More on "Good Omens" the Movie and Coraline

In a recent e-mail exchange I had with Neil Gaiman he confirmed that Terry Gilliam is the director for the adapation of Good Omens to the screen. On a side note, Gaiman has been working on Coraline and will be doing a signing of the book in the Barnes and Noble in Union Square, NYC on Thursday the 11th. That's today. Update: 07/11 13:15 GMT by CT : I just wanted to say 'Curse Your Terry Gilliam'! Ever since I read Good Omens, I wished I was a film director just so I could direct that book. I guess Terry will do a good job too ;)

Comments

This sounds good, but

[alnapp]

don't forget Terry is a writer

Re:This sounds good, but

[Angry Toad]

Excuse me? Terry is primarily a director, responsible for cinematic masterpieces like Brazil, Time Bandits, Twelve Monkeys, and the (underrated, IMHO) Adventures of Baron Munchausen. Perhaps you're thinking of Terry Pratchett, who co-wrote the book with Gaiman?

Re:This sounds good, but

[dlasley]

terry also did some bits of the python movies, and a movie that i would rank above brazil - the fisher king (robin williams, jeff bridges, mercedes ruehl). his complete list is actually pretty impressive for a "writer". this has the potential to be a good flick.

Re:This sounds good, but

[alnapp]

My BAd
I just was "Terry" and got my Pratchetts and My Gilliams mixed up

Re:This sounds good, but

[Anonymous Coward]

How could you leave out "Monty Python & the Quest for the Holy Grail"?. What kind of nerd are you?

A typical slashdot day by poopbot

[Anonymous Coward]

Credits: anonymous

"Mmmm... this feels good..." I sighed.
"Shhh!" hissed Hemos. "We don't want Mark to come in here!"

True. Having Hemos's 16 year-old brother walk in on us at that moment would not be good. I didn't think he'd be too cool with finding his 12 year-old brother lying naked with me, holding my 11 year-old dick in his hands. But, in all fairness, my hands were eagerly playing with Hemos's dick and balls at that moment, too.

Hemos's mom and dad had gone to the drive-in, leaving his big brother in charge. In our favor, leaving Mark in charge pretty much guaranteed that we weren't to bother him, and in turn, he'd leave us alone unless we were making too much noise or breaking something. Well, we were being careful to keep quiet because we very much wanted to be left alone.

We were in Hemos's twin bed, snuggled under the covers with our underwear pushed down to the foot of the bed. The only illumination in the room came from the faint sliver of light that crept in under his bedroom door. Even in the shadows I could make out the shape of my friend; about my height, but heavier. (Hell, I was such a skinny runt that everyone was heavier than me.) Hemos had a crew-cut of white-blonde hair, and was only starting to sprout some pubic hair. But, you had to feel for it because what little pubic hair he possessed was as blonde as the short hair on his hea and could not yet be seen by even a minimal distance.

And, I was happily feeling for it, running my hands all over Hemos's slightly larger erection and fondling his larger testicles while he courteously stroked my dick. I could tell that he didn't possess the same enthusiasm for cockplay as I did, unless you count his appreciation for the attention devoted to his member. And I knew that my willingness to satisfy his sexual urges was one of the few reasons he even had me sleep over at his place. But, I didn't let that stop me from finding pleasure in the handling of his meat.

I'd recently had an "introduction", of sorts, to seeing what someone could do with a man's dick with their mouth. While spending the night with my Uncle Jerry a couple weeks before, while I watched in secret, I was treated to a visual display of the intensity and unabashed pleasure that my uncle had obviously enjoyed having another man suck on his cock. From that moment on, I had a yearning that I needed to satisfy. With who was my only question.

I guess it was time to find out.

"I... heard that sucking on it feels even better than playing with it." I ventured.

In the darkness, I could feel a slight jerk of revulsion in Hemos's body.

"Put a dick in your mouth?" he croaked.

"Well, " I countered, my heart pounding with anxiety, "I think adults do it all the time."

"Well, I'm not gonna do it!" Hemos hissed. "That's homo stuff!"

"Yeah." I sighed disappointedly, while still playing with Hemos's dick. "I guess it is."

As I stroked his shaft in a steadier, milking rhythm, I could sense Hemos's breaths getting quicker. His manipulations of my dick began to falter as I could feel his body tense beside me. His hips rocked slightly in time with my pumping of his cock, and I cradled his balls tenderly in my other hand. When any attentions to my own dick has completely ebbed, I knew what was about to happen, so I picked up the pace just a bit more while lending a touch more pressure in my grip. Finally, Hemos's breath caught in his throat, and he turned his face fully into his pillow to stifle the moans that broke free as his cock pulsed and throbbed in a dry orgasm within my hands. I continued to massage him and didn't release him from my grasp until his member had gone fully soft.

"Man," sighed Hemos dreamily after finally catching his breath. "You are so good at that, CmdrTaco."

At least I had something to be proud of, I guess, as my friend gently withdrew himself from me and rolled onto his back.

Even though I was only eleven, the irony of Hemos's words and actions were not lost on me. My sucking on him would have been a "homo" thing, but beating him off was okay. Go figure. Within the few moments I had spent mulling over the irony of the thoughts, Hemos had drifted off to sleep. I slipped out from under the covers and down to the cool floor so I could masturbate without shaking the bed. As I toyed with my own dick, I imagined Hemos's cock in my mouth, wondering if the chance would ever really come. Finally, my own climax washed over me, and I got back into the bed.

I don't sleep real well to begin with, and even worse when I'm not in my own bed. And now, with the thoughts of a dick so close to me, as well as the vivid memories of secretly seeing man-to-man cocksucking pleasure floating through my prepubescent, sex-filled brain, I was not about to fall asleep anytime soon. Lying awake until around 11:30, I finally decided that I needed to do something to satisfy my hungers, or I'd never be able to let it rest. The trick was in finding the guts to follow through.

I knew that whenever Hemos fell asleep, he pretty much stayed asleep. So, since he was sleeping soundly, lying on his back, I took a deep breath and gingerly ducked my head under the covers and scooted down as much as I could to the foot of the bed. That put my head right at Hemos's hip level. I raised my head and upper body to help create a tent over his crotch. Sniffing around, I found the faint scent of young penis flesh. I inhaled deeply, both in the love of the scent, and in an attempt to slow my pounding heart. I opened my mouth wide over the area where I sensed Hemos's dick to be, and lowered my mouth squarely over his soft cock and balls until I could feel his sparse pubic hairs tickling my cheek. I finally had a dick in my mouth! I just wasn't sure what I'd do if Hemos woke to find his "homo" friend in this situation.

I remained like that for a long moment, partially in fear of trying anything more, and partly to savor the moment. I carefully let my tongue start to explore his tender penile flesh, enjoying the texture. Then came the excitement that welled within me as his cock began to respond to my attentions and harden in my warm and wet mouth! Butterflies seemed to explode in my stomach and drown out my heartbeat as I felt his dick get to its full size in my mouth. Concentrating in that dark environment, I found myself beginning to identify the shape of his member by taste. The shaft actually seemed to taste different than the head, and the thin skin of his scrotum seemed to harbor another distinct flavor.

I started to softly suck on Hemos's dick, becoming fascinated at how it just seemed to, well, 'fit' in my mouth... how the head lent itself to the back of my tongue, and how the shaft rested between my tongue and the roof of my mouth. My excitement was so great that my own recently satisfied dick was responding again, inviting me to play. I was sucking a cock, and I was in heaven!

