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2020/10/09 21:30:40
Subject: First Look Photos: BBC America’s ‘The Watch’ Starring Richard Dormer (Discworld)
Perhaps it should be viewed as an adaptation of Pterry's work in the same way that the Cumberbatch & Freeman Sherlock series is an adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's work?
People seem generally to accept that series on its own merits and not get too hung up on it, for example, not being set in the 19th century.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2020/10/09 21:32:52
A little bit of righteous anger now and then is good, actually. Don't trust a person who never gets angry.
2020/10/09 21:35:41
Subject: First Look Photos: BBC America’s ‘The Watch’ Starring Richard Dormer (Discworld)
Duskweaver wrote: Perhaps it should be viewed as an adaptation of Pterry's work in the same way that the Cumberbatch & Freeman Sherlock series is an adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's work?
People seem generally to accept that series on its own merits and not get too hung up on it, for example, not being set in the 19th century.
Yes - the general line is that it's 'Inspired by' not 'Based on'...
2020/10/09 21:43:02
Subject: First Look Photos: BBC America’s ‘The Watch’ Starring Richard Dormer (Discworld)
I suspect its partly because Sherlock has been adapted a lot. There are some very faithful creations like the ITV series through to totally insane ones. There's a wealth of choice.
I think this one gets fire because so little of Terry's work is adapted into TV and what we do have has often been rather at the budget end of the spectrum. Sometimes good budgets, but the kind where you can somewhat see the BBC style props.
Duskweaver wrote: Perhaps it should be viewed as an adaptation of Pterry's work in the same way that the Cumberbatch & Freeman Sherlock series is an adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's work?
People seem generally to accept that series on its own merits and not get too hung up on it, for example, not being set in the 19th century.
I agree, this is a good way to look at it and tbh not one I'd considered.
I'd love to see more faithful adaptations of the books I love but I'm content that, for now, the Discworld primarily exists as is in my imagination.
Perhaps if this adaptation is successful then a greater variety of future productions maybe forthcoming.
"All their ferocity was turned outwards, against enemies of the State, foreigners, traitors, saboteurs, thought-criminals" - Orwell, 1984
2020/10/10 10:32:30
Subject: First Look Photos: BBC America’s ‘The Watch’ Starring Richard Dormer (Discworld)
THE AMAZING MAURICE, A SKY ORIGINAL Coming in 2022 to Sky Cinema Based on Terry Pratchett’s best-selling novel Starring Hugh Laurie, Emilia Clarke, David Thewlis, Himesh Patel, Gemma Arterton and Hugh Bonneville
Sky today announced a new co-production with Ulysses Filmproduktion and Cantilever Media, The Amazing Maurice, a Sky original. This animated family film is based on one of Sir Terry Pratchett’s wildly popular Discworld novels and will star Hugh Laurie (Avenue 5) as Maurice, Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones) as Malicia, David Thewlis (Wonder Woman) as Boss Man, Himesh Patel (Yesterday) as Keith, Gemma Arterton (The King’s Man) as Peaches and Hugh Bonneville (Downton Abbey) as The Mayor. More cast announcements to follow.
Coming to Sky Cinema in 2022, The Amazing Maurice, a Sky original, follows Maurice, a streetwise ginger cat who has the perfect money-making scam. He finds a kid who plays a pipe, and he also befriends his very own horde of strangely educated, talking rats – so Maurice can no longer think of them as ‘lunch’. When Maurice and the rodents reach the stricken town of Bad Blintz, they meet a bookworm, Malicia. Their little con soon goes down the drain as something very bad is waiting for them in the cellars.
Sarah Wright, Director of Sky Cinema and Acquisitions at Sky UK & Ireland comments: “The Amazing Maurice is a fantastic story from a legendary author, and I couldn’t think of a better tale to bring to life as an animated film for all the family. I’m excited to work with Ulysses Filmproduktion and Cantilever Media to bring this exclusive new movie to Sky Cinema audiences in 2022.”
Emely Christians, Producer and CEO of Ulysses Filmproduktion comments: “When I read The Amazing Maurice, I knew we had to turn this amazing novel into a film. The art and animation departments are working hard to recreate Terry Pratchett’s unique vision and I can’t wait to see this on screen!”
