Mark Forstater

Mark Irwin Forstater (born 1943) is a British[1] film producer, writer, and audio producer, notable for producing the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail and then in 2012 suing the five living members of Monty Python over a dispute regarding royalties from merchandising income, including the Spamalot musical, which was "lovingly ripped off from" the Holy Grail movie.[2] He is a graduate of London Film School.

Childhood and education

Forstater was born in Philadelphia.[3] When he was a kid, he migrated to The United Kingdom alongside his mother, time later he got the British citizenship.

Career

On 4 July 2013, he won the High Court of Justice case[4][5] against the surviving members of Monty Python over royalty payments to Spamalot as a derivative work of Monty Python and the Holy Grail.[6][7] They owed £800,000 ($994,600) in past royalties and legal fees, prompting them to produce Monty Python Live (Mostly) in 2014 to pay down their debt.[2][8][9]

Personal life

Forstater and his wife live in London and have three daughters.[10] In 2019 his daughter Maya lost an employment tribunal case (Maya Forstater v Centre for Global Development (2019)) in which she had argued that she was entitled to her belief that trans women are not women.[11][12]

Forstater has said that the protracted Spamalot royalties case was greatly detrimental to his well-being, both financially and mentally.[13]

Films produced

Books
  • The Seventh Python – A Twat's Tale[19][20]
  • I Survived a Secret Nazi Extermination Camp (2013).[21] Forstater was inspired to collect this unique group of memoirs of survivors of the Belzec extermination camp after he read the memoirs of Rudolf Reder, who survived Belzec. Reder's memoirs are included in Forstater's book. Several of Forstater's relatives were murdered in the Belzec camp.[22]
  • The Spiritual Teachings of Marcus Aurelius (Harper, 2000)[23][24]
  • The Age of Anxiety: A Guided Meditation for the Financially Stressed[25]

References
  1. "Mark Forstater". BritishComedyGuide. Retrieved 6 June 2019.
  2. "Monty Python sued over Spamalot royalties". BBC News Online. 30 November 2012. Retrieved 30 November 2012. Mr Forstater claimed he was entitled to one-seventh of this figure, the same share enjoyed by each of the other Pythons – but was told he was only entitled to one-fourteenth, and has been paid accordingly since 2005. ...
  3. Fraser, Jenni (17 March 2016). "Jewish 'seventh Python' gets revenge with spammy memoir". Times of Israel. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  4. MR JUSTICE NORRIS (5 July 2013), Forstater & Anor v Python (Monty) Pictures Ltd & Anor [2013] EWHC 1873 (Ch), retrieved 30 November 2019
  5. "Mark Forstater and Mark Forstater Productions Limited -v- Python (Monty) Pictures Ltd and Freeway Cam (UK) Ltd". www.judiciary.uk. Retrieved 30 November 2019.
  6. "'Seventh Python' awarded more than $300,000 – Mt. Airy native wins court case against Monty Python". Chestnut Hill Local Philadelphia PA. 10 July 2013. Retrieved 30 November 2019.
  7. Lear, Len (5 April 2019). "Mt. Airy native wins eight-year lawsuit against Monty Python". Chestnut Hill Local Philadelphia PA. Retrieved 30 November 2019.
  8. "Monty Python lose Spamalot court battle". BBC News. 4 July 2013. Retrieved 5 July 2013. Mark Forstater, who produced the 1975 film Monty Python And The Holy Grail, claimed he was underpaid royalties since the musical's launch in 2005. ...
  9. "John Cleese: Monty Python reunion is happening because of my £800,000 legal bill". Daily Mirror. 23 May 2014. Retrieved 28 December 2014. Last July, the Pythons lost a royalties case to Mark Forstater, who produced 1975 film Monty Python And The Holy Grail. ...
  10. "Mark Forstater". HarperCollins.
  11. "Anti-trans 'gender critical' views not a protected characteristic under the equalities act, judge rules". PinkNews. 19 December 2019.
  12. "Maya Forstater: Woman loses tribunal over transgender tweets". BBC. 19 December 2019.
  13. "Monty Python Musical Was No Laughing Matter for 'cheated' Mark". Jewish Telegraph.
  14. Canby, Vincent (20 June 1984). "Screen: Fugard Stars in Last of His Trilogy" (Review). The New York Times. Retrieved 28 May 2019. produced by Jonathan Cohen and Mark Forstater
  15. "The Friday Film Special: The Glitterball". The Radio Times (3256). Longon. 17 April 1986. p. 91. Producer: Mark Forstater
  16. "The Fantasist" (Review). Film Ireland. 17 January 2009. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  17. "Mark Forstater". IMDb. Retrieved 30 November 2019.
  18. Lear, Len (27 March 2019). "Prolific Mt. Airy producer/author: 30 films, 8 books". Chestnut Hill Local Philadelphia PA. Retrieved 30 November 2019.
  19. Topping, Alexandra (11 October 2015). "Monty Python legal battle left me living in a bedsit, says 'seventh Python'". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 30 November 2019.
  20. "The 7th Python". www.the7thpython.com. Retrieved 30 November 2019.
  21. "The painful truth about survival". Jewish Chronicle. 29 September 2015. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  22. Rocker, Simon (31 January 2013). "'Seventh Python' claims his Spamalot share was cut a lot". Jewish Chronicle. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  23. Remsen, Jim (10 August 2000). "Following Gladiator's emperor: Author Mark Forstater believes we can still learn from Marcus Aurelius". National Post.
  24. Carpenter, Sue (18 April 2000). "Guru for our times". The Times.
  25. Goodchild, Sophie (2 September 2009). "Give Your Mind a Rest (brief review)". Evening Standard.


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