If we're lucky, it'll be a bit more amusing than the okay-ish but laugh-free Pratchett adaptations that Sky 1 did years back, though it'll probably be most compared to the unintentionally hilarious Damien that recently ran on US telly, covering as it does similar grounds in telling the tale of the Antichrist, who unbeknownst to his angelic and demonic stalkers and overseers has accidentally been switched at birth with the child of a middle class English family.
Hilarity hopefully ensues. (http://discworld.com/narrativia-announce-first-major-television-co-production-bbc-studios-neil-gaimans-blank-corporation/)
I just finished rereading Good Omens yesterday. I love the idea of an adaptation, but I wonder that without the involvement of Pratchett, will Gaiman's dark tendencies overshadow the humour of the book somewhat.
Some books just aren't suitable for filming, as the Discworld attempts prove. I don't think this will work, either. In my opinion, the best medium for adapting works like these is audio - because the images are better. I would hold up The Hitch Hikers' Guide to the Galaxy as Exhibit A in my argument.
Quote from: The Legendary Shark on 19 January, 2017, 08:21:08 PM
the best medium for adapting works like these is audio - because the images are better. I would hold up The Hitch Hikers' Guide to the Galaxy as Exhibit A in my argument.
I hold up the Beeb's TV adaptation of THHGTTG as an example of when it works - the film doesn't support this hypothesis, though.
I'd still say the radio series was superior to the tv adaptation - as good as it was.
Pratchett was, as I recall, quite happy with the Sky 1 adaptations, and while they looked nice and were ably performed, they just weren't terribly funny. At the least, they didn't seem to have any dick jokes or topless women, so God knows why they were on Sky 1.
This is half Neil Gaiman's baby, though - Pratchett even said that a lot of things ascribed to him (in the original novel) were actually the work of Gaiman - so it can go either way. If I were gambling my own money, I'd sooner invest in hiring sitcom writers to produce an all-ages thing about the Lancre witches, especially after - for many people such as myself - The Shepherd's Crown became the "last" of Pterry's books and the nature of legacy in the narrative took on a meaning outside the work.
Yes, I think Gaiman can manage humour just fine.
Interesting idea about a series based on the witches. I think they might be my favourite characters in the Discworld books.
To undermine my own argument, I did quite enjoy the Dirk Gently t.v. adaptations. Also, as c.g.i. gets better and cheaper, this kind of adaptation will improve so, never say never.
Quote from: Mardroid on 20 January, 2017, 04:48:38 PM
Interesting idea about a series based on the witches. I think they might be my favourite characters in the Discworld books.
Maybe nothing will ever come of it, but a Tiffany Aching series in co-prouction with Jim Henson studios is in the early stages of development...
Quote from: Dark Jimbo on 21 January, 2017, 02:50:19 PM
Maybe nothing will ever come of it, but a Tiffany Aching series in co-prouction with Jim Henson studios is in the early stages of development...
I particularly like those books, so great!
Rise, necro thread - RISE FROM YOUR GRAVE!
Pics from the BBC America adaptation of Pratchett's Night Watch novels have been released escaped. (http://www.bbcamerica.com/anglophenia/2020/01/first-look-photos-bbc-americas-the-watch-starring-richard-dormer)
The indefatigable capitalist entrepreneur - and story-engine for many of the novels - "Cut Me Own Throat" Dibbler is played by a young lady, so has been re-imagined as a sex worker called "Throat". So that bodes well.
there were 2 good animated version of Soul Music and Weird Sisters on Channel 4 in the early 2000's by Cosgrove Hall, and CITV did a series based on Truckers as well
Quote from: Professor Bear on 17 January, 2020, 04:06:40 PM
"Cut Me Own Throat" Dibbler is played by a young lady, so has been re-imagined as a sex worker called "Throat". So that bodes well.
leaving aside the fact that the reimagining of Starbuck in BSG worked quite well, looking at the article about the overall tenor of the Night Watch series is not only putting me off for life but filling me with the urge to tear out my eyes in case I even see a trailer for it. It looks like the same bunch of cretins responsible for the last Star Wars film, the War of the Worlds and Dracula series were all brought in as consultants.
FFS, Pratchett managed to do a massively better job on half the issues those pillocks are trying to promote, that was one of the core themes of the books. His writing was light years better than anything they are ever likely to produce. <.... and breathe ....>
Given how BBC America handled Dirk Gently I'm not holding out for much with Night Watch.
Quote from: Tjm86 on 17 January, 2020, 09:10:39 PM
Quote from: Professor Bear on 17 January, 2020, 04:06:40 PM
"Cut Me Own Throat" Dibbler is played by a young lady, so has been re-imagined as a sex worker called "Throat". So that bodes well.
leaving aside the fact that the reimagining of Starbuck in BSG worked quite well,
Uhhhhh... it's not the gender-swapping in and of
itself that I see being the problem with Throat.
And I will, of course, point out that changing Starbuck's gender did not actually make the character any different - not least because it doesn't matter what version of Battlestar Galactica you're watching, Starbuck and Apollo are always,
always acting like they are a hair's breadth away from fucking.
Quote from: Tjm86 on 17 January, 2020, 09:10:39 PM
FFS, Pratchett managed to do a massively better job on half the issues those pillocks are trying to promote, that was one of the core themes of the books. His writing was light years better than anything they are ever likely to produce. <.... and breathe ....>
Hard to argue with that. And while I've no problem with CMOT Dibbler bring gender-swapped (he's hardly Cheery Littlebottom or Polly Perks, characters whose genders are important), but I would have an issue with the character changing professions. We already have a Seamstresses' Guild, who's going to supply them with a pie-with-personality at the end of a hard shift of threading the needle?
I know! It's as if some twonk has looked at Pratchett's output, noted how many books they shifted and which ones shifted the most, then given them to the most imagination-deprived, subtlety-bereft 'writers' and 'developers' they could find. I daren't express my true feelings about this act of vandalism as I would most likely end up offending the majority of the internet ....
I have recently discovered that fantasy worlds/series are incredibly popular with white supremacists - presumably because ethnic nationalism is a huge part of the mythologies of everything from Discworld to the Witcher - so if anyone's planning on mocking the race/gender swapping in this for any reason, best get it out of your system now before the fash arrive in The Discourse and everything goes to shit. To that end
You got to hand it to them: the character of Cheery is female in the books and it's Kind Of A Whole Thing that she is specifically female, so the producers have - admirably - cast an actor assigned male at birth and latterly identifying as she/her in the role, so the producers have managed to maneuver into a position where they can't be criticised for casting a seven foot actor in the role of a dwarf.
OTOH, the character of Keel is the time-traveling older version of Sam Vimes and is played by a black actor, but the part of Vimes (Keel's younger self) is played by a white actor, so in practicing more diverse casting, the producers have actually opened themselves up to the criticism that they haven't cast a black actor in the role of Vimes. THE COWARDS.