‘Thor: Ragnarok’ Director Taika Waititi To Write And Direct ‘Time Bandits’ Series For Apple
Terry Gilliam’s 1981 feature film Time Bandits is all set to be remade into a TV Series by Apple. Acquiring the rights to the movie back in 2018, the media giant will be adding A-list talent to the show as they join in on an ever-growing streaming industry. The biggest name already on board is Thor: Ragnarok writer and director Taika Waititi, who is set to write and direct the pilot for the series.
Time Bandits was a fantasy adventure story featuring an 11-year old boy as the protagonist, one who discovers a hole in time as he embarks on a trek through history — otherworldly characters popping up along the way. The movie has been highly revered as one of the earliest examples of Gilliam’s unrestricted style of fantasy storytelling. Gilliam has since gone on to direct other fantasy and science fiction films such as 12 Monkeys, The Brothers Grimm, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus and the soon to be released The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, as The Inquisitr previously reported.
Per a report from Variety, the remake of Time Bandits will be featured as a long-form television series for Apple, and is to be produced by Anonymous Content, Paramount Television, and Media Right Capital. Gilliam will also be on board as a producer. The quirky series appears to be in ready hands, given the often eccentric style of film-making exhibited by Taika Waititi.
As per Waititi’s IMDb page, the writer-director first started making waves with the huge HBO hit Flight Of The Conchords. Since then, he has been amassing an admirable resume.
His biggest break came with his directing credit for Thor: Ragnarok, a film which many claim to be responsible for the reinvention of Thor within the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Waititi is still very much involved with the Disney brand overall, and is set to direct episodes of the Star Wars spin-off The Mandalorian for the Disney+ streaming service, per The Inquisitr. Waititi is also currently receiving rave reviews for his most recent series, What We Do In The Shadows, per Forbes.
Time Bandits would be familiar territory for Waititi — given what he’s done with Thor: Ragnarok— in the sense that he has to create another original story while employing the structure of someone else’s creation. Given the quirky manner with which Gilliam told the story of the original, no other director than Waititi seems a match to recreate the essence of the first Time Bandits — still infusing it with creative originality without rehashing the elements created by Gilliam.
Apple is currently on a streak with their in-development properties, recently acquiring the memoirs of a former undercover CIA agent to be adapted into another dramatic series on their platform. The recent casting announcement, as reported by The Inquistr, saw Brie Larson — another member of the Marvel Studios brand — headlining the series for Apple.
There is no word yet as to when Time Bandits will premiere.