However, within seconds, Hemos seemed to get restless. In fear, I quickly pulled my mouth away from Hemos's candy stick and held still. The covers rustled, and pulled back.

"Whatcha doin'?" mumbled Hemos.

"I... uh... was trying to find my shorts down here," I lied, starting to fumble near our feet. Well, partial lie, because it was a good idea to do so, anyway, and now was as good a time as any.

"Oh, yeah," said Hemos. "Get mine, too, willya?"

"S-sure" I stammered, relieved.

I located the two items of clothing and scooted back up towards the head of the bed. Thankfully, our underwear were pretty easy to distinguish since Hemos wore boxers, and I wore briefs. We both fumbled to put them on in the dark, and then settled back into the bed. I lay stiffly on my back, still harboring some fear that my friend discovered more than he let on, but Hemos simply rolled onto his side, facing away from me, and promptly went back to sleep.

And, here I was again, so close to my fantasies, yet still so far.

And very much awake.

After hearing the clock in the hallway chime midnight, I finally got up to go to the bathroom. Figuring it was late enough not to be an issue, and since even if Hemos's parents were home that they would be in their own bedroom downstairs, I didn't bother to slip on my pants for the short trip down the hall. I walked softly to the bedroom door, and then stepped out into the hallway, illuminated dimly by a bare-bulb night light. I walked past big brother Mark's door to the bathroom at the end of the hall and turned on the light as I shut the door.

Peeing into the toilet, I looked up at my reflection in the large mirror and smiled slyly to myself. I actually sucked on a dick, even if for only a moment! At that moment I was Rob Maldo, secret agent double-O-seven, who could sneak in and suck a dick, and sneak away without being caught!

I flushed the toilet and switched out the light as I headed back down the hall. Slipping past Mark's door once again, the door flew open, and a hand covered my mouth while a muscular arm snapped around my waist and drew me into the room. Squirming in the arms of Hemos's athletic older brother was a waste of effort, and he only squeezed harder until I settled down.

"You'll keep quiet if you know what's good for you,' growled Mark into my ear. "You gonna be quiet?"

I nodded. Mark let go of my mouth and reached over to close his bedroom door, the other hand and arm still holding me firmly with my feet off the ground. I heard something click, and recalled, and not without a certain amount of childish fear, that Mark had a lock on his door.

The room had a yellowish glow from the large lava lamp next to Mark's bed. He took me over to the bed and tossed me face down onto it, kneeling next to me. I thought briefly about trying to get up and run, but to where?

When I felt Mark's hands on me again, I was determined to fight him off, but I was no match for him as he flipped me onto my back and straddled me, sitting squarely on my upper chest, his knees pinning my shoulders and my arms locked between his legs. I gazed up at his lean, muscled torso, his stern blue eyes under a tussled mane of reddish-blonde hair. I could feel the soft fabric of his boxers against my chin.

"Can't get up, can ya?" he said, grinning down at me, all snide and victorious.

I struggled a bit, more out of obligation, but knew it was no use. Mark was just too big for me.

"Whatsamatter?" huffed Mark. "You too weak to fight? Or, maybe you just like laying there, sniffing dicks?"

I started squirming a bit harder, but Mark's legs only clamped tighter. At least he had scooted down a bit, and was no longer suffocating me with his weight on my chest.

"Yeah! Maybe you're a homo-boy who just likes sniffing dicks. Maybe you wanna sniff my big dick?"

I didn't care for where this was going, and I wasn't too comfortable with the tone of Mark's voice. But, I was also not being given much of a choice in the matter. Especially when Mark reached into the fly of his boxers and pulled out his cock.

"Here you are, homo-boy... a nice, fresh big-man dick!" grinned Mark fiendishly. "Ain't it a beaut?"

He held it out for me, then leaned forward and started to rub his cock on my face, tracing my cheeks and nose with the bulbous head. His testicles soon followed his dick through the opening, until they were dangling on my chin, the coarse pubes tickling my lips. Their faint musky scent began to fill my nostrils.

"CmdrTaco's just a little dick-faced homo-boy, ain't he?" sneered Mark, sliding his cock across my face. "I saw you in there, your head under the covers. What were you doing? Giving my little brother a blow job?"

I didn't answer. I was at once shocked at the thought of having been discovered, and confused by Mark's remark. I then guessed that he meant sucking a dick was called a 'blow job'. But... you're not blowing, you're sucking, and-

"You were, weren't you, you little homo!"

It was obvious what had happened; that Mark had looked in on us to find my head under the blankets. I thought I had sensed a miniscule change in the light, but assumed that to be part of my excitement. That must have been what woke Hemos up so suddenly.

"So, maybe you aren't just dick-faced, " he said, rubbing his cock on my face again. "Maybe you're a dick sucker!" He leaned forward, mashing his hairy ball sack into my nose, then pulling back to trace my features again with his member. But, even as Mark taunted me, treating his cock as a threatening weapon, there was something else happening.

He was getting a boner.

And as I closed my eyes, I could feel his cock thickening against my face. I could sense the heat of his hardening dick directly on my flesh. And, I found I was enjoying the sensations of this older cock against my face. There would soon be no way of hiding the fact that I was getting excited, too.

"So, dick-sucker-CmdrTaco... you're gonna suck my dick, now."

My eyes sprung open to see Mark's fully erect cock pointing at my face. While it wasn't huge (I had already seen 'huge' with my Uncle Jerry), it was still big enough to scare me.

And excite me to no end.

"Open wide, homo-boy."

Without another moment of hesitation, or taking my eyes off of Mark's sleek tool, I opened my mouth as wide as I could and watched as he leaned down and slid that beautiful cock into my waiting mouth. I then settled my tongue against the bottom half of his shaft while I could feel the upper half press against the roof of my mouth. Its texture was soft, yet hard; smooth, yet distinct.

"There," he sighed. "Now, you have a real dick to suck on. Now, get started, suck-boy!"

It was so much bigger than Hemos's young dick, I wasn't sure if I could get enough suction worked up to suck on it. It was then that I found out what sucking a cock is really all about: friction.

Mark held the base of his dick to guide himself and started to pump into my mouth, sliding his dick in and out of my salivating lips. He would slip in precariously between my teeth until he was near to choke me, then pull back out until the base of the bulbous head was just close to popping free from my lips, held in place by the suction of my mouth. Then he... we... would do it all over again... over and over... and gloriously over again.

"Oh, you are good, CmdrTaco," he moaned softly. "You suck cock real good."

I don't know about that; it seemed he was doing all the real work. But, I wanted it to be good. I wanted to have this dick in my mouth. And I wanted it again and again. I was definitely enjoying the oral sensations as his near-adult dick worked back and forth in my hungry mouth, and I wanted so much to please him so he would want my mouth again.

Mark placed his other hand on the top of my head to steady me as his thrusts became a little more erratic. His breath quickened, and I could sense that he was trying hard not to ram himself all the way down my throat and choke me. He was making little grunts with each thrust, and I could feel his dick turn to stone in my mouth when, in a mix of fear and excitement, I suddenly recalled what would happen next.

"Oh, baby... oh, fuck..."

Mark's movements got all quick and jerky. I was almost afraid to breathe.

