Although you’d have expected a movie that promises to reteam the surviving Pythons (minus Eric Idle) wouldn’t have much difficulty getting made, Absolutely Anything has been in development for a long time. Terry Jones has been in line to direct for nearly two decades, and in 2010 he signed up Terry Gilliam, John Cleese and Michael Palin to voice aliens in the movie.
At that time, John Oliver was lined up to star, but things have been languishing, only now moving forward with the news, via The Wrap, that Gemma Arterton has signed on the dotted line to star in the film, with Benedict Cumberbatch in talks.
The film is based on a script from Jones and Gavin Scott, which is about a group of aliens who decide to give a teacher (Cumberbatch) the power to do absolutely anything – Bruce Almighty style – with just a wave of his hand. The site reports, ‘He can wipe out classrooms of badly behaving students and bring people back to life. But he experiences mishap after mishap as he tries to learn how to use these powers’. Robin Williams is set to be a talking dog named Dennis (to be voiced by Robin Williams) who understands more about whats going on than anyone else.
The plan in to shoot the movie in the first quarter of 2013.