On this date in 1979, "Life of Brian" was released in the United States.

There are various stories about the origins of "Life of Brian". Shortly after the release of "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" (1975), Eric Idle flippantly suggested that the title of the Pythons' forthcoming feature would be "Jesus Christ: Lust for Glory" (a play on the UK title for the 1970 American film "Patton"). This was after he had become frustrated at repeatedly being asked what it would be called, despite the troupe not having given the matter of a third film any consideration. However, they shared a distrust of organised religion, and, after witnessing the critically acclaimed "Holy Grail"'s enormous financial turnover, confirming an appetite among the fans for more cinematic endeavours, they began to seriously consider a film lampooning the New Testament era in the same way that "Holy Grail" had lampooned Arthurian legend. All they needed was an idea for a plot. Idle and Terry Gilliam, while promoting "Holy Grail" in Amsterdam, had come up with a sketch in which Jesus' cross is falling apart because of the idiotic carpenters who built it and he angrily tells them how to do it correctly. However, after an early brainstorming stage, and despite being non-believers, they agreed that Jesus was "definitely a good guy" and found nothing to mock in his actual teachings: "He's not particularly funny, what he's saying isn't mockable, it's very decent stuff", said Idle later. After settling on the name Brian for their new protagonist, one idea considered was that of "the 13th disciple." The focus eventually shifted to a separate individual born at a similar time and location who would be mistaken for the Messiah, but had no desire to be followed as such.

The first draft of the screenplay, provisionally titled "The Gospel According to St. Brian", was ready by Christmas 1976. The final pre-production draft was ready in January 1978, following a concentrated two-week writing and water-skiing period in Barbados.The film would not have been made without Python fan former Beatle George Harrison, who set up HandMade Films to help fund it at a cost of £3 million. Harrison put up the money for it as he "wanted to see the movie"—later described by Terry Jones as the "world's most expensive cinema ticket."

The original backers—EMI Films and, particularly, Bernard Delfont—had been scared off at the last minute by the subject matter. The very last words in the film are: "I said to him, 'Bernie, they'll never make their money back on this one'", teasing Delfont for his lack of faith in the project. Terry Gilliam later said, "They pulled out on the Thursday. The crew was supposed to be leaving on the Saturday. Disastrous. It was because they read the script ... finally." As a reward for his help, Harrison appears in a cameo appearance as Mr. Papadopoulos, "owner of the Mount", who briefly shakes hands with Brian in a crowd scene (at 1:09 in the film, below). His one word of dialogue (a cheery but out of place Scouse "'Ullo") had to be dubbed in later by Michael Palin. (Wikipedia) 

George in Life Of Brian