Andrew Baker, Producer and CEO of Cantilever Media, said: “I’m huge fan of Sir Terry Pratchett so I would not be embarking on this project unless I felt we were bringing the film to life in a way that honours the book and will please its numerous fans around the world. We have a great cast and great teams at the studios in Sheffield and Hamburg working to make this film special.”
Robert Chandler, Producer at Cantilever Media said: “The trick with The Amazing Maurice is getting the balance right. Terry Pratchett is a brilliant author, who was not afraid to explore dark places and have fun getting there. That’s the tone of our film.”
Rob Wilkins, Producer and Managing Director of Narrativia, said: “Bringing Maurice’s story to life was such a joy for Terry and I’m delighted that the teams at Sky, Ulysses Filmproduktion and Cantilever Media are honouring his vision with such reverence and respect.”.
The Amazing Maurice, a Sky original is co-produced by Sky, Ulysses Filmproduktion and Cantilever Media, with animation studios Studio Rakete (Hamburg) and Red Star Animation (Sheffield). The film has the full support of the Terry Pratchett estate and is produced in association with Narrativia. Producers are Julia Stuart (Sky), Emely Christians (Ulysses), Andrew Baker and Robert Chandler (Cantilever Media) and Rob Wilkins (Narrativia). The Film is directed by Toby Genkel, co-director is Florian Westermann.
The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents is a children’s fantasy by Sir Terry Pratchett, published by Doubleday in 2001 and has sold nearly 90 million books worldwide. It was the 28th novel in the Discworld series, but the first written for children. The Amazing Maurice is a lively and entertaining adventure inspired by the German fairy tale about the Pied Piper of Hamelin and a parody of the folk tale genre. Pratchett won the annual Carnegie Medal for the book – children’s literature’s highest award. Despite many other awards, honorary degrees and the knighthood that followed, Sir Terry Pratchett always emphasised that this was the award of which he was most proud.
Telepool has acquired The Amazing Maurice for German speaking territories and Telepool’s sales arm Globalscreen handles worldwide rights.
I'm not sure if that deserves its own thread at this point...
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2020/11/05 13:23:32
2020/11/05 16:56:06
Subject: First Look Photos: BBC America’s ‘The Watch’ Starring Richard Dormer (Discworld)
Gamgee on Tau Players wrote:we all kill cats and sell our own families to the devil and eat live puppies.
Kanluwen wrote: This is, emphatically, why I will continue suggesting nuking Guard and starting over again. It's a legacy army that needs to be rebooted with a new focal point.
Confirmation of why no-one should listen to Kanluwen when it comes to the IG - he doesn't want the IG, he want's Kan's New Model Army...
tneva82 wrote: You aren't even trying ty pretend for honest arqument. Open bad faith trolling.
- No reason to keep this here, unless people want to use it for something...
2020/11/05 20:05:21
Subject: First Look Photos: BBC America’s ‘The Watch’ Starring Richard Dormer (Discworld)
No more or less convinced myself. Which means I remain entirely open to this actually being a decent programme in its own right, even though it’s clearly waaaaay off the page.
I’ll definitely watch it when the opportunity arises. And I remain hopeful it’ll be an example of an adaptation which worked, without being slaved to the original media.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2020/12/07 20:39:09
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I’ll definitely watch it when the opportunity arises. And I remain hopeful it’ll be an example of an adaptation which worked, without being slaved to the original media.
I'm more in the camp that if its any good it will be an example of an idea that didn't need to be slaved to an existing franchise to work. Which is something I really wish would get through to more executives. Instead of wrapping a different idea in a different existing title just be bold and call your own thing your own thing. It's like that sony Peter Rabbit film - its most certainly got nothing to do with Peter Rabbit the original stories; however I'm led to understand that kids like the film and that they enjoy it. They could have called it Dave the Rabbit; dropped all the name links and it would still be in just the same position.
