Discworld: The Movie

jongore

Originally posted by marclar
twould be great if a series of cartoon films were made, one of each book... because we can argue til the cows come home about which book should be made into the film

I disagree, the cartoon option would end up cheap and shoddy.
Most cartoons are still aimed at a juvinile audience, a proper film with CGi where needed would appeal to a much bigger audience.

MarVeL

This thread set me to wondering and I stumbled across this in the IMDB. Anyone know anything about it?

The Beer Baron

There was talk of Terry Gilliam directing Good Omens.
But of course, like almost every project Gilliam done it was SNAFU'd. Still I think he'd be the only one who could do Pratchett justice- the 2 Terry's, yeah that'd be great.

Then again I wonder what liberties a full-on Hollywood production would take? No doubt it would desecrate it, all the subtly and dark humour would be gone, the characters would all be played by "beautiful" people and every inch of Ank Morpork populated by pointless CG eyecandy.

Book-to-film adaptions seldom work, and even anyone who doesn't agree and wants to cite Peter Jackson as an example obviously hasn''t been subjected to one of Echomadman's epic drunken "The Two towers is bollox!" rants:

...yes...I know, I know, and the Orcs had cockney accents...yes...and they left out the...yes you already said that...put the knife down please...c'mawwwn gimmie the knife...

af666x

You'll never get the same amount of thought, intricacy or humour into a film because your imagination makes it funny. And there'd be an outcry over the violence anyway. Bleeding heart liberals.

If someone did get up the courage to do a decent film I'd be all for it. But I also heard that an earlier attempt was stopped by Terry himself. Hollywood style people tried to make it into an epic action hero kind of thing and humour was told to take a back seat.

:mad:

Not gonna happen.

shock

you couldnt make an action film of the discworld, it just wouldnt be discworld.

Funky

Originally posted by MarVeL
This thread set me to wondering and I stumbled across this in the IMDB. Anyone know anything about it?

i came across this the other day and 'acquired' it... it seems to be the beginning of the "Reaper Man" book, i came across Soul Music too but couldnt get it

Capt'n Midnight

But not hollywood style

manga maybe - or lord of the rings ....
so you get the impossible sets and effects and a thousand elephants...

af666x

Why 1000 elephants???

5 not good enough for ya?

echomadman

Just one elephant, but you move it past the camera 1000 times, after getting the herder to say something like "we must advance the pachyderms in single file bwana, to counfound the ankhian devils"

af666x

A very cost effective idea there. And they could on location shoot in Ireland.

The Shades - Ballymun

shock

No theres too much grass in ballymun to be the shades, somewhere nearer the city centre where they havent seen grass in centuries. then you'd have to cover the roads in mud, and other substances.

Panda

Methinks Lord Vetinari could be played by Christopher Walken,

If they ever do a film its gonna be in years to come, no time soon.
I think they should concentrate on the City watch trilogy, it could be an epic to rival all epics!

Its got it all, a love story, humour by the bucket full, baddies, heroism
even big mad dragons!!!

Capt'n Midnight

Carrot would be your typical Hollywood hero
But Vimes would have to be a lot more subtle
- pity Roy Schneider / James Stewart are't available
Michael Dorn for Detritus ?

jongore

Carrot is subtle enough in his own way, most of what he says can be taken two ways. Vimes would be a 'Dirty Harry' type cop, who somehow found himself in charge.

amp

While I doubt that a film of Discworld could ever live up to the wonderful world it is in my head, I thought the same of LOTR.

Needs a big a budget, Pratchett on board and a director who "gets" the books style/humour etc.

I'd actually prefer if there weren't any big name thespians in it. Look at Band of Brothers and LOTR, not exactly A-list, and I think that lends more to the suspension of disbelief factor.

ozt9vdujny3srf

Personally i think it would be difficult to get it to work, much of pratchett's humour is in the observations he makes in the books, methinks that a fairly difficult thing to get in cinematic form, but thenm again loads of his books have been converted to plays, so i should probably read a few of them before i make any more observations.

Anyhows personally i would prefer if he directed his work towards writing more quality books.

shock

You might need a narrator to get some of the observation humour into it, like in the Hitch-hikers Guide to the Galaxy series.

Capt'n Midnight

How about blind IO as the narrator ?

Seriously the luggage would make a nice impartial one...

shock

If by impartial you mean homocidially physcotic with a grudge against.. well everything, then yes.

Macseamusa

a movie would be hard to make, but if they did the bloke with the duck on his head would have to be in it. and how would you get the ankh to look like it should.

jongore

With the advances in CGI, problems with animals or the appearence of the Ankh would provide little or no problems, getting across the humour of the Discworld would be the tricky part.

