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Rumors of Pratchett Film
kongjie writes "The BBC reports on the rumored possibility of Terry Pratchett's novel Wee Free Men being made into a Hollywood film, with Raimi attached to it. This would be the first, although in the past his stuff has made the television screen."
I would just love to see a movie about Disc World.. Ever played the game? It's hillarious.
Full Tilt
Well it is so popular with fantasy movies these days - so why not. I for one will just hope it doesn't fail horribly. I think TP has been very wise in stopping almost all movie-projects in the past....
In Soviet Russia my signature is reading YOU
I hope that they consider making more of his stuff. The stories are excellent, I especially liked the 'Guards' series. Feet of Clay would make an excellent film!
incubus^
Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken.
Is currently being shown (in the U.K.) on BBC1 on Sunday nights, serialised, for anybody who might be interested.
CRIVENS!!!
sig has been sent away for a few small repairs...
im interested. let's see it. after THGTTG, LOTR, & HP's success the sci-fi and fantasy genres are more prominent.
i hope this movie is good if they make it
next should be something from Piers Anthony.
...believe it when I see it on DVD.
Why would (one of) the weakest of his works be the one selected? The only way to get worse would be to go to the rats book, or the gnomes books...
It really just doesn't ring true to me.
kartune85 : Incapable of reason, observation or learning. A kind of dim, drab, flightless parrot.
I went to see Terry Pratchett speak at the Oxford Union in December and someone asked him if there were anythought of films in the works. He didn't confirm or deny that he was working on anything just that there was something he didn't want to talk about.
This suggests to me that, like Rowling, he now probably has enough clout to prevent his work being butchered by the studios.
By way of illustrating this point, he tells an amusing story about the first time round the Hollywood block. Someone had optioned "Reaper Man", and was actually putting some money into scriptwriting, preliminary planning, focus groups, and that kind of thing. One evening, he got a phone call from a studio executive. Who began like this: "hi, Terry! Great to talk to you, we here at XXXXX studios really like Reaper Man, and we're looking forward to making it a great movie. However, we'd like to make a few changes. We ran the outline past a focus group in rural Iowa, and they weren't very positive about this 'Death' character. If we just replace him with Tom Cruise ..."
This is how Hollywood typically deals with SF/F fiction properties.
And that's why you didn't see a big-budget production of "Reaper Man" (probably re-titled "Die Hard 4: Reap Hard") during the mid-nineties.
I love his books. I think Small Gods would be great to see. If that made it to screen the religious community would go bonkers!(did I mention I like to instigate) Some of his book would make a great Anime feature too.
"The universe is my dwelling place and my house is my only clothes! Why are you entering into my pants?" - Liu Ling
I think it'll be interesting to see how much the pictsies resemble the small, evil, Ashs from Army of Darkness.
I'd much prefer to see a film done about another Pratchett book - Mort.
Everyone I know says that's the best of the Discworld books to start with, as it's the most accessible, and the characters are the most recognisable. Everyone for some reason identifies with Mort as he confronts, literally, death. It's funny, it's clever, and you don't need to be a discworld fan to love it - lets convert some people.
I guess Gilliam bailed out - funding I Imagine.
But wee free men (and maurice and a hat full of sky) would be nice, they are fun offshoots from the discworld series that would lend themselves well to film - for that matter the bromeliad trilogy (truckers, diggers, and thieves) would be great as well. Seems like the main discworld strain would be spottyish - I think that all the guards and the witch books would do well, as well as some of the standalone ones, especially small gods..
The religious community (at least the rightmost half of them) are ALREADY going bonkers about the "endorsement" of witchcraft in the Harry Potter series, so I can't see that "Small Gods" would do all that much more to irritate them.
One problem with making films is that the very best of TP's works depend heavily on the sense of continuity of characters (everyone from Sam Vimes to Granny Weatherwax to Ol' Foul Ron and his Smell) to give them structure. I fear a lot would be lost in the translation.
"A production company was put together and there was US and Scandinavian and European involvement, and I wrote a couple of script drafts which went down well and everything was looking fine and then the US people said "Hey, we've been doing market research in Power Cable, Nebraska, and other centres of culture, and the Death/skeleton bit doesn't work for us, it's a bit of a downer, we have a prarm with it, so lose the skeleton". The rest of the consortium said, did you read the script? The Americans said: sure, we LOVE it, it's GREAT, it's HIGH CONCEPT. Just lose the Death angle, guys. Whereupon, I'm happy to say, they were told to keep on with the medication and come back in a hundred years." - Terry Pratchett. So either things have changed, or the movie will end up being a sequel to Charlie and Chocolate Factory or something.. 'Hey, Wee Free Men? Those are kind of like Ooompah Loompahs, right?'