"OHHHH!!!" he moaned, pulling out of my mouth and letting loose with a burst of white goo that seemed to splatter all over as he pumped his dick with his fist. My head still held firmly in his other hand, the warm liquid flew partly into my still open mouth, and all over my nose and eyebrows. I swallowed briefly, not sure whether to gag or hope for more, tasting fully the salty and musky liquid, then opened my mouth once more as Mark stuck his creaming cock back in and worked the thick fluid throughout my young mouth.

I sucked until Mark went soft and withdrew his spent dick. He smiled down at me, obviously proud of what he had done. He finally got off of me (good thing since I thought my arms were going to fall off) and stood there for a moment, an interesting picture with his hands on his hips, and his drained cock and balls hanging out of the fly of his plaid boxers. I just lay there with his juices clinging to my skin, wanting to do it all over again.

Mark bent down and picked up a t-shirt, and proceeded to wipe the remainder of his goo off my face. Finished with that, he tossed the shirt into a hamper and walked over to his bedroom door to unlock it as he tucked his manhood back into his underwear.

"You better get back into Hemos's bed before mom and dad find you here," he said softly.

I reluctantly got off Mark's bed and walked to the door. As I was about to exit, he reached out to stop me briefly.

"You liked that, didn't you, homo-boy?"

I nodded, not sure where he was going with this inquiry.

"Your first taste of cum?"

I shrugged, then nodded again.

"If you're good, maybe I'll let you suck my dick again some time, CmdrTaco. Now, get your ass out of here before I kick it."

I stepped out of the room and felt the door close harshly behind me. I could still taste traces of Mark's cum in my mouth, could still sense the friction of his cock on my tongue. I smiled in remembrance.

I was hooked.

- poopbot: lovely snot! wonderful snot!

The good omen is slashdot?

[ObviousGuy]

That's not a good omen...

Re:The good omen is slashdot?

[Fucky the troll]

It's an attempt to increase their number of hits. Unsuspecting geekfools will click it, and it'll load slashdot so they'll click it again. The slashdot eds can then say to advertisers "We had x hits. Buy advertising space from us!" because they're money-grabbing fuckwits. Simple. :-)

Re:The good omen is slashdot?

[Anonymous Coward]

doesn't work that way.. they are not "unique hits..." Hits from the same IP don't matter...

Re:The good omen is slashdot?

[Fucky the troll]

I don't think the eds will say "but they weren't unique hits" though. If the advertisers ask about it, the reply will be "yeah, okay they weren't unique, but it's still getting an advert out. The user saw your advert and that's all that counts."

Re:The good omen is slashdot?

[red5]

Something tells me that book has a lotof spelling and grammar errors.

New news?

[koshi]

Is this new news its been on imbd.com for a while now.
I also heard that the two of them were thinking of working on Philip K Dick's "A Scanner Darkly" but someone else got the rights first.

Surely,,,

[Anonymous Coward]

Surely this is more important than the death of the creator of Gnutella.

Good Omens link

[MartinB]

Perhaps you meant here, or perhaps here.

Re:Good Omens link

[Fucky the troll]

Perhaps you meant "I'm a stinking karma whore".

Re:Good Omens link

[MartinB]

or indeed perhaps here, which will show that Gilliam screenwriting and directing Good Omens is old news indeed.

Re:Good Omens link

[cyborg_monkey]

I agree with this post. Please apply the proper up-mods immediatly.

HHG

[zebs]

Hmm, according to amazon Good Omens is a direct desendant of Hitchhikers guide... now when is that movie ever gonna get finished?!

Either way its good to see a Terry Pratchett book being made into a film, hopefully it'll get some Discworld books made into films too.
I imagine that'd be pretty cool if you combined it with LoTR style effects and cinematography.

Re:HHG

[MartinB]

Clearly whoever wrote that hasn't read one or either of those books.

ISTR PTerry saying that Mort had been optioned, and certainly Soul Music and Wyrd Sisters have already been turned into (reasonably good) animated films.

Re:HHG

[zebs]

Clearly whoever wrote that hasn't read one or either of those books.

Um, not read Good Omens yet but have read HHG.

I wasn't aware that Soul Music and Wyrd Sisters had been made into films. I was kind of hoping for a live action film however!

Ah I've found a quote I was looking for:

"Mort isn't fashionable UK movie material--there's no part in it for Hugh or Emma, it's not set in Sheffield, and no-one shoves drugs up their bum...." (Terry Pratchett)

:-)

Re:HHG

[BabyDave]

Interesting - his usual story is that Mort would have been made years ago, but some Hollywood exec person said that

"the American public aren't ready for Death as a sympathetic character."

[This was said about 18 months before "Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey" was released. Now, who was the best character in that ...?]

Re:HHG

[Anonymous Coward]

"Mort isn't fashionable UK movie material--there's no part in it for Hugh or Emma"

Nonsense. Hugh would play Death and Emma would play Albert.

Re:HHG

[Triv]

Well...I've read both and there is a connection to me - both books employ a certain style of Humor: irreverant, tangential and, well blatantly british. I think what the above poster is referring to is a certain edition of "Good Omens" that has "A Direct Descendant of the Hitchhiker's Guide!" plastered on the cover as a marketing ploy. I believe there is a profound connection of some kind, but the abovementioned tagline kinda explodes this for the sake of sales. "Like the Guide? Try this!"

Triv

Re:HHG

[hether]

Pratchett's Bromelaid Trilogy about the gnomes is being made into a movie by Dreamworks!!

From scifi.com

Bromeliad Still Blossoms

DreamWorks honcho Jeffrey Katzenberg told SCI FI Wire that work progresses on the much-anticipated animated- film adaptation of Terry Pratchett's Bromeliad Trilogy of novels, despite reports that the project had been put on the back burner. Joe Stillman (Shrek) is writing the script for the film, which is slated for release in 2005 or later, Katzenberg said in an interview while promoting DreamWorks' upcoming animated movie Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron.

"Andrew Adamson, who directed Shrek 1 and is supervising Shrek 2, that's his next project," Katzenberg said. The Bromeliad Trilogy tells the story of a group of four-inch-tall gnomes, who venture into the real world, which thinks they no longer exist. The first book, Trucks, deals with the gnomes as they leave their department-store home when it is threatened with demolition.

Katzenberg added that DreamWorks has a heavy slate of animation projects destined for release in 2004. "We have Shrek 2 in May, Sharkslayer in July and Wallace & Gromit at Thanksgiving." When asked about Shrek 2, Katzenberg declined to reveal anything about the plot, adding simply, "Really funny. Really, really, really funny."

Terry Gilliam

[Anonymous Coward]

made the best Sci-Fi movie of all times IMO : Brazil

Re:Terry Gilliam

[pbrice68]

Much to most everyone's surprise, it seems, is that Brazil is not a sci-fi movie, at all. It doesn't even take place in the future.

It is/was a satire of our *current* bureacratic times. That's why there were so many "old" things.

It is strange that everyone thinks of Brazil as sci-fi when there is nothing sci-fi about it. It's just a *very* cheeky fantasy/satire.

Re:Terry Gilliam

[Anonymous Coward]

It's strange that everyone thinks sci-fi has to take place in the future. Brazil is definitely sci-fi.

Re:Terry Gilliam

[spindizzy]

If Brazil is sci-fi so is Franz Kafkas "The Castle".

Gilliam is an excellent choice for director but a hard sell to the ent ind. When sequels cost so little (relatively) in money and ideas it will be a brave executive who invests in this project.

