Rumors of Pratchett Film

Disc World by eebra82 · 2006-01-21 02:37 · Score: 3, Interesting

I would just love to see a movie about Disc World.. Ever played the game? It's hillarious.

Re:Disc World by VendettaMF · 2006-01-21 03:13 · Score: 2, Interesting

I assumed the great-grandparent was referring to the sci-fi work named "Disc World", rather than to the comic fantasy series set on the body of the smae name...

Either would be well worth seeing, but the former is more plausible as a movie release.

--
kartune85 : Incapable of reason, observation or learning. A kind of dim, drab, flightless parrot.
Re:Disc World by bfree · 2006-01-21 06:26 · Score: 2, Interesting

I honestly believe that anyone approaching DiscWorld with a screen in mind had better be thinking about making a lot of films otherwise the economics of it all will probably make it difficult. Once you have done the work to create all the races and scenery involved you may as well use it.

Where to start is a difficult question, but I may well choose the very book you dismiss, as it establishes Ankh-Morpork and the Assassains Guild to start with, and then moves into a standalone plot which shows the nature of Discworld as a medium to parody our own cultures. Otherwise you may be able to start with Guards Guards and make a whole *logy of movies following Vimes and Carrot.

The problem is that so many of the plotlines intermingle that any starting point other then the beginning (The Colour of Magic) will naturally mean reworking all sorts of twists or dropping all sorts of otherwise brilliant moments as the backstory is missing. While writing this comment I've been looking at the Discworld reading order and being underwhelmed at how it fails to recognise so many of the intertanglings which make the world so complete (e.g. Carpe Jugulum and The Fifth Elephant are an Uberwald series of their own, Moving Pictures would to me be a sybling to both the Pyramids/Small Gods line and the whole Ankh amalgam (guards and wizards) and how can you disentangle The Truth from the Guards).

Nobody is yet ready to put a billion on the line to bank-roll a dozen or so DiscWorld movies, pity because anyone attempting to jump in half way will probably be doomed, and anyone starting at the beginning without following it up will likely lose their shirt on the deal. But this article is not about the quest to make the above films, but the hope of exploiting the Childrens works.

--
Never underestimate the dark side of the Source

Additional thoughts by JamesD_UK · 2006-01-21 02:58 · Score: 2, Interesting

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.

PTerry's market clout ... by charlie · 2006-01-21 02:59 · Score: 5, Interesting

... in the UK, at least, is huge. To put it in perspective; in the fantasy field, only J. K. Rowling out-sells him -- I'm not certain, but I think he may be ahead of Stephen King, and responsible for a visible percentage of all UK fiction sales.

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.

sweet by fractilian · 2006-01-21 03:00 · Score: 4, Interesting

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

Re:Hope this follows for more ... by dewie · 2006-01-21 03:03 · Score: 2, Interesting

I'd also love to see a film adaptation of Mort, and there were plans for one at one point. Pratchett commented thusly:

"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."

If WFM is a success, we can only hope they might give Mort another go. And Good Omens, too.

--
Jurisprudence Fetishist Gets Off On A Technicality --theonion.com

what ever happened to good omens?! by DarkClown · 2006-01-21 03:25 · Score: 3, Interesting

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..

Re:Hope this follows for more ... by Anonymous Coward · 2006-01-21 03:55 · Score: 1, Interesting

Distinct visual style: Do I hear cries of "Tim Burton" here? Oh, that's me... Yes, Tim Burton and Sam Raimi, that's the visual style I imagine *g*

Re:This reminds me by Fred_A · 2006-01-21 04:18 · Score: 2, Interesting

Since Pratchett has been posting on Usenet forever and has been on the net for ages, it's more than likely that the double entendre in that book means exactly what you think it does ;)

Regarding the movie project, Raimi could possibly be a good choice, although I'm not entirely convinced that the idea is very sound to begin with. The Good Omens project by Gilliams sounded much more promising. Apparently it's still "in the works" while funding is slowly being gathered... So someday, maybe...

--

May contain traces of nut.
Made from the freshest electrons.

