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The Terry Pratchett Thread

Apparently Mob Films, who make the Sky adaptations, have confirmed they're going to do Unseen Academicals next. They start filming later this year.

It'll be interesting to see who they cast as Vimes. Pity PTerry's own first choice, Pete Postlethwaite, is no longer a possibility.
 
I've actually always envisioned Clint Eastwood, long before Paul Kidby drew him that way. I admit, Vimes is quite hansom, albeit in a ragged way, in my head, but despite this I can kind of envision Alun Armstrong taking the character in a different, but equally enjoyable, way.

It's actually a character whose casting I feel strongly about.
 
"The wizards said that the University stood on magical ground and was therefore exempt from taxation and anyway you couldn't put a tax on knowledge.
The Patrician said you could. It was two hundred dollars per capita; if per capita was a problem, decapita could be arranged.
The wizards said that the University had never paid taxes to the civil authority.
The Patrician said he was not proposing to remain civil for long.
The wizards said, what about easy terms?
The Patrician said he was talking about easy terms. They wouldn't want to know about the hard terms.
The wizards said that there was a ruler back in, oh, it would be the Century of the Dragonfly, who had tried to tell the University what to do. The Patrician could come and have a look at him if he liked.
The Patrician said that he would. He truly would.
In the end it was agreed that while the wizards of course paid no taxes, they would nevertheless make an entirely voluntary donation of, oh, let's say two hundred dollars per head, without prejudice, mutatis mutandis, no strings attached, to be used strictly for non-militaristic and environmentally-acceptable purposes."

This bit manages to crack me up everytime i read it.
 
Two interesting announcements from PTerry:

There has been one hell of a lot of rumours regarding a Good Omens adaptation over the past few weeks, mostly started by me at the SFX Weekender. So, ladies and gentleman, I can hereby exclusively reveal that - YES - Neil and myself have shaken hands and received groats from Rod Brown sealing a TV deal. An official announcement from Prime Focus will follow in a couple of weeks time. However, I can reveal right now that Terry Jones (yes, the Python) and Gavin Scott (not a Python, but he gets it) are already on the job. It's been a long time coming, but it's looking good.

Sir Terry Pratchett and Rod Brown, Managing Director of Prime Focus Productions, announce that they have come to an agreement for the unprecedented and exclusive worldwide television rights to create brand new storylines for the iconic characters of Pratchett’s phenomenally successful Discworld series. [...]

The main focus of the series will be set in the bustling, highly mercantile, largely untrustworthy and always vibrant city of Ankh-Morpork and will follow the day-to-day activities of the men, women, trolls, dwarves, vampires and several other species who daily pound its ancient cobbles (and, of course, Igor in the forensics department).
 
CSI: Ankh-Morpork!

I like it - a fantasy version of the science fiction show CSI would/could* be fun.



*Would if it is done as I think it should be, could if they don't do it as I know it should be done.
 
Oh - and is it October yet?

If you followed the instructions and folded February correctly you should get October from the #754 Procrastinator.

If you need more help the answer is "A fish!".


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Could you tell me, please, how to make the video play?

Here it is for you Susan:



It occasionally seems to stick for some reason. Move the slider anywhere, wait for something to play then move the slider back to the beginning.


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CSI: Ankh-Morpork!

I like it - a fantasy version of the science fiction show CSI would/could* be fun.

Of course you know Vimes' attitudes toward clues (i.e. physical evidence)?

"And I shouldn't think we'll be able to find any Clues on this," he said. "There's too many greasy fingermarks all over it."

from Feet of Clay
 

On the contrary. As Miss Susan says “it’s always ‘now’ everywhere.”

To be precise, it was one of Miss Susan's students who said this, as a response to a question. Of course, that was pretty much the answer Miss Susan was looking for.

I bought three books at the airport when going to Barcelona:

Nation - This was a very different book from Pratchett. I understand why he chose to make it a non-Discworld book. More philosophical than would've suited that setting. It was also pretty decent, though not the greatest.

Unseen Academicals - This book was... messy. I know that Pratchett's later books have used the coming of some steampunk (Discworld-style) technology as a setup for the plot (The Truth, Going Postal, Making Money, etc. etc.), but in all those other books, the technology/social upheaval change was just that, a set-up. I mean, in The Truth, as soon as it's established that newspapers are now a part of Discworld, Vetinari's being framed for attempted murder. This time, the introduction of football -is- the entire story, and with all those changes of perspectives, hard to follow too. Then again, having an over-arching conflict every time may make it a bit simplistic? Benefits some from the re-reading I'm currently doing, though still not my favourite discworld book by a long shot.

I Shall Wear Midnight - The last book I read, and without a doubt the best I've read of Pratchett for some time now. Tiffany Aching is proving to be a great character, and I sometimes wonder why he suggests these books for younger readers, because the Aching books often contains sections that are more mature than many of the other Discworld books (the most serious way Pratchett's ever handled death was undoubtedly in The Wee Free Men). In any case, I couldn't stop reading this once I'd started, which meant I didn't get much sleep the last night at the hotel.
 

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