Re:Terry Gilliam

[Max von H.]

Let's not forget Brazil is also, and mostly, an adaptation of Orwell's "1984". One of the best movies I've ever seen, and one of my all-time favourite books.

If Gilliam gets his budget, I have confidence he'll do a great job with Pratchett's Good Omens. It's a perfect mix.

Cheers,
max

Re:Terry Gilliam

[Anonymous Coward]

"Sci-fi" is such a meaningless label anyway. The unifying element of all these stories is that they are alternativistic, i.e. portray scientific/economic/political/social situations which do not actually exist, or may be considered literally impossible or unthinkable. Brazil is mostly alternativistic in political and social terms; only secondarily in technological terms. Other so-called "sci-fi" stories may couch their alternativism more in science, e.g. ones that involve time travel, psychic phenomena, etc.

More on "Good Widening"

[Klerck]

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.aters.per.line.that.really.sucks.when.that.happen .s.and.you.have.to.put.some.lame.lameness.filter.d .efeater.text.in.there.i.wonder.how.many.people.wi .ll.read.this.whole.comment.I.certainly.hope.it.do .esnt.annoy.too.many.people.This.is.just.the.begin .ning.because.PAGE.WIDENING.IS.BACKabcdefghijklmno .pI.like.wide.pages.I.wish.all.pages.could.be.as.w .ide.as.this.dont.you.wide.pages.are.much.cooler.t .han.those.narrow.pages.you.are.used.to.reading.be .cause.you.dont.have.to.worry.about.the.lameness.f .ilter.telling.you.that.you.don't.have.enough.char .aters.per.line.that.really.sucks.when.that.happen .s.and.you.have.to.put.some.lame.lameness.filter.d .efeater.text.in.there.i.wonder.how.many.people.wi .ll.read.this.whole.comment.I.certainly.hope.it.do .esnt.annoy.too.many.people.This.is.just.the.begin .ning.because.PAGE.WIDENING.IS.BACKabcdefghijklmno .pI.like.wide.pages.I.wish.all.pages.could.be.as.w .ide.as.this.dont.you.wide.pages.are.much.cooler.t 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The right director confirmed!

[Saint Fnordius]

Choosing Terry Gilliam to do Good Omens is perfect. His style and dark humour complement Pratchett and Gaiman's wierd little epic. Although Terry Gilliam is American, he is one of the few directors I'd trust to do this with the right British touch (not too much, but not too little as well).

Now we can hope for an intelligent comedy that doesn't resort to butt (fart) jokes.

Re:The right director confirmed!

[Angry Toad]

There's a great deal of information on the Good Omens movie at a Terry Gilliam fansite called Dreams. Apparently they're actually playing down the comedic aspects of the book. This seems like kind of a smart idea to me - the book done as a faux-serious metaphysical drama, combined with Gilliam's warped worldmaking talents, could really work. A straight-up adaption of the book's (mostly conceptual, descriptive) jokes might fall flat...

Re:The right director confirmed!

[PhilHibbs]

Apparently they're actually playing down the comedic aspects of the book.

Good! I always thought that the first half (Gaiman) was superior to the second half (Pratchett). Did you notice how the plot came grinding to a halt half way through, and it just meandered from there?

Re:The right director confirmed!

[Anonymous Coward]

>Choosing Terry Gilliam to do Good Omens is perfect

Its an appalling waste of talent. Getting Gilliam to do a Pratchett book is like getting Woody Allen to handle the cameras for `Police, Cameras, Action #3`. `

Re:The right director confirmed!

[adashiel]

That's not how it was written. Pratchett did the majority of the writing for the whole book, primarily because he was the more experienced novelist. Conceptually the whole work is a very cool mix of both of their styles.

Re:The right director confirmed!

[c.derby]

"...Terry Gilliam is American..."

He was born in Minneapolis but is now a British citizen.

http://us.imdb.com/Name?Gilliam,+Terry

Re:The right director confirmed!

[PhilHibbs]

That's the way Pratchett tells it.

Re:The right director confirmed!

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm sure Pratchett wrote every single word of the second half and Gaiman every word of the first and they didn't share ideas for plot development at any stage. They probably did a word-count to make sure the division came exactly half way through the book, too.

Sheesh...computer people...so over-literal.

Re:The right director confirmed!

[squaretorus]

As long as we have guys dressed as women I'll be happy! Its not a warped world without 'em!

Re:The right director confirmed!

[adashiel]

Well, yeah. From the horse's mouth and all that. I've never heard Gaiman say anything to dispute that.

Re:The right director confirmed!

[PhilHibbs]

Sorry, I don't understand. The way I heard the story, Gaiman started writing it, and about half way through, realised that he was getting out of his home turf, and that this was more of a Pratchett sort of book, so he handed the manuscript only. Of course the real story probably isn't as simple as that, but that's the gist. I heard the story from a friend who spoke at length with Gaiman. Pratchett's telling of the story (which I heard first hand) plays up the co-operative side of the process.

I don't know where the literal half way division comment comes from.

Re:The right director confirmed!

[tealover]

Oh yeah? Well, Bob Hope was born in England but became a U.S. citizen.

So take that!

Wait a minute. Bob Hope is wearing diapers right now...

Forget I said anything.

Re:The right director confirmed!

[ConceptJunkie]

Yeah, well 60 plus years from now when I'm barking on 100 years old, I hope I'm still alive to wear diapers.

Recursive Reference (see Recursive Reference)

[Zillatron]

Alright! Shot in the dark time. The way I see it, if you click the words Goodcle.pl?sid=02/07/1 Omens and end up in the same place you started; then recursive references show some good today. So (with apologies to someone if I miss: Are links to your own post also a good omen?

In all seriousness; here is a marginally relevant link for the lazy.

Humor in Good Omens

[dpilot]

I pushed the Good Omens on my son last year, and in conversations realized something...

Much of the humor is rooted in the 70's. He enjoyed the book, and much of the humor is not rooted in the 70's. But he wasn't culturally equipped to enjoy it as much as I did.

OTOH, he did get into Bohemian Rhapsody after that.

Let's here it for the vague blur!

[invid]

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that there will be another movie based on a P.K. Dick novel, but I wasn't suspecting "A Scanner Darkly". It's one of my favorites and I hope they get a director talented enough to translate it to film. Of course, since P.K. Dick is so hot in Hollywood I wouldn't be suprised if some studio bought all the rights to his works and is just holding onto them, without definite plans for films.

Seems that you're wrong about the NYC reading...

[bluemilker]

I can understand why, as B&N is a little obfuscated in their language, but Neil's site seems to imply that while there will be a coraline release in Union Square at 6pm, he himself will be in San Fran at 6:30... which strongly conflicts with a personal appearance in New York...

Old News

[h4mmer5tein]

Dont mean to put a damper on things but this is old news. Good Omens has been in pre-production for 3 years now and Terry Gilliam was always going to direct it. The Hold ups have been with money and financing, not the production team or cast list. Last I saw Terry was waiting to see if the finance would be tied up in time to shoot Good Omens or wether it would get moved down the list a way while he shot Tideland.