I thought that said Rumors of a Teri Hatcher Film for a second.
I think the invisible hand of the market has its middle finger extended
--A wise old fart named SC0RN
Lifting from my Terry Pratchett quotes database:
IMO, the book earns its accolades for that exchange alone.
--R.J.
Electric-Escape.net
I wrote a (not very good) review of 'Going Postal' for Slashdot, because it turns out to be about hackers and geeks and the Internet. The goodies are a secret nderground of 'information wants to be #Free' types called "the Smoking GNU". When I got to that point of the book I switched from thinking Pratchett might possibly be making vague allusions to the popular (public) perception of "hackers"; after reading the Smoking GNU bit I realised that he was actually talking about the "private" sense of "hacker". Anyway I got discouraged with the amount of polishing it needed, then started a new job, so it wsa never finished. Anyway, so - check out "Going Postal", it's jolly good, and as with a lot of his recent stuff is a bit more ambitious than 'send up Tolkein-esque fantasy fiction"
Whatever you desire. Oh, wait, that's Pierce.
I just noticed that, according to IMDb Gilliam even was slated to direct a Good Omens film that never happened.
USE HOT GRITS WITH STATUE OF NATALIE PORTMAN (NAKED AND PETRIFIED)
Apparently Mr. Pratchett was approached by hollywood some years ago as they were interested in turning Mort into a film. The reason it never happened was because among the changes made, they wanted the "skeleton-guy" removed & he told them where to stick it.
Having seen the mess they made of Hitchhiker's Guide (and they had the nerve to stick Adam's name on the credits!) I'm glad nothing came of it.
Have fun. Or failing that, be miserable with style.
I really want to get into him. Anyone, anything to be an (in)adequate replacement for Douglas Adams' sensibilities. God I miss that guy.
I've read Kingdom For Sale and attempted to read one other novel by him. Oh, and I read Good Omens (w/Gaiman) and it was OK. GO really bugged me though; it was such a meaty bone, and I feel like they nibbled on it and threw it to the dogs. So much more they could have done; it was a topic that lent itself to humor. Compared to Inferno by Niven and Pourneille, for instance, it was weaksauce.
So here's my question:
If I were to give Pratchett another shot, what books should I pick up? What are his top two? I'm unsure if he writes series, but if so don't provide me with two books in the same series, give me something more broad. (If I like the first book I'll burn through the rest; I'm loyal like that)
I'd really like to fill the void of humorous fiction; I'm assuming I've picked crappy books and that's my issue. I can't believe I'm missing the boat because it's too subtle or too British, but maybe that's the case. Anyway, insights are very welcome.
You better watch out, there may be dogs about . .
Both Wyrd Sisters and Soul Music were done as animated series a few years back; they're available on DVD now - not at all bad. Judging by the trailer on one of the discs, Reaper Man was seriously considered too.
Click on the pulldown-menu and release the mouse-button when it says "Funny". If you just click at random you might just get a post modded "Interesting" (or something) when it isn't really.
Parent: "By way of illustrating this point, he tells an amusing story about..." (etc. etc.)
sig? Oh, that sig...
As others have written, the Discworld is more of a universe than a series. There are 4 major "plot series" in it, though: The Wizards, The Witches, The Watch, and Death
Some books overlap these "series", some don't mention them, and some have small tie-ins. If you want to start with the standalone books, "Small Gods" is a good pick.
For the others, "The Colour of Magic" is good for the Wizards, "Equal Rites" is great for the Witches, "Guards! Guards!" for the Watch, and "Mort" for Death. My personal preference goes to the Death books and the Watch books, so I'd say Mort is a good place to start.
Or... you can just bite the bullet and start from the beginning: "The Colour of Magic"
"Multiple exclamation marks are a sure sign of a diseased mind."
But you really asked for that one, didn't you?
sig? Oh, that sig...
video games were so crappy even if I like Sam Raimi, and that josh Kirby has faithfully give good pictures of the discworld I hardly see how by current standard hollywood producer would give a good picture of the discworld ( imagine Death wearing leather, just because it look good )
... in england, and has been for ages.
honestly officer grimes, i've just left me thieves guild card at home!
I love his books (have them all from audible) expect for the last hero which a had to buy (book whould make no since without the pictures) I whould have though Mort whould have been a good choice but Tiff chould make a good movie and a hat full of sky whould make a good sqeuel.
Dakota Fanning is NOT to play the main female lead in this . please please please let it never be done. Also Emily Watson should not be considered since Alex Albrecht [sic] needs no more encouragement.
.. Since this film does not feature a lead character falling from a great height.
I think also we should tie up Andy Soekris ( I dont care about the spelling )
After that im happy is S.R. stays on the project.
And thats why Firecrackers and kittens don't mix.
