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Crispy78 wrote:

Detritus is mediocre, it's like they heard 'made out of rock' but never saw any of Josh Kirby's illustrations.

I honestly assumed they were trying to do the rock-guy from Thor 3 without obviously doing the rock-guy from Thor 3.
Which is obviously going to depend on the voice and hopefully won't look so much like a painfully generic D&D-style earth elemental in motion.


Of the cast, only Vimes even looks vaguely like what's described. And they went too far from weathered and world-beaten into 'grizzled and crazy old coot from Spaghetti McWestern, Inc.'

Carrot, Sybil and Cheery all had very distinctive visual descriptions, and those are just gone for 'generic hollywood' body-types. Angua looks like she should be running around in a cyberpunk mashup with Dickens, begging for more nano-porridge. Though that's partially posture and her relative size perched on the desk.

What the hell am I looking at? Sybil is skinny and conventionally attractive, Cheery is no longer a dwarf nor has a beard, there's electricity, and plastic, and spray paint and the like everywhere...I could go on, but I think everyone else has done it already.

Why not just make your own goddam dieselpunk series and have an original IP? Because right now, I feel like I'm looking at Narnia reinvented as a cyberpunk dystopian detective thriller. If you're going to change it that much, why bother slapping 'Discworld' on it?

My greatest fear is that with the amount of effort being spent on 'edginess' in virtually every shot there, they're going to sacrifice the silliness and humour. The whole point of Pratchett's work is the gently sarcastic humour running throughout; it's why Crowley stayed up all night turning the M25 into a satanic symbol, or why Death spends his time fussing cats.

If you remove that? It's nothing to do with his work anymore. You can change aesthetics all around, but lose that particular spark which made Pratchett's work unique, and you might as well not have bothered.

 Overread wrote:

 Turnip Jedi wrote:

Also wondering if this sort of fumble would happen if Sir Terry was still with us

Depends, we still got the first Golden Compass movie and Scyfi-Channel managed to do Earthsea with only one character who wasn't white.

And, lately, Artemis Fowl.

 Elemental wrote:

 Overread wrote:

 Turnip Jedi wrote:

Also wondering if this sort of fumble would happen if Sir Terry was still with us

Depends, we still got the first Golden Compass movie and Scyfi-Channel managed to do Earthsea with only one character who wasn't white.

And, lately, Artemis Fowl.

I read that first book ages ago and, whilst it wasn't aimed at my generation/age, I was impressed and enjoyed the creative ideas and story. When I saw the trailer I was left going "wait was it really all like that - have I forgotten that much". I was relieved to find that my brain is fine, its Hollywood just showing that it still cannot read

Detritus looks awful.

I'm really not sure what to make of this one. I have no problem at all with a TV adaption taking liberties with the source material, or (as seems to be the case here) taking nothing more than basic themes and building a different story from them... And visually at least, this looks interesting. But I feel like, given how much people love the source material, it's going to have to be really outstandingly written in order to get past people's inevitable 'But that's just not right!' reactions.

 Elemental wrote:

 Overread wrote:

 Turnip Jedi wrote:

Also wondering if this sort of fumble would happen if Sir Terry was still with us

Depends, we still got the first Golden Compass movie and Scyfi-Channel managed to do Earthsea with only one character who wasn't white.

And, lately, Artemis Fowl.

It says something about this year that I thought that was an upcoming Disney+ (show?special?thing?) and not a theatrical release that already happened.

...I have no words.

 Overread wrote:

Whilst you can argue that Discworld is indeed on the industrial march so much just looks wrong. Spraycan graffitie - the little beads holding onto his badge (exceptionally American style); heck there's an electric fan in the background.

Not just that: there's a toaster and plastic kettle, and one of the crossbows has a RIS mount for telescopic sights!

Feels like The Watch is now a Firefly reboot ;-)

john_chandler wrote:

 Overread wrote:

Whilst you can argue that Discworld is indeed on the industrial march so much just looks wrong. Spraycan graffitie - the little beads holding onto his badge (exceptionally American style); heck there's an electric fan in the background.

Not just that: there's a toaster and plastic kettle, and one of the crossbows has a RIS mount for telescopic sights!

Feels like The Watch is now a Firefly reboot ;-)

Ooo, a comedy/drama about a bunch of marshals or bounty hunters set inthe Firefly ‘verse?? Now that’s a show I would watch! Does anyone have Joss Whedon’s email address?!

Still open to the show actually being good, but they keep worrying me it’s just going to be utterly generic.

I mean, the characters are what makes Discworld.

Replace Granny Weatherwax with Generic Witch type, and the dynamic of the three falls flat.

Without Lady Sybil being, well, Lady Sybil, Vimes cannot be Vimes, as his outright love for her and Young Sam are completely central to his character.

Without Carrot being the yokel with an unshakeable belief that, when asked, people Will Do The Right Thing (and being proven right), there’s no redemption of The Night Watch.

I don’t want any fantasy drama show to fail. That’s unfair on the cast and crew (reality shows, which I find inherently exploitative and of zero value can however get in the sea), but the more I see of this, the more I suspect it’s coming out of the gate with several large foot oriented bullet wounds.

Do we even know if there's a werewolf in this? Or is she going to turn out to be a were-human or a were-cat?!

I agree this won't be Discworld, they've sliced out so much that they can't even re-use the original material all that well. Plus there's no Nobby and Colin - the backbone of the Night Watch is missing! Then again I don't think any adaptation has got Nobby right, they keep taking a human and putting warts and such on him - he's pretty much a goblin who looks a bit human rather than a human who has the odd boil.

 Overread wrote:
Do we even know if there's a werewolf in this? Or is she going to turn out to be a were-human or a were-cat?!