Karl Hungus

It just popped into my head, and I had to search for this thread, so sorry for dragging up a year-old + thread at this stage, but I wasn't about to create a new thread just for this.

Jason Carter as Vetinari:



Can you just see it?
Eh? Eh?

I'll get my coat...

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

is that marcus from b5?

anyway, I see it!

Fysh

At first I thought maybe seeing it required being up at jesuschrist! o'clock in the morning, but now, regrettably, I "see" it too. But I still hope they don't make a film of the DW. I didn't like the LotR films much, so using them as an argument doesn't convince me. I just don't believe that the humour present in most of pTerry's books would carry well to any mainstream film adaptation. I mean, you'd need to have so many actors cast just right, a good director and a whole load of suits who inexplicably sidestep their normal urge to butcher adaptations in the quest for profit. From reading about the hassles Douglas Adams had with getting H2G2 into a film, and hearing how fast it's progressed since he died (which the cynic in me can only assume is because they finally found a way around his complaints; wait until he kicks the bucket and then do it anyway!), I just don't think a big film adaptation could ever be something I'd enjoy, as a lifelong fan.

Sarky

Fysh wrote:

At first I thought maybe seeing it required being up at jesuschrist! o'clock in the morning,

What an excellent phrase, I must store it for future reference!

Karl Hungus

Fysh wrote:

At first I thought maybe seeing it required being up at jesuschrist! o'clock in the morning, but now, regrettably, I "see" it too. But I still hope they don't make a film of the DW. I didn't like the LotR films much, so using them as an argument doesn't convince me. I just don't believe that the humour present in most of pTerry's books would carry well to any mainstream film adaptation. I mean, you'd need to have so many actors cast just right, a good director and a whole load of suits who inexplicably sidestep their normal urge to butcher adaptations in the quest for profit. From reading about the hassles Douglas Adams had with getting H2G2 into a film, and hearing how fast it's progressed since he died (which the cynic in me can only assume is because they finally found a way around his complaints; wait until he kicks the bucket and then do it anyway!), I just don't think a big film adaptation could ever be something I'd enjoy, as a lifelong fan.

I believe it's possible to do if I was in the director's chair, and got Terry to write an original story for the screen. The sense of humour, especially the footnotes could work easily if they were worked in at the start of the film almost in line with a prologue, a sort of freeze-frame while the narrator intervened briefly, often explaining characters and situations, yet eased up upon once the film would start to get into it, as not to break the flow of the main plot when it gets going.

Oh, and while most would probably say Eric Idle, I'd definetly cast David Thewlis as Rincewind. The only man for the job in my eyes. Thoughts?

Mordeth wrote:

is that marcus from b5?

anyway, I see it!

It is indeed, and though while Marcus is an extremely upbeat and cheary character, just imagine if he took on a darker character like Vetinari. I can hear it almost.

Jaeger

'AL wrote:

[EN']Detrius: Ving Rhames

I'd use the guy from the Green Mile. Can't remember his name and not arsed to google it.

Shrapnel

oh thank god this isn't true...
The rock as carrot?
Angelina Jolie as Angua?
Tom green as colon?
Tom green isn't colonesque!

GAH!!! It'd be Ruination on the bloody thing!

thank christ ye aren't cast...finding...people.

Bugrit

Yeah Shrapnel is right, a lot of your casting ideas are pathetic. Steve Bushemi? THE ROCK!? I think Hugh Laurie would be great as the bursar. There is a website stating that a discworld film is in the making, I'l post a link at some point. I think having too many big hollywood actors would make the film suck, they should look at employing new actors and classic british actors for it. Alan Rickman should defo play Vetinari. I would have a hard time choosing between Eric Idle and the other guy (was in Harry Potter, werewolf teacher guy) as Rincewind. With the right actors and an involving plot I think a Discworld film could be very succesful. Black Adder wasn't narrative and it still made me piss myself laughing. A lot of parts in the Discworld books are serious and meaningful, it's not all comedy afterall. Whoever said a Discworld film wouldn't work because the humor is in the narrative, is a dumb sh1t. Of course it's in the narrrative, it's a friggin' book, one of the major things to do when going from book to film is to adapt. The funny things Terry writes in the narrative could easily be adapted to work in the film, without a narrator. Discworld movie for teh win!

Brow

Bugrit wrote:

I would have a hard time choosing between Eric Idle and the other guy (was in Harry Potter, werewolf teacher guy) as Rincewind.

I havnt read the whole thread so apologies if I say something thats already been said. Those are two fantastic choices for the role of Rincewind. I'd have to sway for Idle though. I'd maybe like to see Robbie Coltranes name pop up for the role of Colon or maybe Rowan Atkinson for Nobby. Just quick brainstorms.