This comic steampunk pilot for a yet unmade feature film has ambition aplenty and a couple of Pythons on board

Tim Ollive showed remarkable endurance in his ambition to get his animated feature 1884 off the ground. The script is an elaborate steampunk fantasy, with flying battleships, political intrigue and, of course, a dashing hero and dastardly villain. This pilot was produced at the National Film School, with former Monty Python stars Terry Jones and Michael Palin brought in to add some star power and comic finesse. But backing to continue the production proved hard to find.

Over 25 years later in 2010, the flame was still burning, with yet another Python, Terry Gilliam, heading a new push for the film as producer of a French and British co-production, using puppetry and CGI in place of the cel animation approach of the film school years. More pilot footage and test scenes have been produced since with evolving techniques, but just as in the opening of and closing of this version, the film remains "what might have been but never was".

1884 - the past future - what might have been but never was.