BBCAmerica has a bunch of 'Meet the Character' shorts up (couldn't find them on youtube, at least not on the main BBC channel), along with a bunch of other videos
https://www.bbcamerica.com/shows/the-watch--51041
Its all very loud music and WooWooing noises (and the idea of the watch as Misfits, which in combination with the music and some of the costumes makes me think of the Young Ones, but not in a happy way), but in between that, the character bits are... odd.
Strange poses, jerky movements (particularly Vimes and Angua), Carrot is apparently still raised by dwarves, but somehow manages to be the straight man reacting to the weirdness AND the incompetent/semi competent comic relief. Discworld Death is involved, but put into a blender, so he's a chatty, fun personification (to the point of asking Carrot out for drinks).
May check out the premiere, but.. honestly all that was loud enough (and intentionally wonky enough) that I already feel like my ears are bleeding.
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2020/12/27 02:12:45
Efficiency is the highest virtue.
2020/12/27 02:18:19
Subject: First Look Photos: BBC America’s ‘The Watch’ Starring Richard Dormer (Discworld)
I had read a review of the series a week ago. Can't remember where, sorry. It was basically a resounding "meh". Some parts worked, some parts didn't, that kind of review.
"Through the darkness of future past, the magician longs to see.
One chants out between two worlds: Fire, walk with me." - Twin Peaks
"You listen to me. While I will admit to a certain cynicism, the fact is that I am a naysayer and hatchetman in the fight against violence. I pride myself in taking a punch and I'll gladly take another because I choose to live my life in the company of Gandhi and King. My concerns are global. I reject absolutely revenge, aggression, and retaliation. The foundation of such a method... is love. I love you Sheriff Truman." - Twin Peaks
2020/12/27 14:31:26
Subject: First Look Photos: BBC America’s ‘The Watch’ Starring Richard Dormer (Discworld)
porkuslime wrote: Why is the music so much louder than the dialogue?
Because directors are making their work for magically perfect audio set ups. See also Christopher Nolan's mumbling mumblers mumbling through his latest mumble fest and the last season of GoT where the mumbling was only slightly more bearable than the black on black night scenes designed to only be watched on magically perfect visual set ups.
2020/12/27 16:26:34
Subject: First Look Photos: BBC America’s ‘The Watch’ Starring Richard Dormer (Discworld)
Computer games do the same thing, I've noticed a good few often set all the audio values to 100 or any other fixed value so that the music is just as loud as everything else. Of course with games you can often adjust the different sources separately as part of the settings so you can turn the music up or down compared to the unit sounds and voiceovers; for films yeah you can't often do that in the audio settings.
to be honest, of all the characters, Detritus seems closest to my mental image of Trolls.. and I think I am OK with Ventinari being female..
Having said that, the other main characters really are a different interpretation to my head cannon.. still trying to be open minded, but.. Lady Sybil as a vigilante, Angua being short with spiky punk hair, and Cheery being human height are all character images that I am having trouble with
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A.V.P.D.W.: W-0, L-2, T-0
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2020/12/27 20:11:05
Subject: First Look Photos: BBC America’s ‘The Watch’ Starring Richard Dormer (Discworld)
porkuslime wrote: Why is the music so much louder than the dialogue?
Because directors are making their work for magically perfect audio set ups. See also Christopher Nolan's mumbling mumblers mumbling through his latest mumble fest and the last season of GoT where the mumbling was only slightly more bearable than the black on black night scenes designed to only be watched on magically perfect visual set ups.
Yeah. I've seen a couple director's rants about how people are 'watching things wrong' (ie, not in an idealized miniature theatre with perfect lighting and acoustics arranged by a Feng Shui master) and the extreme audio levels and 'too dark' films are entirely the viewers' fault.
Meanwhile I'm constantly fiddling with volume controls, turning up dialogue segments and turning down action segments because they're impractical morons. And music heavily dialogue scenes are just a complete clusterfeth.
I suspect I keep watching less and less live action TV and film at least partly because modern audio mixing standards are utter rubbish.
porkuslime wrote: to be honest, of all the characters, Detritus seems closest to my mental image of Trolls.. and I think I am OK with Ventinari being female..
