Monty Python troupe to reunite for sci-fi film

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 27 (UPI) -- British writer-comedian Terry Jones told Variety he plans to collaborate with his fellow surviving Monty Python comedy troupe members on a science-fiction film.

Jones, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Michael Palin, Terry Gilliam and the late Graham Chapman starred in the sketch comedy series "Monty Python's Flying Circus," as well as the film classics "Monty Python and the Holy Grail," "Monty Python's the Meaning of Life" and "The Life of Brian."

The five surviving members of the troupe last appeared together in New York in 2009 for the world premiere of the theatrical version of the documentary "Monty Python: Almost the Truth (The Lawyer's Cut.)" Chapman died of cancer in 1989.

Jones told Variety he has written and plans to direct the movie "Absolutely Anything," a mix of live-action and animation featuring the voice talents of Palin, Cleese and Gilliam as aliens, and Oscar-winning actor Robin Williams as a talking dog.

Idle hasn't agreed to join the project yet, however.

Longtime Monty Python collaborator Mike Medavoy is producing the picture, which Jones said he intends to start shooting in the United Kingdom this spring.

"It's not a Monty Python picture, but it certainly has that sensibility," he told Variety.

Jones and Gilliam co-directed "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" and Jones helmed "Life of Brian" and "Monty Python's the Meaning of Life" by himself.

Jones also directed the 1996 screen adaptation of "Wind in the Willows," and starred in it with Cleese, Idle and Palin.