Follow your dreams and my blog

-it was produced with a budget of around $400,000, so they had to make a lot of cutbacks. like, a lot. it even effected the staging of scenes. (watch lancelot’s helmet!)

-neil innes, who wrote the songs the characters sang in the movie, was originally supposed to compose a score for the film, but the budget meant that he couldn’t get the “epic” sound that he wanted. most of the score wound up being taken from a stock music catalog.

-the job of directing fell onto both terry gilliam and terry jones, who both had different ideas for the film. also neither of them had directed a feature film before, AND they were both acting in the film. (gilliam directed the cartoon sequences for the group)

-on the first day of filming the camera they had rented completely fell apart and they had to get a new one.

-it was filmed in rural scotland in the middle of fall, so it was damp and rainy most of the time.

-the hotel they were staying at was so cheap that they only had hot water for a few hours a day, so when shooting days ended they all made a mad dash back to their rooms just for a hot shower.

-graham chapman, who played king arthur, was battling with chronic alcoholism and was suffering the brunt of the symptoms. it got so bad the rest of the group told him “if you don’t fix your problems by next year we’ll kick you out”. thankfully he did, and recovered just in time for their next movie, life of brian.

-major revisions to the script would be made on the fly. patsy, the little guy who follows king arthur around, was originally supposed to have beens sir gawain, who would constantly break the fourth wall and tell the audience how the crew created the special effects. there was an entire sequence planned where the knights would meet a guy named “king brian the wild”, who would let people into his castle and force them to sing in close harmony before killing them. the running gag with the coconuts was a last minute decision, the thought process behind it being “well we can’t afford real horses and the movie is already pretty silly so why not show how we made the horse sounds?”

-tim the enchanter had a much more “magical” name in the script, but john cleese forgot it and just made up a name.

-originally the movie was supposed to end with a climactic battle sequence between arthur’s troops and the frenchmen at castle aaaargh. at first the frenchmen seem to have the upper hand, and almost decimate arthur’s troops…until a gang of swallows fly by and drop coconuts on their heads, finishing the joke set up at the beginning of the film. sadly the grail wasn’t in the castle and the knights go home dejected…only to wind up in modern london, where they buy the grail at harrod’s department store. but the budget wasn’t enough to get real swallows or make convincing fake swallows, and at that point they were sick of working on the film, so they said “fuck it the cops arrest everyone”.

My friend called Ford and asked him how much he was asking for the work. Ford told him doing that kind of thing helped him relax and stay sane when he was filming. Would not take a dime. Plus he paid for a new water heater and got the sewage system cleaned out.

“The Millennium Falcon was the first thing we were actually building. I had been in London and I came home back to L.A. for Christmas. So I go to Sports Chalet to do some last-minute shopping; I get there early, run to the back of the store, get what I need. I’m coming back through the store, and I just happen to pass this person holding up a pair of ski pants, and it’s Harrison Ford. I look at him, he looks at me and puts his head right down. I can tell he doesn’t want to be bothered; I’m sure from the look on my face he knew I knew who he was. 

So I walk past him, and after about 10 feet I think, ‘If there’s ever a time to say hello to Harrison Ford, I’m building the Millennium Falcon!’ So I turn around very hesitantly and go, ‘Harrison, I’m sorry to bother you. I’m co-production designer on the new Star Wars, I’m just back from London, and I’ve been building the Falcon.’ A big smile came across his face, he put his hand out, and we had such a great conversation — he couldn’t have been sweeter. 

As I’m walking away, he goes, ‘Darren!’ and calls me back. He goes, ‘The toggle switches.’ I go, ‘Toggle switches.’ He goes, ‘The toggle switches on the Falcon. When they built it the first time, they bought cheap toggle switches without any springs in them. Every time I threw a toggle switch, it fell back; it wouldn’t hold. It drove me crazy. Please, make sure the toggle switches are fixed this time.’ I go, ‘No problem! I’ll take care of it!’ 

So months go by, I’m back in London, we’re getting close [to principal photography], and I get a phone call saying J.J.’s headed down to check out the cockpit, and Harrison’s with him. I run down there and I see J.J. in the passenger seat and Harrison in the pilot seat. They’re just giddy; they’re having so much fun. And then I see Harrison look up, and he just starts throwing all the toggle switches: boom, boom, boom, boom. [Laughs.] And I remember thinking, ‘Phew, minor victory. Take solace in that and move on. Next task.’ That’s my favorite story.”

French Person: Non c’est une fucking pomme