Re:Old News

[filth grinder]

You are right, this is old news. In fact, here is an excerpt from a Neil Gaim interview a couple of months ago where he talks about the hold up:

Dan Epstein: Good Omens will never happen right?
Neil Gaiman: Oh, Good Omens may happen. The whole thing about movies is that you never say it might or might not happen until the first day of shooting, and then it's happening. And even then you've got your fingers crossed. There is a great script by him and Tony Grisoni. They got the budget down to $65 million and they raised about 50 million dollars from abroad. All the investors wanted was for an American entity to go in on the final $15 million and guarantee an American distribution deal. There is the problem?they can't find one. There's no American with the balls enough to agree to fund it and have a Terry Gilliam movie. They are scared of him but he's funny, wise and brilliant. Not only that, but he made Twelve Monkeys and The Fisher King which demonstrated that he could easily bring in a movie on time and under budget. Currently the last e-mail that I heard from Gilliam is that Tony Grisoni is doing a rewrite to try and get the budget down to $45 million.

Dan Epstein: I wish I had $15 million to give to Terry Gilliam to make the movie.

Neil Gaiman: You know what? So do I. That's the single most frustrating thing. You want to walk around Hollywood asking everyone where are their balls. So it's not dead until the option is not renewed and the option just came up and it was renewed again. I got the check. You never know what happens with a picture until you're sitting there eating popcorn at the premiere.

The rest of the interview can be seen here

To answer something else, Gilliam is a writer, he wrote Brazil and his other movies (except 12 Monkeys, he co-wrote the script for Fear and Loathing). He was also a writer for Month Python. So, he does know how to adapt novels to film.

Re:Old News

[aug24]

He was officially confirmed in 1997.
Then again in 1999.
Twice in 2000.
Four times in 2001.
And this is the second time this year.

Believe it when the trailer appears and no sooner.

Re:Old News

[Stuart Park]

If you want to see an example of why investors might be afraid of Terry Gilliam, obtain the Criterion Collection 3-DVD edition of "Brazil" (one of his best films) which shows how studios wanted to modify the film to suit a bigger audience and Terry Gilliam faced up to them and refused to budge. A quality film is far more important to Gilliam than large profits.

Re:Old News

[PerlPo8]

I'd read once that sitting on a shelf somewhere is a feature length adaptation of Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy that the studio never released.

It would be very fun to see Good Omens on the big screen, but I guess as Gaiman said, you just don't know until you're sitting in the theatre.

Re:Old News

[Zathrus]

There may very well be a feature length adaptation of HHGTTG sitting on a shelf somewhere. In fact, I bet there's dozens. In script form.

Once shooting begins, it's unlikely to stop. And you're going to have something to put out, even if only on direct-to-video.

A feature length adaptation already shot and sitting on a shelf? Not bloody likely.

Re:Old News

[Patrick13]

There's also an interview with Gilliam dated Sept. 2001 that says (on the second page) that "Terry Gilliam is currently working on an adaptation of 'Good Omens' by Terry Pratchett."

Sep 2001 - July 2002 = 10 months.... old news I say...

Re:Old News

[jat5000]

Maybe he can get the money from Adidas. He directed that wildly successful World Cup video where the top players play 3 on 3 in an abandoned oil tanker. The butchered Elvis song he picked for it is even the "Top of the Pops" FWIW.

You can see it here in RM format
http://stream.guardian.co.uk:7080/ramgen/sys-video /Media/video/2002/04/04/nike.rm

Re:Old News

[daeley]

That was Nike, not Adidas, but I didn't know Terry G. did that! How cool!

You can also see all the ads, including the followup, at www.nikefootball.com (warning: heavy Flash use).

Re:Old News

[UnspeakablyLisa]

Indeed, it is quite old; at a book signing/reading in Hicksville, NY over a year ago (For _American Gods_), I distinctly remember Neil discussing plans for the movie to be directed by Terry GIlliam.

Re:Old News

[Shadarr]

Which is why I say hooray! As long as the film actually gets made, it will probably be good. Whereas if it was someone like James Cameron or Spielberg it would be far more of a crapshoot.

This book

[Anonymous Coward]

is great. It's been a little while since I read it, but it was definitely funny and worth the time. It does remind me of Hitchhiker's Guide now that I think of it. I'd love to see a movie version.

But what about the footnotes?

[reddfoxx]

If you have actually read this book you would know that the footnotes are often the best and funniest parts of a all around good tale about the biblical apocalypse. How will any director mention the different misprint versions of the bible that the angel and sonetimes bookstore owner has collected?

I'm actually very interested to see if this thing pans out. I just hope that the history of the british monetary system actually makes it into the movie

Re:But what about the footnotes?

[Anonymous Coward]

The BBC films of the Hitchhiker had an very nice

idea to include the funny but longish

descriptions by adding short animated sequences

in the form of an animated description.

(Remember the human proving there is no god?)

I think this could perhaps done here, too.

Re:But what about the footnotes?

[Anonymous Coward]

Two words:

Flash
Back

Oh...

Eat Fud

[invid]

Terry Gilliam is one of the most brilliant directors out there (and he is definitely "out there"). I consider Brazil to be one of the best films of all time. Terry is very willing to be dark. In fact, over the past 2 decades it seems that he's been trying to distance himself from his Monty Python past. None of his recent films can be considered comedies. The last film with any substantial comedic element was The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, which was his last pythonesque film.

It will be great to see Terry doing a dark comedy again.

PS, is anyone else out there upset that his plan to do The Watchmen fell through? That would have been a fantastic film!

Re:Eat Fud

[Andy_R]

Well, if Good Omens is a 'big hit' with a Gillam/Gaiman partnership in the credits, I'm sure the Watchmen movie will be a much stronger possibility

Re:Eat Fud

[Anonymous Coward]

PS, is anyone else out there upset that his plan to do The Watchmen fell through? That would have been a fantastic film!

Not me. I love Watchmen, but doing it as anything but a comic book (excuse me, "graphic novel") misses large chunks of the point.

Re:Eat Fud

[mberman]

over the past 2 decades it seems that he's been trying to distance himself from his Monty Python past. None of his recent films can be considered comedies.

Umm, what? Two decades ago would be 1982. In that year, he wrote some of the sketches Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl and the year after, he directed Monty Python's The Meaning of Life. Doesn't sound too distant to me. But, let's give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you meant "18 years" when you said "two decades". In the last 18 years, he's done Brazil, Baron Munchausen, The Fisher King, Twelve Monkeys, and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. You mentioned Munchausen already, but, really, if you didn't think all the rest (with the exception of Fisher King) where comedies, well, then, you didn't understand them. They may not be as outright silly as Python, but they're still comedies, and with Twelve Monkeys, it even approaches Pythonesque silliness in some places. Saying Brazil isn't a comedy is like saying Fight Club isn't a comedy. If you didn't think it was funny, you didn't get it...

Re:Eat Fud

[stoolpigeon]

I would tend to agree.

There are very slim chances it would be a good movie. Very, very good chances that it would suck.

Kind of like what they did to Dune.

.

Re:Eat Fud

[MrSkunk]

The last film with any substantial comedic element was The Adventures of Baron Munchausen

What about Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas? It has a different kind of comedic style than Baron Munchausen and Flying Circus, but none the less it was definitely a comedy.

Re:Eat Fud

[dswensen]

PS, is anyone else out there upset that his plan to do The Watchmen fell through? That would have been a fantastic film!

No, because I feel the great strength of Watchmen is in how perfectly suited it is to its medium. I think Watchmen is a damn near perfect example of what a graphic novel ought to be. And I know, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that most of what I love about Watchmen would not survive the transition to film. Hollywood has never hesitated to take a chainsaw to a good story.