I don't get Pratchett by BitterAndDrunk · 2006-01-21 04:18 · Score: 2, Interesting

Not trolling, not trying to start a flame war, not even trying to just piss my opinion all over the net.

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 . . .

Re:I don't get Pratchett by ZB+Mowrey · 2006-01-21 04:50 · Score: 2, Interesting

First off, (Magic) Kingdom for Sale isn't Terry Pratchett. That's Terry Brooks.
90% of Pratchett's work is set in Discworld, and they're not "series" as such. Whichever set of his characters he's most interested in at the time, he publishes a book about. So, sometimes it's hit-and-miss.
From *this* fan's perspective, you should read (in descending order of importance):
1. Small Gods (funny book, doesn't require a lot of prior DW knowledge)
2. Feet of Clay (my first discworld read, also very accessible).
3. Interesting Times (IMNSHO, the funniest DW book).
Now, as is always the case, others will have different opinions. The man has written nearly 30 books set in Discworld, so almost anyone you ask will have different favorites. My bet is that most would recommend Small Gods as an introduction to the Pratchett style, without having to read every other Discworld book to catch all the inside-jokes.

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Self-referential sigs are rarely entertaining.

Re:The Religious Community by Samrobb · 2006-01-21 04:20 · Score: 2, Interesting

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.

I'm a member of the "religious community". I attend an independent Baptist church, and teach sunday school. I enjoy preaching Christ's gospel message when I have the opportunity. My wife and I are working on continuing our education so we can follow God's promptings and dedicate our lives to His service in the ministry. In most all ways, I'd end up being classified as Christian fundamentalist and a member of the "religious right".

So - for the record:

Harry Potter fails to excite me in any way, positive or negative.
PTerry, on the other hand, rocks - and "Small Gods" is one of my favorites.

--
"Great men are not always wise: neither do the aged understand judgement." Job 32:9

Re:Hope this follows for more ... by ArwynH · 2006-01-21 04:23 · Score: 2, Interesting

A lot of his books would make good films, the problem is that compared to the book, they wouldn't look so good...

IMHO the best discworld film would be a new story based on the characters in the books. A film featuring the Watch or the Witches would be nice.

terry pratchet is the most shoplifted author... by know1 · 2006-01-21 05:18 · Score: 3, Interesting

... in england, and has been for ages.
honestly officer grimes, i've just left me thieves guild card at home!

Is this rumor just one of many Good Omens? by Psykechan · 2006-01-21 05:46 · Score: 2, Interesting

There was rumor of another Pratchett movie that started popping up back in 1999. It's now 2006 and still no movie.

The choice of book makes sense.. by Rob+T+Firefly · 2006-01-21 05:55 · Score: 3, Interesting

"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.

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Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned

Re:Hope this follows for more ... by Thumper_SVX · 2006-01-21 06:23 · Score: 3, Interesting

Actually, I'll go out on a limb here and say that I think Guards, Guards would actually make the best "first movie" in a Terry Pratchett set. Here's why;

1. The narrative is strong, and although not everyone loves an action movie, Guards Guards is probably the most "action-oriented" of the earlier books. A lot of the others tend to be more cerebral, and later in the series the comedy becomes subtler.

2. Dragons! Come on, how can you go far wrong with Dragons? OK, I'll grant you Dragonheart... ;)

3. Characters. Many of the characters introduced in this book either occur later in the series or are referred to (sometimes obliquely) in later books. GG is where Cut-Me-Own-Throat Dibbler is introduced... adn while he's a minor character here he becomes a major character later.

4. Theres a love story. Movie studios love that stuff...

5. Ankh Morpork. To me, AM was bought to life in GG in ways it hadn't been before. You got to see the REAL city, and not from a distance. Even later books often focused on specific aspects of the city (the university for example), rather than on the city which is itself a character in the books.

Unlike the poster I replied to, I started with The Colour of Magic and just continued reading. I got away from the books for many years but returned to them recently and started reading them all again. So far I'm up as far as Small Gods and I'm working on it... but I definitely see how the narrative of a movie series would benefit from starting with Guards, Guards. While it wasn't my favorite of the series, it was definitely the one I think is most "movie-like" and most likely to appeal to a wide audience.

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