Director Terry Gilliam Reemerges After Dry Spell

"And now for something completely different… "

This simultaneously dumb and brilliant Monty Python segue and eventual tagline for the group can also be used to accurately describe the work of one of its lesser-known members.�After leaving the U.S. in the 60s to make his mark as an animator in England, Terry Gilliam tried his hand at directing. He�has been�in and out of favor�with Hollywood and described by producers as both difficult and brilliant.�

He has�also�weathered�a professional disaster in recent years, but this�wonderfully quirky, expatriot-American refuses to give up. Two of his films�have been released in recent months and�Gilliam appears to be back in the game. The first release, The Brothers Grimm,�had a�respectable box-office showing, but�his second, Tideland, is�generating controversy�and�how warm his welcome will be remains to be seen.��

The best way I can think of to describe where Terry Gilliam's decidedly off-center sensibility lies is to say that you can't get there from here... Gilliam's wild and fertile imagination goes where it will, which is to say places where� most of the rest of ours won't!�His unique�vision has drawn the�acting services�of Robert DeNiro, Sean Connery, Bruce Willis, Brad Pitt and Uma Thurman, just to name a few.

For years though, Gilliam toiled in virtual anonymity during his stint as an animator on the BBC's Monty Python�s Flying Circus. For the show's five-year run, Gilliam�contributed his always-unpredictable, slightly seedy animation segments. He rarely appeared onscreen, however, having to compete with uber-madcaps Eric Idle, John Cleese, Michael Palin, Terry Jones and Graham Chapman.