Having said that, the other main characters really are a different interpretation to my head cannon.. still trying to be open minded, but.. Lady Sybil as a vigilante, Angua being short with spiky punk hair, and Cheery being human height are all character images that I am having trouble with
Cherry really gets me because the Carrot video shows there are in fact dwarves in this take on Pratchett, and taking that away guts their interactions. There are times that they get each other due to a shared culture that leaves the rest of the Watch baffled, and we get to see Carrot come out of his fairly blinkered 'Conservative Dwarfish' viewpoint.
Angua I just can't reconcile at all. 'Feral grace' and 'hair' (lots and lots of brunette, in fact, though I'm aware she's canonically blonde) are what I mostly picture, not... stiff and mini punk.
Ramkin and Carrot both lose a lot for being Hollywood-standard body types.
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2020/12/27 20:20:31
Efficiency is the highest virtue.
2020/12/28 09:44:18
Subject: First Look Photos: BBC America’s ‘The Watch’ Starring Richard Dormer (Discworld)
porkuslime wrote: Why is the music so much louder than the dialogue?
Because directors are making their work for magically perfect audio set ups. See also Christopher Nolan's mumbling mumblers mumbling through his latest mumble fest and the last season of GoT where the mumbling was only slightly more bearable than the black on black night scenes designed to only be watched on magically perfect visual set ups.
Yeah. I've seen a couple director's rants about how people are 'watching things wrong' (ie, not in an idealized miniature theatre with perfect lighting and acoustics arranged by a Feng Shui master) and the extreme audio levels and 'too dark' films are entirely the viewers' fault.
Meanwhile I'm constantly fiddling with volume controls, turning up dialogue segments and turning down action segments because they're impractical morons. And music heavily dialogue scenes are just a complete clusterfeth.
I suspect I keep watching less and less live action TV and film at least partly because modern audio mixing standards are utter rubbish.
It's not just action stuff. I was trying to watch a video on YT about the 30th anniversary of Fresh Prince the other day and had to turn it off because the music over the interview with Will Smith was mixed louder than his voice.
porkuslime wrote: to be honest, of all the characters, Detritus seems closest to my mental image of Trolls.. and I think I am OK with Ventinari being female..
Having said that, the other main characters really are a different interpretation to my head cannon.. still trying to be open minded, but.. Lady Sybil as a vigilante, Angua being short with spiky punk hair, and Cheery being human height are all character images that I am having trouble with
Cherry really gets me because the Carrot video shows there are in fact dwarves in this take on Pratchett, and taking that away guts their interactions. There are times that they get each other due to a shared culture that leaves the rest of the Watch baffled, and we get to see Carrot come out of his fairly blinkered 'Conservative Dwarfish' viewpoint.
Angua I just can't reconcile at all. 'Feral grace' and 'hair' (lots and lots of brunette, in fact, though I'm aware she's canonically blonde) are what I mostly picture, not... stiff and mini punk.
Ramkin and Carrot both lose a lot for being Hollywood-standard body types.
What's really weird is that of all the characters in the books Angua is the one you could easily cast as a stereotypically beautiful Hollywood body type and get away with it but instead they went for a weird punk look. That's fine, I guess, but it's kind of jarring to me. I think I mentioned before ITT they massively missed a trick with making Cheery human in so many ways and now we know Dwarves are a thing in this take on DW it makes even less sense. If anything says this series lacks the intelligence and sbutlety required to be a good representation of Pratchett's work that's it right there.
2020/12/28 13:00:50
Subject: First Look Photos: BBC America’s ‘The Watch’ Starring Richard Dormer (Discworld)
The strength of Cheery's writing was that it played off a running joke from the start of the series. I'm reading through the series now (just finished Jingo) and it's apparent that Pratchett's view, or at least what he wanted to present to readers, changed.
The Dwarf all looking the same starts as a harmless joke - oh, hah hah, isn't that funny, they all look alike, the courting rituals must be hilarious. Then we get Cheery and we see how something seemingly innocuous can be hurtful or repressive.
There might be nothing wrong with this Cheery but it's not the Cheery, nor her message, from the books.
