Skip to main content

Ex-Python Michael Palin 'Exploring' Big Screen Comeback

 

He'll Explore 19thCentury Africa in "Water Music"

Michael Palin contemplating a new filmSheffield-born globetrotter Michael Palin is set to make a surprise big screen comeback ten years after his last film. Palin, 63, is in talks about a new movie with former Mony Python colleague Terry Gilliam. And his part in the film Water Music is one he should know pretty well - he'll be playing an explorer.

 

Palin last appeared on the big screen in Fierce Creatures alongside John Cleese and Jamie-Lee Curtis in 1997. Now he's said to have rediscovered his passion for acting after forging a successful niche on British TV as an intrepid traveller in shows such as Around the World in 80 Days, Pole to Pole and Himalaya.

Director Gilliam said: "Mike and I keep talking about a project which is based on a book by T Coraghessan Boyle about Mungo Park, the famous 19th century Scottish explorer who discovered the Niger River. "It's not as comic as a comedy, it's funny yet it's also very bleak and strange. It's basically an adventure story, how a guy is reduced to behaving as an animal to survive."

Gilliam, who as well as the legendary Python movies has previously directed Palin in the popular films Brazil and Jabberwocky, says that their next project cannot get up and running until his old friend has finished his latest travel series on Europe.

He added: "I keep telling Mike he's got to stop travelling, sit down and do some films again."

 

Published in full in Sheffield Today