Eric Idle is working on a new Rutles project.
My question is, Why? Neil Innes died in 2019.
Eric, much as I enjoy The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash and seeing the trans-Atlantic collision of comedy talent of Python and Saturday Night Live, what has endured about the Rutles is the music. And the less said of the second Rutles film, Can’t Buy Me Lunch, the better; it was a creative misfire on every level.
Look, I know it’s important to you to claim the Rutles as your creation. But without Neil’s original song, “I Must Be in Love,” and the reaction the audience of Saturday Night Live had to it, there would be no Rutles. The Rutles did not spring sui generis from your mind. The names and the script may have come from you, but without with Neil there would be no Rutles.
You have far more claim to the Rutles than Roy Thomas does to Wolverine, and I don’t think anyone would deny that the Rutles was a collaborative effort between yourself and Neil. Emphasis on the world “collaborative.” He wasn’t just an employee, and no one could have done what he did. You wrote a story. His music gave it life. Your own musical contribution, frankly, was more Python than Rutles.
Neil is gone. Whatever Rutles revival you plan, without Neil, there is no point.