No, but I can almost guarantee that she'll have some moment of sexual assault/vulnerability that makes Carrot step in. Which will in turn spark her mad love for him and eight episodes of her pining from a distance.

I know this because if they've reduced Sybil to 'skinny redhead', they're clearly going for the cheap sexist hooks in writing.

This twitter post feels less like distancing themselves and more, 'go frak yourselves and the horse you rode in on' to me.

To be honest, I'm kinda here for it, too...

And I'm a bit concerned about the whole 'queering up' comment from the showrunners... That just looks like prepositioning an excuse if the show fails.

When you consider how much love there is out there for Pratchett and Gaiman's Good Omens, which, as I understand it, the TV show is very much in spirit with how it was written, talking about 'queering up' a Pratchett story seems, well, quite frankly, like you've probably missed something.

@ Doc

Curse you now I want them to do a Witch thing just to see how they cope with Nanny

Good Omens was about as good an adaptation as we could’ve hoped for.

Sure, it wasn’t 100% faithful, but it landed the beats and that is what matters with an adaptation.

And that’s why this cannot be Discworld. Again, that reason doesn’t equate to “and therefore it sucks and must die”

Hopefully, Sir Terry’s fan base are smart enough not to get out of prams the way other fan bases of beloved properties can have a tendency to.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Turnip Jedi wrote:
@ Doc

Curse you now I want them to do a Witch thing just to see how they cope with Nanny

Masochist!

There's some interesting info in the comments to that tweet. It seems that complete creative control was given to the BBC and that it was a deal done years ago under her father. So that gives some idea how long this has been in the pipe line; passed around and likely chopped and changed.

There's also a comment further down where someone was interviewed for a job working on the game of the Watch (likely based on this series) and that the staff were specifically told they could not work with Rhi in the games development. Ergo reinforcing that she is fully cut out of this process.


Sadly it seems that The Watch is held by the BBC until this contract ends. Which means other adaptations won't be allowed/able/suitable to use The Watch stories, but hopefully can do others (witches and the like).

 Jadenim wrote:
From Discworld Monthly on Facebook, first image of Detritus (who actually looks like a troll!):

I think I see the problem, this is actually a remake of Carry On Camping, they've just mislabelled it. Left to right Williams, Windsor, Sims, James, Jacques, Bresslaw. Looks good.

 Overread wrote:
Do we even know if there's a werewolf in this? Or is she going to turn out to be a were-human or a were-cat?!

I agree this won't be Discworld, they've sliced out so much that they can't even re-use the original material all that well. Plus there's no Nobby and Colin - the backbone of the Night Watch is missing! Then again I don't think any adaptation has got Nobby right, they keep taking a human and putting warts and such on him - he's pretty much a goblin who looks a bit human rather than a human who has the odd boil.

I quite liked the Noby/Washpot pairing they had in Hogfather - I thought the actor did a decent job of Mr Nobbs there.

 Overread wrote:
There's some interesting info in the comments to that tweet. It seems that complete creative control was given to the BBC and that it was a deal done years ago under her father. So that gives some idea how long this has been in the pipe line; passed around and likely chopped and changed.

Yeah. This one in particular sounds like the BBC pulled a 'I'm altering the deal, pray I don't alter it any further'

Rhi Pratchett wrote:This deal was initially done when my father was alive. Creative control was given over. But it wasn’t the same team and was a very different beast back then.

I wonder how binding the contract is for the BBC? Sometimes studios will slap the "name" on anything either because they have it under contract that they must produce it (and don't really want too so they slap it on anything to get rid of it); or that the contract expires after X period of time if its not "used" so to retain access they, again, throw it on anything they can. There's more than a few films that have been produced just to keep the IP even if the film was a mess.

It might also be that two or three projects got amalgamated which results in a hybrid of the combined ideas that doesn't really resemble any of the original projects, but which "completes them" as such. Perhaps whoever wound up with The Watch IP in their pocket didn't have the money for a set or actors whilst whoever wound up with a steam punk set didn't have an IP/writer or anything to market it with etc...

And the latest Internet storm is that the showrunner thanked everyone BUT Sir Terry when the show wrapped... (Insta)

Oh for feths sake.

Well he's not around to thank, though one would think thanks to the Foundation and his daughter would be present, though considering it seems they've both severed ties there's likely enough bitter blood there that if he had thanked them there'd also be a storm about it too

I don’t think that Americans should be allowed near things like Discworld. Not without heavy supervision.

From Twitter:

Meet Ankh-Morpork’s unlikeliest heroes. Don’t miss an exclusive first look at #TheWatch with the cast and executive producers at #NYCCMetaverse, moderated by @ynb

Tomorrow at 1:15PM EST right here: http://bit.ly/TheWatchNYCC

Automatically Appended Next Post:

I don't envy moderators having to moderate that!

I could see it being a powder keg of hostilities/issues EVER so fast. Especially Terry's daughter has already denounced the whole enterprise already. I'd have wanted to hold off on things like that until it was out; at least then it can try and stand on its own two feet before it gets torn into.

First Look video

Is it my ears/speakers or is there something up with the audio in that clip? It's like the treble has been messed with or something .

Tbf, I've given up on the idea that this will be a faithful reproduction but the trailer does look like something I may enjoy anyway, I'll give it a go.

 r_squared wrote:
Tbf, I've given up on the idea that this will be a faithful reproduction but the trailer does look like something I may enjoy anyway, I'll give it a go.

See that is the worst thing for me. I might actually enjoy this - steam punk style fantasy adventuring stuff - just the kind of thing I like. But its just not Discworld in the least little bit.

Heck I spent a few moments and I think there's perhaps one or two compliments/hopeful posts in the whole Twitter thread linked. Their major marketing and its, well, a failure. Even if many are, like myself, saying that they could enjoy it, its just not Discworld in any shape or form.