Will there ever be a Disc World movie

M

MarinesGirl23

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I was writing a response in a thread over in the Books discussion forum and thought it was a good idea for a thread here:

Will we ever get a big screen version of Terry Pratchett's DW books?

I have still only watched the first half of the Hogfather 2 parter from Sky last Xmas. Although I have enjoyed seeing DW on the screen, I don't think this has done justice to TP's creations. Hogfather is not his strongest book, but had obvious appeal as a festive offering for Sky. Alas with 3.5 hours of screen time to fill, its very slow and the production values (effects / sets etc...) were not what I had hoped for.

Surely DW deserves the full Hollywood treatment? I cannot beleive TP hasn't had offers? And by allowing Sky to make Hogfather, TP has shown he's not resisting the transfer to big/small screen for artistic reasons. I would have thought Guard! GuarRAB! would be the perfect material with a restricted setting all within AM, a cool villian in the Dragon, an action hero for the Americans - Carrot, the enigmatic, cynical but ultimatly heroic lead to be played by a famous brit - Vimes, and the comedy duo for light relief - Colon & Nobbs. The Dragon could be done nicely as CG. Better still, it's the first in an extensive franchise - all the studios seem to be interested in these days. I guess the only thing missing is a beautiful herioin. I suppose you could fit Angua in. I for one would like to see her in the flesh, so to speak, and would not find to too offensive to change the story slightly.

I know TP has probably had a bad experience with the Good Omens project that has been stuck in Development Hell for ever, but I hope he's not put off for good.

Does nayone know anything?
 
The cartoons were truly dire, but I liked Sky's Hogfather. I can see it working. Anyone know if Sky got the numbers to make another DW production?
 
If Sky do make another, I would hope it will be one of the City Watch books. Not much need for SFX (except for the odd dragon) and mostly city sets - not too expensive. My concern would be with casting, though. They got Nobbs all wrong in his short appearance in Hogfather.
 
I converted it on to DVD for a friend and it only lasts just over 2.5 hours with all the cr*p of adverts taken out.
I watched it in HD and the extras with Terry Patchett on set helping out and he picked the cast himself!!!
Because it did so well, I believe sky will commission another one but maybe not a film.
 
I love The Last Continent, I would think that that would make a good film - or maybe it would be better for TV, thinking about it.
But the WizarRAB - Ridcully, the Senior Wrangler, etc, really make me laugh in the books, and I thought the portrayal of them in The Hogfather was disappointing - not nearly ridiculous and childish enough. I suppose I've just got a strong mental picture of them.....
I did enjoy the TV version of the Hogfather though, and it would be good to see more.
 
does any one know when the Hogfather will realised on DVD? my request for my sister to tape it on sky over xmas failed when my niece turned it over onto the disney channel 15 minutes in. catching the repeats failed.
 
If another book is put onto screen how about Going Postal? Clive Owen for Albert Spangler aka Moist Von Lipwig.

Had heard rumours that Wee Free Men was next on the list for going onto screen. Had anyone else heard that? Found it on a book review from Amazon ages ago......
 
Amazon is still listing the screenplay for The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett and Vadim Jean (who did the screenplay for and directed Hogfather). It's not solid confirmation that it's going to be the next adaptation, but it does make it look likely given it's been listed since before Christmas.

Hopefully the budget will be a bit higher than for Hogfather, as they'll need loaRAB of CG for CoM. And hopefully Sky One will be back on Virgin by then so that I can watch it!
 
A pity we won't get the talents of the excellent Ian RicharRABon again :( . But looking forward to the next adaptions, I thought Hogfather was very good - it's incredibly difficult to translate Pratchett onto the screen and I thought they did a good job. :)
 
CoM is an interesting choice to adapt. It makes sense as it is the first book, therefore is a way to introduce characters & the environment, and leaves the door open to further Rincewind adaptions (5 more books). However, it is an open-ended story which would be dissappointing unless it was quckly followed by LF. It is also written in an episodic style of 4 stories, so would work rather better as a mini-series of 4 programs rather than 2 2-hour programs.

Casting is critical. Eric Idle did the voice of Rincewind in the PC game some time ago, and has stuck in my mind ever since, but I suspect he would be too expensive.
 
If they planned on doing an Rincewind one, it was (IMO) foolish to use Nigel Planer for a different role in Hogfather. He was perfect for Rincewind.
 
He's had lots of offers. However, most of them are from people who just want to buy the rights to sell on. These people are good for authors who are short of money, because it gets them some cash while they are still alive, but they actually make a film less likely to be made because they add to the costs. TP isn't short of money.

I don't think he realised how bad Hogfather was going to be - and he may not even agree it is bad. It looked promising on paper. The problem is that it was too true to the books, and needed to be edited savagely. So I think he is concerned about artistic integrity and also may want to keep it in the UK as far as possible.

There are a great many plays based on his work. Have you been to any of them?
 
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