Amph Terry Pratchett

seriously?

i read that and thought "why that book"? and then i think, well, he wouldn't struggle to cast the city watch (vimes, carrot, nobby, colon etc) or the wizards *, and he wouldn't have to create ankh-morpork either as sets or digitally (which would be impressive to see, to say the least) and so it kind of makes sense. although i am dissapointed as to the choice of book to turn into a film, this should be great to see, and who knows, it may be just the beginning. if it does well other books could make it to the big screen.


* speaking of casting these characters, which actors do you reckon would be good as these parts? vimes and carrot, the dean and ridcully, and the patrician (although alan rickman could do this with ease i reckon), would be the toughest to cast IMHO.

 

It'll be interesting to see if Discworld translates to the big screen. It might work quite well, but so much of Pratchett's genius is in the text itself rather than the story. The words, the jokes, the footnotes. We shall see.

As for casting, I really hope Pratchett puts a "British cast only" rule down like JK Rowling did. No offence to the mighty US of A, but they cannot be allowed to ruin Discworld by casting American A-listers.

Alan Rickman as Lord Vetinari (or Death! Nobody else could play Death!)
Dame Judy Dench as Granny Weatherwax
John Cleese as Ridcully (well, maybe )
David Tennant as Carrot (hmm . . .)
and
Andy Serkis as the Librarian

I'll do some thinking

 

i always thought of john cleese as being the dean!! that would be great! ridcully always (in my mind) is a fat bloke. someone like richard griffiths, or micheal gambon would be spot on. death would be cgi i suppose, that would be too hard to cast. agree with andy serkis as the librarian too! how about ray winstone as vimes?


oh, and the wee free men should all be voiced by billy connelly

 

I love Night Watch and Thud! the most. I've read all 30-something Discworld books and all of his children's books that are in print in the US.

Anyone else read The Unadulterated Cat? Short read, but I found it amusing.

 

My parents are in london at the moment and I told them that to appease me for not taking me along, they had to go to my favorite bookshop on Charing Cross Road, where they have a WALL of Terry Pratchett books and buy me Thud!

 

I love the Discworld novels. I just went on a bit of a bing and read three of his novels in the last week. Monstrous Regiment is great. The whole women dressing up as men, dressing up as women and the guards thinking they are men. Priceless.

 

Yay. Hogfather to become a movie! Two movies actually.

New favourite Christmas movie.

 

wow!!

 

I'm really interested to see who they cast in some of the parts, particularly Mr Teatime and Susan.

Death: Live action or CGI?

 

have to be cgi. how would anyone look like this:

[image=http://perso.ens-lyon.fr/florent.bouchez/discworld/images/death.jpg]

 

Like this:
[image=http://www.valhallaarms.com/wyvern/death/images/skull.jpg]

 

er, that looks crap. they have to do it with cgi.

 

Oh, I'm sure they will. I thought that looked quite good for a skeleton made of foam

 

Movie: if they get this right I shall love them forever. If they get it wrong I have no idea what the massed TP fans of this Earth shall wreak upon them . . .

Death has to be CGI. Hey, can we get Andy Serkis to do Death, as well?

 

Hey, guys!

The BBC have dramatised Small Gods! They're airing part 1 tonight (28/2)on Radio 4 at 11pm, for any other Britons here.

Other nations, you should be able to find it on the BBC's Listen Again page for about a week after it's broadcast.

 

whoa!! this thread dropped like a stone

i just finished reading "thief of time". anybody else who has read this keep thinking of the matrix while reading it? the way the main characters (lu tze and lobsang) can slice time had me in mind of bullet time. and i think that lobsang definately had "neo" influences with lu tze being a kind of morpheus character. the way that lobsang ends up being better than his master was definately influenced by the matrix imho. anyone else think the same?

 

Thief of Time is a bit like "Discworld does Matrix", but on the other hand, it's not as if it's an all-out parody. Quite often Pratchett takes one Earth idea and runs off cackling with it and sometimes the idea is quite specific, but the stories are always original.

So yeah, ToT has a lot of Matrix-y elements. (The footnote about there being no spoon is the funniest single line in the book, IMHO . . .) But it's not the only one. Wyrd Sisters is the Discworld version of Macbeth, and Maskerade is no less than a much funnier Phantom of the Opera.

It crops up in the Matrix, but it's an ancient idea. It's even in SW: "When I left you I was but the learner. Now I am the master . . ."

 

The footnotes are often the funniest part of any Pratchett book

 

i've just started re-reading "witches abroad" again, which is basically "cinderella"



anyway, i stumbled across this website while looking for pics of lord vetinari. it's a collection of drawings of characters, and they are very good. in some cases the artist has captured exactly what i had in my mind's eye that a character looks like; carcer in night watch, cliff from soul music (he's got the whole band nailed imho), and vimes (towards the bottom of the page) about who the artist writes: For a long time, I thought it was Bruce Willis who I pictured in my head when I concentrated hard on Vimes, and that didn't feel right ... then I realized it was actually Richard Dean Anderson (known to me via Stargate SG-1, the show I now call Vimes in Space) and suddenly all the pieces fell into place. an interesting opinion i thought.

just thought i'd share

 

Terry Pratchett books are great. I like Jingo and Monstrous Regiment, as well as a host of others.
The story The Sea and Little Fishes is funny, too.

 

Lord-Wiz: Those pictures are fantastic, and I've emailed the artist to say so. Thanks very much for the link!

Rilwen_Shadowflame: The Sea and Little Fishes - is that the one with the Witch Trials competition in it? If so, I think I've read it in some anthology somewhere. It was pretty good

 

Yes, that's the one.
I loved Nanny Ogg's life being an open book, but only available in plain covers.

 

....................

 

I was round Lord-Wiz's place the other day and his other half, Lady-Wiz, had THUD! The Board Game edition.

It was great, playing 8 trolls v 32 dwarves, first as one team then the other. So much fun!

 

I just started my first Discworld book The guy at the bookstore recommended Mort. So far it reminds me a bit of a cross between Douglas Adams and Piers Anthony.

What would be the book(s) to read after Mort?