I seriously hope Watchmen never becomes a movie.

Re:Eat Fud

[invid]

Certainly, there were funny parts in all of Terry's films. When I say they weren't comedies, I'm saying that they are not primarily comedies. There are some very funny scenes in Hamlet (particularly after he kills Polonius), but I wouldn't call Hamlet a comedy. Similarly, while Brazil has some funny scenes, and could well be considered one large joke, with the protagonist being the butt of it, I still wouldn't call it a comedy. There are too many other aspects of the film to place it stricly in the comedy category.

When I think of a film being called a comedy I think it's primary purpose is to make you laugh. I think of Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Memento.

Re:Eat Fud

[invid]

I am sad to admit that I have not seen that one.

Re:Eat Fud

[invid]

Most directors couldn't do justice to The Watchmen, but Terry Gilliam might be up to the task.

Re:Seems that you're wrong about the NYC reading..

[EddydaSquige]

According to the large posters in the B&N entrance, Neil will be here in NY. I hope he's not in San Francisco. Or maybe he has access to some form of matter transport that he's not sharing?

Stupid story write-up

[EchoMirage]

This will sound like needless whining, but Hemos, can you please give the audience who isn't "in" on what's going on in your head a little clue as to what the heck you're talking about? It took other posters to correct your links and try to describe what it is you were talking about.

What is this, why should we care, and why is it on Slashdot?

Grr.

Re:Stupid story write-up

[kiz]

There are several important referential threads here:

• Terry Gilliam links to Monty Python
• Terry Pratchet links to the Discworld
• Neil Gaimen links to The Sandman

All three work in the same genre are Douglas Adams.

Having all three in one project could only have been bettered by having Douglas Adams involved as well!

Re:Stupid story write-up

[Anonymous Coward]

Movies to Make in Denver When You're Dead?

Re:Stupid story write-up

[stevenbee]

All three work in the same genre are Douglas Adams

I must say I disagree with you on the point of Sandman being in the same genre as Douglas Adams.
While the Hichhikers' series was openly satirical of the Sci-Fi genre, Sandman has always been planted
firmly in the Fantasy genre; albeit with a postmodern leaning.

Re:Stupid story write-up

[Anonymous Coward]

What i wish is that slashdot would go back to doing the little [?] links to everything2. That way they could just use terms without caring who read it, because everyone could click the little question marks and find out what those things are.

Since they seemed to have abandoned that practice, though, here's a suggestion: when they reference something you don't recognize, look it up on everything2 yourself. It's a good reference. Here are the entries for:
Good Omens
Terry Gilliam
Neil Gaiman
Terry Pratchett

Those links should cover just about anything you could concievably want to know about the backstory of this /. article.

Re:Stupid story write-up

[Anonymous Coward]

Isn't knowledge, even if only in passing, of these things absolutely necessary for anyone who considers themselves to be a geek or nerd?

If you don't know what it is, or why you should care, perhaps you shouldn't be reading /.

Problem is...

[IxnayOnTheIxnay]

...the unread masses will poo-poo it as a Dogma ripoff, and it will unfortunately tank.

Re:Problem is...

[Anonymous Coward]

If I'm not mistaken, Kevin Smith thanks Gaiman and Pratchett in the credits for Dogma. I couldn't help but think how similar Dogma was to Good Omens when I saw the movie.

Re:Problem is...

[Nurgster]

That probably explains the whole bit about the Duck billed platypus at the start of the movie, which is very similar to some comments at the begining of The Last Continent....

Why on Earth

[Rogerborg]

Make an adaptation of this? It's a superb novel, but reduce it to what can be conveyed via a screenplay, and you have something with a simplistic plot, thin characters, flat dialogue, a few sparse pieces of visual humour, and over reliant on FX to fill the holes. I mean, what kind of idiot would pay to see... oh, hang on...

Re:Why on Earth

[Derleth]

So, Citizen Kane is a thin character? And the movie that bears that name is simplistic and relies on FX to fill holes? Truly, you do a disservice to all of the great screenplays that have been written.

Re:Why on Earth

[Rogerborg]

• So, Citizen Kane is a thin character?

Oooh, nice strawman.

The subject under discussion is Good Omens, which, in case you haven't read it, relies very heavily on "tell, don't show" asides to flesh out the characters. It could, I suppose, be done with a voiceover, but simply taking the dialogue and direction from the novel and putting it in a screenplay would leave a very thin story, and if you change it, well, then you're not filming Good Omens, are you?

Re:Why on Earth

[HiThere]

Many books don't make good movies. I'm not analytical enough in that area to say why, but it seems that a Novella is about the right length to turn into a good movie.

OTOH, frequently bad books make good movies. Well, sometimes, anyway. If the book is full of too much padding, the movie can strip it away.

I hope it's a real smash film. What I really hope, though, is that the studio it comes out of isn't covered by the MPAA. I'd like to be able to see it, and I *won't* see any films that they cover. (It's quite hard to cause this to have any effect, however, since I never did watch many films.)

Rock on!

[pvera]

I really hope they do justice to the book. That has to be one of the most original books I have read since 100 Years of Solitude.

Especially the hellhound :-)

and to think...

[night_flyer]

I thought you were refering to a forth part to "The Omen" series...

Brazil

[fishlet]

I hope this isn't too far off topic... but if you want to see Terry Giliams flair for darkness & humor combined... go out and rent 'Brazil'. I think he's the man do to this movie right.

Re:Seems that you're wrong about the NYC reading..

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, Neil's site is a little confusing to read too - the West Coast launch event was at 6:30pm on July 2. (The 11th you're seeing on his site is June 11th - the date of the press release announcing the event).

The East Coast launch event is today (Thursday, July 11) at B&N, Union Square, NYC at 6pm.

Novel and Parrot by Terry Gilliam

[Mandelbrute]

Terry is also a writer (Starship Titanic novelisation), but Python, Brazil etc have shown what he can do. Twelve Monkeys remains the only time travel film since the original "Time Machine" that even attempts to be self-consistant, and does it well. I hope this goes ahead this time, and some film actually gets shot. Terry Gilliam can certainly do this type of story well.

Baron Munchausen could have been better (it ran out of money during filming and the finished result is somewhat less than planned) but I really liked it - and it turned out much better than some stuff that did get finished like "Waterworld".

Re:Novel and Parrot by Terry Gilliam

[RebelTycoon]

Twelve Monkeys remains the only time travel film since the original "Time Machine" that even attempts to be self-consistant, and does it well.

Actually no it doesn't. If Bruce Willis is part of the problem in the future (which is intervention causes because he screwed up), then how the hell did he get there in the first place.

That movie so sucked and Brad Pitt's performance left me wanting to beat him to a pulp.

Re:Novel and Parrot by Terry Gilliam

[Mandelbrute]

Brad Pitt's performance left me wanting to beat him to a pulp.

And this is a bad thing?

I think he was pretty well cast for the obnoxious character he was playing. It was probably very similar to the way he played characters in a lot of other movies, but it worked. I'm certainly not a Brad Pit fan - Seven Years in Tibet (my god - Tibetans look exactly like Mexicans!) would probably have been better with someone else in it, but the writing was also crap. The action and exciting bits were removed for the Hollywood version of a true story, instead of the usual practice of adding more in.

