I’m sure this has been brought up before but as there’s now no search function I have no way of finding out.
There’s going to be a live TV version of Pterry’s “The colour of magic” airing this weekend on UK’s Sky One, you can read all about it at www.sky.com/magic. Unfortunately I have a cable package that doesn’t include sky so I can’t watch it. I’m sure it’ll make it state side eventually (I’ll end up watching it on DVD probably about the same time).
Who knows, maybe we’ll see more of them being made - it’s about bloody time I say!
Hogfather (A Sky production of one of Terry’s better books) was, for me, disappointing.
This is a Sky production of one of Terry’s worst books. I am not sure if it will be any good. Maybe they will have learned a few things since Hogfather, or maybe a different crew or whatever. I will watch it if I can but I won’t be expecting it to be great.
When watching Hogfather I felt like I was watching a children’s pantomime. I got NONE of the sense of the world of Discworld that I got from reading the books.
I guess that can be attributed to my own imagination being better than a TV production crew and what it can do.
edit: One of the most disappointing aspects of this, is that anyone who’s never read the books might be given the wrong impression of them by that film. It might make them less likely to take up Discworld. I hope not though.
They showed Hogfather in the US also - thanks for the Dope for giving me a heads up.
I love the book, but the problem I had is that they chose to film the entire thing, which made it long, and that it was so damn ponderous. It is primarily a comedy, with serious overtones, but you’d never know it. The music for instance, was awful. I suspect someone not knowing the Discworld universe might be very confused.
If The Colour of Magic is done as a farce, I think it could be good. But if they make it terribly serious it will be a disaster. But I like Rincewind far more than most people do.
I’ve seen Hogfather and wasn’t exactly blown away by it. Personally I like Rincewind but I agree that COM isn’t Pterry’s best book, and I wonder if it’s stand alone or being merged with Light Fantastic.
Yes, the TV version is the two books combined, which seems a reasonable solution to me, given that it’s all one story.
My main worry is that, as much as I admire David Jason, he simply isn’t right for Rincewind – he’s far too old for a start. But then he is the producer, so I suppose he gets the part he wants.
Rincewind is supposed to be in his early 30s, in appearance, so having David Jason play the role isn’t particularly accurate. And of course Twoflower is supposed to be an Asian tourist, and Sean Astin will be playing him as, I assume, an American tourist, so fundamentally it’s twisted it into something it’s not supposed to be already.
However, as Colour of Magic is widely considered one of the worst of the Discworld because it was the first, these may indicate changes for the better. David Jason is a very funny character actor, which Hogfather didn’t show off to his best advantage, while Rincewind should give him greater opportunity.
There were some earlier, animated versions of some his books, right? How were they? (I saw them on sale when I was last in London, but I don’t think they’re available in the US, and the compatibility-thing is a bummer.)
Yes there were, two productions by animators Cosgrove Hall - Soul Music and Wyrd Sisters.
They weren’t all that great in my opinion. The animation was quite basic and I didn’t think a great deal of the voice acting either (which was quite disappointing given that they had a good cast of people). The witches spoke with the broadest country bumpkin accents known to man, for example.
I think maybe the things that make people not like these books will make them better movies. A lot of the subtlety and the satire that makes the later books so good doesn’t come through in film. The screenwriters treat the material with a bit too much reverence, so we get four hour comedies. I don’t think many will object to chopping stuff out of CoM and making the humor a bit broader, so it might work better on screen.
(I’ve always pictured Rincewind as tall, myself, like in the Kirby pictures.)
I, too, only watched the first half and gave up. The casting was wrong, the story pace and plotting was wrong, and the sets were just not Discworldy enough for me.
I hated Tim Curry’s character. They made it look like he was out for hats and shoes as some kind of fashion statement, rather than a power ladder climbing exercise.
I didn’t like Hogfather much, though the parts I did like don’t seem to be what others liked, so I’m not sure what that means.
But I liked Colour of Magic a lot, I think it really worked on most levels. It wasn’t laugh out loud hilarious, but then Pratchett never has been that way, he’s more of a subtle sly humorist. And it was a severe adaptation, a lot of things have been cut or reduced and changed, but it’s 3 hours long and has a lot of good stuff in amongst it.
The second part has Cohen The Barbarian in it, and he’s a giggle. And Trymon/Tim Curry gets some more good lines. I say stick it out.
I really enjoyed Hogfather, but didn’t get grabbed by The Colour Of Magic. At the end of the day, TCoM/TLF were a series of parodic vignettes loosely tied together by Rincewind and Twoflower. It was never going to integrate into a coherent whole. And that is how the TV show ends up - bitty, patchy and lacking the writing style parodies that TP used in the books to accentuate the story/character parodies (despite the Cohen fight scene and the slo-mo smoke/flash-bang Wizard attack).
But David Jason did a pretty good job creating a Rincewind. Not quite the Rincewind of the books, but an ok character. I didn’t like their Vetinari, and the wizards were not a patch on the Hogfather wizards (I guess they were different wizards). I also disliked the Librarian.
I’m hoping for Soul Music or Guards, Guards, next.
I’m sure it’ll make it state side eventually (I’ll end up watching it on DVD probably about the same time).