2020/12/28 13:44:50
Subject: First Look Photos: BBC America’s ‘The Watch’ Starring Richard Dormer (Discworld)
Part of Terry's skill is also layers. Many of his stories can be enjoyed at multiple levels of interpretation from the purely slapstick surface level through to in-jokes within specific themes (eg Soul Music has loads of references to the rock-n-roll era) and then major social commentary on humanity and such.
Cheery is one such example; on the surface it is indeed a pun and then you dig a bit deeper, past the surface and Terry shows you something else. The nice thing is that he's not preaching or forcing, he's just showing you the greater ramifications.
The other thing to realise is that Discworld was always in a vast state of change. From the very first book one constant is change. From the old fantasy tropes to a more, perhaps, modern fantasy. In some ways he perhaps saw the dominance of the Lord of the Rings style fantasy and rebelled against it to show us new ideas and developments and perhaps to suggest where it might go after that era.
Overread wrote: ...The other thing to realise is that Discworld was always in a vast state of change. From the very first book one constant is change. From the old fantasy tropes to a more, perhaps, modern fantasy. In some ways he perhaps saw the dominance of the Lord of the Rings style fantasy and rebelled against it to show us new ideas and developments and perhaps to suggest where it might go after that era.
It is for this reason that it is one of the great sorrows that he was taken from us too early, there was so much more to come.
"All their ferocity was turned outwards, against enemies of the State, foreigners, traitors, saboteurs, thought-criminals" - Orwell, 1984
2021/01/01 23:41:28
Subject: First Look Photos: BBC America’s ‘The Watch’ Starring Richard Dormer (Discworld)
Overread wrote: Part of Terry's skill is also layers. Many of his stories can be enjoyed at multiple levels of interpretation from the purely slapstick surface level through to in-jokes within specific themes (eg Soul Music has loads of references to the rock-n-roll era) and then major social commentary on humanity and such.
Cheery is one such example; on the surface it is indeed a pun and then you dig a bit deeper, past the surface and Terry shows you something else. The nice thing is that he's not preaching or forcing, he's just showing you the greater ramifications.
The other thing to realise is that Discworld was always in a vast state of change. From the very first book one constant is change. From the old fantasy tropes to a more, perhaps, modern fantasy. In some ways he perhaps saw the dominance of the Lord of the Rings style fantasy and rebelled against it to show us new ideas and developments and perhaps to suggest where it might go after that era.
Well, the first ones didn't touch much on Tolkien- they were very naked parodies of Lieber, Howard, McCaffery and others. Light and Colour weren't very funny either, IMO. It took him a while to hit his stride and find a decent voice, rather than just riffing on the genre staples and having a very vengeful and angry Death chasing Rincewind around.
The later ones sort of ran 'Fantasy Racism is Bad, mmkay?' into the ground hard, without offering much else (Unseen Academicals onwards, for the most part).
His best books were the middle bits.
And despite being based (roughly) on some of those middle bits, this show... doesn't look good.
Efficiency is the highest virtue.
2021/01/02 11:49:40
Subject: First Look Photos: BBC America’s ‘The Watch’ Starring Richard Dormer (Discworld)
In fairness his last handful of books were written with him suffering mentally and likely also trying to push them out as fast as he could to try and complete more of his life's work before his mind was totally gone.
I have to say I'm actually glad no other author has been encouraged/allowed to take up the torch and continue. Sometimes this works and sometimes it doesn't; it works with Tolkien because he honestly published very little, but his world building and notes were extensive into the extreme so he left a huge body of material and concepts to work with.
Yet other times even extensive stories don't work - the newer Pern novels by Anne's son are, reportedly, not as good. However its not just comparing a difference in style but an author from another age of writing who was very experienced by the end; with someone who is more modern and who has honestly not written as much.
I have to say I'm actually glad no other author has been encouraged/allowed to take up the torch and continue. Sometimes this works and sometimes it doesn't
I'm glad no one has. I utterly loathe this practice.
Even if they're competent (unlike, say, the younger Herbert), they're never on track with the setting and the characters the same way.
Younger authors need to do their own thing, not desecrate corpses.
Efficiency is the highest virtue.
2021/01/02 14:37:13
Subject: First Look Photos: BBC America’s ‘The Watch’ Starring Richard Dormer (Discworld)