If Bruce Willis is part of the problem in the future ... then how the hell did he get there in the first place.

By not dying as a kid. The loop gets closed, there's no strange alternate timelines. The whole point of a time travel story is to have those from one time affect another. Having a time travel story where no-one can effect anything (the unknowns, not the known facts that couldn't be changed in the movie) would be expressing that free will does not exist - which leads to the idea that we are not responsible for our own actions. Such a thing would most likely be as boring as the worst fantasy novels that have seen print (which express that premise).

Re:Novel and Parrot by Terry Gilliam

[macaddict]

Terry is also a writer (Starship Titanic novelisation),

That's the other Terry, Terry Jones. He also did the voice of the Parrot.

Sara

Re:Novel and Parrot by Terry Gilliam

[cjpez]

The whole point of a time travel story is to have those from one time affect another. Having a time travel story where no-one can effect anything ... would be expressing that free will does not exist - which leads to the idea that we are not responsible for our own actions. Such a thing would most likely be as boring as the worst fantasy novels that have seen print...

Except that in 12 Monkeys, Bruce Willis couldn't do anything to affect the situation. He spent a big chunk of the movie trying to break out of his role and save the world, and keep all the bad things from happening, but in the end, he found out that he was just acting out exactly what had happened. The biological agents were still spread, humanity suffers, and he still has to watch himself get shot as a kid. Which is why the movie was so damn depressing. (Which is why I liked it, actually.)

The only hope of changing things and actually making a difference comes at the very, very end, when the biological agent guy is sitting on the plane talking to the woman who's one of the "authority figure" people Bruce Willis had to deal with in the "future," although personally I think that it was a younger version of her, unaware of the dangers of the man sitting next to her, rather than her come back from the future to try and set things right.

That was my take, anyway.

Re:Novel and Parrot by Terry Gilliam

[undercanopy]

think that it was a younger version of her, unaware of the dangers of the man sitting next to her, rather than her come back from the future to try and set things right
No, they weren't trying to set things right. They knew that they couldn't alter the course of events because they happened. They wanted to get their hands on a sample of the pure virus/bacteria/whatever and be able to create a cure. They didn't want him to try and change things because they knew he couldn't. That's what was going to happen because it already had.

Re:Novel and Parrot by Terry Gilliam

[Zone5]

Close, but the bioagents did not in the end necessarily get spread. Did you not notice that the psycho activist guy had the evil future-scientist-woman as his seatmate once he got on the plane?

Bruce had managed to send enough information forward that they could send an assassin after the guy. Now, whether you choose to believe they succeed or not is up to you - personally I'm just happy that Bruce died in the end. As you say, it's a wonderfully bleak ending, and part of what makes me love that movie to this day. The fact that even after all he'd done for them, the scientists were still perfectly happy to sacrifice Bruce needlessly says a lot.

Re:Novel and Parrot by Terry Gilliam

[NulDevice]

That's the other Terry that wrote Starship Titanic - Terry Jones.

Re:Novel and Parrot by Terry Gilliam

[cjpez]

Well, he *did* open up at least one of the vials . . . So there's one city down at least. But you're right; I *do* love movies that have the guts to kill off their main characters. (I can see it now: "12 Monkeys II: The Vengeance") . . .

Good Omens

[StrutterX]

To get a lot of the jokes in Good Omens it helps if you have read any of Richmal Compton's Just William books.

Read them to your kids; but do read a little bit. Your appreciation of the satire in Good Omens will increase.

StrutterX

but?

[MrFredBloggs]

"They are scared of him ***but*** he's funny, wise and brilliant."

Not sure thats the best word in that context!

come on, CT

[tps12]

Please use the comment system like everyone else. That is not an "update," it is a topical comment.

It's no wonder nobody respects the editors when they consider themselves too good for the discussion system used by the unwashed masses.

What are you afraid of, being modded down? Being flamed? If you don't have the peas for it, post it AC.

MY Terry Gilliam?

[nagora]

Thanks very much!

TWW

Old News.

[Anonymous Coward]

This movie has been in production for a while; old news. A friend of mine from work told me about Good Omes while I was reading HHGTTG. It's all money at this point. I haven't read the book, so I'm not sure how much I think they should spend on this movie. Personally, I don't think any movie should cost more than $10 million dollars to make; unless it has a lot of special effects.

Re:Old News.

[myawn]

... or has actors in it.

Right on the cover

[Tenebrious1]

Hmm, according to amazon [amazon.com] Good Omens [amazon.com] is a direct desendant of Hitchhikers guide...

IIRC, the paperback book says something to that effect right on the front cover. Since I'm at work I can't check it out, but I remember reading it on the book and then thinking "what does this have to do with HHG?"

Re:Right on the cover

[Pravada]

IIRC, the quote is "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Apocalypse."

Why Slashdotters Should Care About "Good Omens"

[AAAWalrus]

Due to a lack of any posts on this article, and a few ignorant posts that are here, it would seem that Slashdotters don't really know or care about "Good Omens" or what it is. Here's a post to clue you all in. (If you've actually read the book, stop reading. No really! Go read something about Donald Knuth or some rant about Microsoft. Shoo!)

Good Omens is a book co-written by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett in (I believe) the early 90's. Neil Gaiman is most famous for writing the Sandman comics (graphic novellas?). Terry Pratchett is most famous for writing the many books in the Discworld series. Basically, Gaiman writes dark and brooding stories, Pratchett writes intensely clever and funny stories. "Good Omens" is the brilliant collaboration of these two minds, producing a hilarious account of Armageddon. The book has been most compared to "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", and while they do share many common qualities, "Good Omens" is more readable and enjoyable to me.

Why should you care? Because the book is THAT good, and Terry Gilliam is THAT good of a director, and the combination of the two could produce a movie that is THAT good. What's the last movie that came out in the theaters that is a genuine cult classic and will be for years to come? It's been a while. Several years. It's hard to come up with one, isn't it? Well, a movie based on "Good Omens" directed by Terry Gilliam has a lot of potential to be just that: a genuine quotable flick that we can watch dozens of times over and enjoy it each and every time.

Again, what I'm saying is important here is that the *potential* is there for a really great movie that we could all love and enjoy, and we should all be pushing for it's release. Wouldn't it be much cooler if we built up hype about this potentially great movie rather than lamenting about how much George Lucas sucks and how he flushed Star Wars down the toilet?

Re:Why Slashdotters Should Care About "Good Omens"

[Creepy]

I haven't read much Gaiman, but the book I did read, American Gods, was actually quite funny and certainly not weighty (broody) reading. Definitely my favorite book for this year (albeit somewhat disturbing). Prior to that, all I've read by him is Sandman, where I'd agree with you, his works are dark and brooding.

As far as your cult classic question, The Fast and the Furious was a cult movie in theaters (low budget, bad reviews, and suddenly popular for no apparent reason) and may be one on video. Not my cup of tea, but it certainly had that cult sort of appeal. There really haven't been that many campy cult movies as of late, but that may be because audience expectations are too high. The few that have been made were pretty bad. The best one I remember is Saving Silverman, and that wasn't good.

Terry & the Holy Grail?

[dbc001]

I was just looking at Terry Gilliam's filmography on IMDB and noticed that there are two Holy Grail movies. Can anyone explain the difference between "Monty Python & the Quest for the Holy Grail (1996) (VG)" and "Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)". Also, has anyone read any of the books on Gilliam? Are they any good?

