A Discworld movie, can it be done?

[DrWilhelm]

I've been thinking for a while that an adaptation of The Amazing Maurice and his Eductaed Rodents would probably work well. It's short enough that not much would need to be cut out and, if I'm remembering correctly, less of the humour is in the narration than compared to many of of the other Discworld books.

 

[The Unskilled78]

No: the Cinema industry is a mountain of phail and tittilation.

 

[GregMink]

I've been twying to watch that movie, but it's simpwy twagic.

 

[tomtom94]

All those series involved Pratchett heavily in production, but as his condition deteriorates, I don't think he would be able to do likewise with a feature film. Plus in order to obtain funding he would probably be encouraged to make sacrifices (pointless romance subplots, pointless additional characters, ignorance of his advice)

 

[Xhu]

A film can't do them justice without heavy narration. I can open any Discworld book and quickly find a list of examples of Pratchett's writing that simply could not be expressed well in a film without it. And then there are the footnotes in each book; how would they be included?

 

[DistinctlyBenign]

I have heard that they are working on Going Postal now.

Hogfather I liked, I didn't like The Colour of Magic film too much.

I do own all of the books and have read them all a few times each though.

 

[GrinningManiac]

As Sir Terry said himself "Once you get the idea past all the underlings in a movie studio, there's a new head guy and you have to start again"

He also said

"Do you really need Discworld films? The books are pretty cinematic and I find myself using a lot of cinematic techniques all the time"

Or something like that

 

[SnipErlite]

So long as Pratchett overwatches like, every detail.

even then I don't think it's a good idea.....the books were awesome, leave it at that

 

[cuddly_tomato]

I don't think so. Pratchetts books are good because of his literary style more than the situations the characters wind up in. That doesn't translate well to the screen.

 

[Dyp100]

They've done two before, and there doing a third.

Also, TP can't write or read anymore, therefore it would be impossible to write a screenplay now I think, or really hard...Even if he is still doing 2 more books.

 

[Spacewolf]

the colour of magic, the light fantastic and the hogfather have all been done already

 

[IckleMissMayhem]

It may well work, but I'm not going to see it - same as with Hitchiker's, and Harry Potter - I enjoy the books too much to want to go see a possibly crap movie version.

 

[Lord Mountbatten Reborn]

Books that play on words a lot shouldn't really be made into films.

 

[Doug]

It...might. As long as Mr. Pratchett is seriously involved in the production of said movie. So much of the humor in those books is dependent on the third-person nigh-unlimited p.o.v. that I don't know if the third-person very limited p.o.v. of a movie could be made to work. The humor needs to be transposed into a movie format. Who better to do that than the humorist?

Sadly, this is increasely unlikely as his condition advances. Mr Pratchett has early onset Alzheimer's disease and its questionnable how much time he has as an aware individual.

As for the 2 mini-series (effectively movies in 2 halves), I thought they where good, but weren't able to capture the humour of the books really. Half the problem is that the humour of books lies in concepts he writes and the absurdities he writes about of the Discworld that mostly happen 'off screen' so to speak.

It did manage to show Ankh-Morpork and the Discworld in excellent detail, and handled the storylines and actions well - the Discworld novels have never been just about the humour, after all - they've often been about reflecting the insanities of our history and present in ways designed to try and make you think, and the Hogfather mini-series gets a good chunk of that books essience across.

Out of curiosity, who do they have playing Rincewind?

David Jason.
I recognize him from a British police series. He also plays Death's Assistant in The Hogfather, another Discworld movie.

David Jason played Albert (Deaths 'Henchman') in the Hogfather and Rincewind in the Light Fantastic, indeedie.

He's a well respected actor over here with work in both comedy and drama stretching back to the 'golden age of BBC comedy'. And yes, he plays Detective Inspector Frost in the TV series "Frost", which I like alot.