Did you know that Terry Gilliam has been futzing around with a sequel to Time Bandits for over a decade? Originally intended as a feature, the concept then ended up with Hallmark as a possible four hour miniseries. That, like so many Gilliam projects, faded away.

Little had been heard about Time Bandits II in the intervening years, but this week Rich Johnston's Lying in the Gutters column reports that the project is dead again... but this time it was a comic book series.

Virgin Comics, the collaboration between Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Media and an Indian comic publisher, Gotham Comics, has come to an end, killing a number of comic series from high profile creators, such as Garth Ennis and Grant Morrison. But the most intriguing death was a Time Bandits II comic series.

This death was certainly the first time I had heard of the project; it makes sense, as Virgin was going after filmmakers to create comic properties that could become movies. John Woo, Ed Burns and Guy Ritchie had all created comics for the company.

So what now for Time Bandits II? Could the development process for Virgin have resparked an interest in Gilliam? Might another company pick it up? Or will he try to get it made as a film, a return to something more 'commercial' after even his latest movie - featuring Heath Ledger's last role and starring Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell - has proved difficult to sell?

via io9