-dbc

Re:Terry & the Holy Grail?

[Darth]

the (VG) after the first one means it is a video game. The 1975 one is the movie.

Re:Terry & the Holy Grail?

[the_psilo]

(VG) at the end of an IMDB entry means it is a Video Game. I don't quite get why the "International Movie Database" lists video games as well, but I guess a number of actors have had voice roles in them, and there does seem to be some bleedover from Hollywood into games, as you noted.

aloha
psilo

Re:Terry & the Holy Grail?

[NachtVorst]

IMDB has a lot of movie-related stuff, and this game surely belongs there, as it was actually created by the python team. It's almost as hilarious as the movie, even the manual and credits are hilarious (like on the old videotapes). The game has different subgames based on the movie, like 'bring-out-yer-dead-tetris'...

I've seen it in various bargain-bins, if you see it, it's well worth picking up.

btw, I'm really glad my favourite director gets to direct one of my favourite book. It will be interesting to see who will be the actors, Gilliam has had some great all-star casts before (Brazil, 12 Monkeys, Fear and Loathing...)

NachtVorst

Re:Novel and Parrot by Terry Jones

[Mandelbrute]

Right you are - wrong Python. I have no excuse, the book is sitting on a shelf behind me!

Re:Terry & the Holy Grail? (VG == "Video Game"

[Anonymous Coward]

Can anyone explain the difference between "Monty Python & the Quest for the Holy Grail (1996) (VG)" [imdb.com] and "Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)" [imdb.com].

IMDB deals not only in movies, they also dabble in video games, television, etc. When they add "VG" to the end of the title, it means that the title is a video game. "Why are there directors?", you ask? I don't know. It seems like you're not the only one who's confused. Here's a title that's much less ambiguous: STEF: Voyager.

Re:Stupid comment filters

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh, crud. I just noticed that slashdot edited out the spaces in those links, meaning none of them work. Let's try that again with %20s this time.

Good Omens
Terry Gilliam
Neil Gaiman
Terry Pratchett

THOSE links will work.. I'm really sorry about that. Figures, the one time i forget to hit "preview", this happens.. blah.

If an echo filter adds echo, then what does a lameness filter do?

-- super ugly ultraman

for the most current information on Neil Gaiman...

[Bogatyr]

I suggest consulting Gaiman's weblog which he tends to update at least daily. That way you get his writing without having to wait for the next book, comments, opinions, essays, little short stori es he throws in just because, cool things he's found, etc. a

A Scanner Darkly - Hollywood Style

[JonnyCalcutta]

'A Scanner Darkly - starring Jean Claude Van Dam as a bare knuckle fighter on a a quest to clear his name after being falsely accussed of murder. From the producers of AWOL and Universal Soldier 3. Based* on a book by Philip K Dick.'

*not

Coraline

[KFury]

I had the good fortune to go to Gaiman's reading of Coraline last week in Berkeley (the day the book was released, he did a full 3-hour reading of the text to a packed cathedral of 800 people).

Before he began, he confirmed that Henry Selick (Nightmare Before Christmas, James and the Giant Peach, Monkeybone), who was in attendance, would be directing the movie version of Coraline, and that Michelle Pfeiffer was signed on to play the Mother/Other Mother roles.

It's a great story, and is sort of a shift for Gaiman, targeting a broader aged audience, while remaining dark but more polished (no footnotes, and a more constant narrative tone). The reading was fabulous, and I could totally visualize the movie version.

A friend of mine did a more thorough write-up of the reading for those interseted.

Agnes Nutter, Witch.

[Anonymous Coward]

The full title of this book is Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch

There are quite a few jokes related to occultism or magic(k), like the literal demonization of (Aleister) Crowley.

Re:Agnes Nutter, Witch.

[whimdot]

If they want a short title for the film they could try: "Apocalypse? Now?"

Re:Agnes Nutter, Witch.

[Erik_Kahl]

That is really friggin' funny. I wish a had some mod points today. It fits so well with the humor of the book. I guess no one around here today has read it.
hehehe. I love it.

Why the movie will be mediocre

[Anonymous Coward]

I was going to entitle this "why the movie will suck," but I didn't want it to get automatically tagged as Flamebait.

"Good Omens" was a brilliant book, and Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett were the right people to write it. The problem is that the book has a religious theme, and while Gaiman and Pratchett pulled it off brilliantly, Hollywood just can't do religion. "The Last Temptation of Christ" was the last gasp of good, thoughtful religious movies (and I would put "The Omen" among these,too). Since then, we've had to put up with crap like "Stigmata" and "A Walk to Remember."

The combination of subtlety and humor seen in "Good Omens" when dealing with the interactions between Aziraphale and Crowley, Crowley's communications with hell, Aziraphale's interactions with heaven, and Aziraphale's comments on the author of Revelations, etc. etc. What we're inevitably going to end up with is a dumbed down, simpflified version of the whole thing that's going to insult our collective intelligence.

On the optimistic side, Terry Gilliam has a good track record, so I could give him the benefit of the doubt.

Re:Why the movie will be mediocre

[Anonymous Coward]

Clearly, you missed The Apostle.

Re:Why the movie will be mediocre

[oooga]

Bullshit. Good omens isn't any more religious than "dogma." And Terry Gilliam is NOT hollywood. Terry Gilliam is Brazil. Terry Gilliam is Monty Python. Curse you for doubting TERRY GILLIAM!!!!! Sorry, got carried away on the exclamation points. (As Terry Pratchett himself has been known to say, multiple exclamation points are the sign of a deranged mind)

Re:Seems that you're wrong about the NYC reading..

[Anonymous Coward]

There's a Union Square in SF, too. Also, if a plane could make it cross country in 3 hours (not sure), then it could happen since 6:30 Pacific is 9:00 Eastern.

Hrmm

[Anonymous Coward]

I just don't see how some of the subtle humour from the books will translate all that well to the silver...er I guess now the CCPL (Cypher Crypled Polimer Laminant ) screen.
Good Omens, or Equil Rights are probably one of the better ones to pick

Linklater directing Scanner, Soderbergh producing

[chascarrillo]

According to Ain't It Cool News, Richard Linklater is set to direct A Scanner Darkly. Disappointing, since Steven Soderbergh and George Clooney had optioned it and I was assuming that Soderbergh would be directing (instead, he and Clooney are producing). But hey, they're doing Solaris, so all is forgiven...

I'd doubt that a studio would spend the money to option all of Dick's works considering that they're going for truly astounding amounts of money. A Scanner Darkly cost $2,000,000. Remember Impostor? That went for about $1,000,000.

This is super cool, but not really new...

[oooga]

Gilliam has been directing Good Omens for well over a year (I knew about it maybe even two years ago, but it wasn't official then) Whatever tho, any news about the Good Omens movie (even old news) is good news. I've read Good Omens at least three times and consider Pratchett on a par with Douglas Adams (Pratchett has the additional advantage of vitality). Gaiman is just a flat-out terrific writer with an incredible imagination and some steriods-fueled storytelling powers. (I've read American Gods Twice) In collaboration they make a powerhouse team, and to put it mildly, when I heard Gilliam was directing I practically shit my pants in excitement. This flick is going to be so FUCKING cool.

not 'international'

[wanion]

Technically, that's "The Internet Movie Database" - though admittedly IMDb could easilly mean what you say, but it says the full name at the top of their main page and as the title of the page as well.