That'll do it, won't it! *dons coruntham*
You better watch out, there may be dogs about . .
There was rumor of another Pratchett movie that started popping up back in 1999. It's now 2006 and still no movie.
"Wee Free Men" is one of his so-called childrens' books. It skews slightly younger while still being deep enough for the adults, it stands alone well even to a total Discworld newbie while still containing enough threads of the Discworld universe to please fans.. if done right this could be a Narnia-level of family fare that doesn't dumb things down too much for everyone else.
Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
Well, as Pratchett's Discworld series has been getting more predictable, less thought-provoking and generally less entertaining for several years, it's no surprise that the film industry has decided that his time has come. Finally, he's nailed the mediocrity demanded by cinema, bravo Mr P!
(Okay, so it was Python's anthropomorphic death.)
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
scares me much more than death!
The 'Net is a waste of time, and that's exactly what's right about it. - William Gibson
The parent post was not a troll, he was simply showing how gross generalizations are a bad thing to use. But in response to his post, I believe the GP was saying that it would annoy the fanatical group of religious people, obviously not you.
Even over the last 3 years with the movies out?
I'd be shocked.
Prachett's popularity has definitely not translated as well to the US. His books do sell, and he is well respected. But I don't know if his sales are all that exceptional here. If he's #2 or #3 the bar must be somewhat low.
http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
Uh, are you thinking of Niven's Ringworld? Colour of Magic, the first Discworld book, did riff on it a teensy bit, but they are distinct in other respects.
My other body is also not wearing any.
Wyrd Sisters and Soul Music
that have already been made into (animated) films.
They were pretty good!
However, as with many book-film conversions, but especially in Discworld's case, this reader's opinion is that nothing quite beats the imagination!
*vote for Jingo*
This article is shown on the "CBBC Newsround" page of the BBC webpage, For the benefit of anyone not based or raised in the UK, "CBBC" stands for "Childrens' BBC" and as far back as I can remember "Newsround" has been the 5pm news program for kids. No surprise this story makes the front page of Slashdot, huh?
I dunno about insanely great. They're great.
But the movies came out, that usually expands the markets (thus undoing the market saturation), and sells more books.
Like I said, I'm a bit surprised Pratchett outsold Tolkien in the last 3 years. Before that, I'm not much surprised.
I know he's done some good stuff of course.
http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
I saw those, and was wondering why nobody mentioned them till I read your post.. "not bad at all".. i would tend to disagree there..
terry prachett kind of story, where a lot of the humor and story lies in the background history, and thought processes of characters, than actual events, is a very difficult one to capture as a movie.. the animated series attempted to do so, and tried to be faithful to story and everything, but it was just too long winded, and didn't feel at all like the books.. the quality also was ridiculously low..
this is not another "book good movie bad" post.. think about it, how can one capture the humor in the descriptions of past events (flashbacks wont do), or the complex thoughts which keep going through each characters head (u cannot have a narrator for each character).. thats why the animated series didnt do very well (of course, the low quality of animation didnt help)..
at best, i hope there'll be a movie "inspired" by Discworld, and its characters, like the game was, instead of a movie trying to be recreate and be "faithful" to the book..
Both Wyrd Sisters and Soul Music were done as animated series a few years back; they're available on DVD now - not at all bad.
You're kidding, right? The "Wyrd Sisters" animated (mini)series was utterly dreadful. I never even finished watching it, my eyes hurt that badly. The quality of animation was lousy even by BBC standards, and it was such a literal translation of the novel that it utterly failed as a screenplay. In fact, I'd hold it up as justification for every screenwriter and director who changes the plot of a popular novel against the howls and protests of fans.
Pratchett makes great books, but I'm not in any more of a hurry to see the Discworld on the big screen than he is himself. As "H2G2" vividly showed, satire that works astonishingly well on paper is rarely as effective on screen.
Wow. A film based on Terry "I crap out a book every five seconds" Hatchett. About as thrilling as a film based on something by Piers Anthony. I'll pass.
I saw the Wyrd Sisters DVD. There was a glitch in the extras, but the movie itself (animated, feature-length) was really awesome. No kidding. "Marry, prithee, nuncle... oh, what's the use." How many alleged 'kid's movies' do you know where a character walks past a sign to a village called Scrote? Priceless.
They were definitely not children's movies. I just rewatched one of the Soul Music episodes, and there was a girl topless in one of the scenes. Can't imagine how that got through the editors.
Wow, I fit right into the slashdot crowd, noticing these things.
If he is so pirated, he must be a starving author, eating his own shoes!!!
There is a video clip of Death asking a Seer about 'what is the meaning of life'. It's right out of the books and done in the same style of Soul Music. Any idea where it is from? I'm guessing one of the DVDs?
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