Monty Python reunites (sort of) in upcoming sci-fi spoof directed by Terry Jones

It’s not quite the reunion film that die-hard Monty Python’s Flying Circus fans have been lusting after for almost three decades, but it will have to do for now.

Former Python member Terry Jones told Variety on January 26 that he will be directing a science-fiction farce, tentatively titled Absolutely Anything, starting in the next few months.

The film will bring Jones together with former Python members John Cleese, Michael Palin, and Terry Gilliam. Jones told BBC television that he was “working on” getting Eric Idle involved in the production, which would see the four (or five) of them lending their voices to CGI alien characters. (After a bout with cancer, troupe member Graham Chapman became an ex-parrot in 1989.)

The iconic comedy group starred in a ground-breaking and massively influential English TV comedy series that ran from 1969 to 1974. The members reunited for the successful films Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1974), Monty Python’s Life of Brian (1979), and Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life (1983).

Jones said the new film isn’t a return to the old days. “It’s not a Monty Python picture, but it certainly has that sensibility,” he told Variety.

Absolutely Anything is about aliens who give a human (possibly comic John Oliver, from TV’s The Daily Show) the power to do, literally, anything. Robin Williams is signed to voice a dog in the film, and he might also take on the role of “a pompous Frenchman reminiscent of Inspector Clouseau”, according to producer Mike Medavoy.