9 Movie Scenes You Didn't Know Had A Guest Director
7. The Crimson Permanent Assurance - Monty Python & The Meaning Of Life
Terry Jones was the overall director of Monty Python’s whimsically brilliant The Meaning Of Life, but Monty Python’s other Terry, Terry Gilliam, played his part too.
Gilliam had already directed The Holy Grail, so the troupe knew they were in safe hands with him. He wasn’t initially supposed to have any directorial responsibilities this time around, but after the script was retooled, it was agreed that Gilliam would oversee The Crimson Permanent Assurance.
In the original draft, this was supposed to be short animated section of around six minutes, which would come at the end of Part V. Gilliam though argued that it should be live action, and so it eventually became.
The short scene ballooned up to a 30 minute runtime, eventually compressed to 16 minutes for the final film. It was also moved from Part V’s ending to serve as a prologue for the entire film.
With the cast famously playing multiple characters and sharing directorial duties for their sketch show, Monty Python movies tended to be a rather collaborative affair anyway. It wasn’t particularly unusual for Gilliam to be put in charge of this, but given the big change it made, it’s definitely worth noting.