GRAHAM CHAPMAN LIVES AGAIN IN NEW MONTY PYTHON MOVIE

  Adapted from the actor’s 1980 memoir A Liar’s Autobiography: Volume VI, the film will blend contributions from the surviving Pythons with audio of Chapman reading from his book, recorded shortly before his death from cancer in October 1989.  It is set for a theatrical release in the UK next spring.             Monty Python’s Flying Circus ran on the BBC between 1969 and 1974, and then Chapman and his fellow Pythons—John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Jones. Terry Gilliam and Michael Palin—went on to film Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Life of Brian and 1983’s The Meaning of Life.          Holy Grail cast Chapman as an ineffectual King Arthur, with his arrival telegraphed by the clatter of coconut shells, while the controversial Life of Brian remade him in the guise of a hen-pecked Jewish everyman who is mistaken for the son of God. “He’s not the Messiah,” his exasperated mother explains to the faithful. “He’s a very naughty boy.”         Off-screen, Chapman was notable for being one of the first openly gay celebrities after blithely outing himself on a 70s TV show. But his Python-era heyday was often marred by alcoholism, which reached its nadir on the 1975 set of Monty Python and the Holy Grail.            In the film John Cleese is expected to play himself, with Palin co-starring as Chapman’s father and Jones mimicking the late comic’s mother. Of the surviving members of the Python team, only Eric Idle has yet to sign up.