictional characters, including Napoleon Bonaparte (Ian Holm) and Robin Hood (John Cleese), while the Supreme Being simultaneously tries to catch up to them and retrieve the map.
There's certainly scope for some fun adventures, and Waititi's irreverent style feels like it would mesh well with Gilliam's anarchic take on history. This just became one we're eager to watch, especially if Waititi keeps the flavour of the film and draws on his extensive list of contacts (comedy and otherwise) to people the world or just show up in cameos.
Waititi's latest film, Jojo Rabbit, should be out later this year. TV-wise, he has the adaptation of What We Do In The Shadows hitting US screens on 27 March and he's one of the directors for Star Wars series The Mandalorian, due on Disney's streaming service before 2019 gasps its last.
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