I'm not entirely opposed to the idea of taking a familiar story and twisting the setting to show us something new. I rather enjoyed Tin Man, for instance, and not just because of Kathleen Robertson's dresses. I'm not opposed to telling new stories in a familiar setting, or using a familiar setting as the background for something new. All fine. Battlestar Galactica took a pretty mediocre and cheesy old sci-fi and turned it into something special (at first, anyway). The Watch is not that. In order to look at a story from a new direction, you need to have an _old_ direction. To subvert the status quo, there needs to _be_ a status quo. You can't just leap straight into a twisted re-imagining of a classic and important narrative right out the gate. The Watch stories are probably the most 'cinematic' series in the Discworld already, needing the _least_ adaptation to get onto screen. None of this was necessary. And don't even get me _started_ on taking a strong female character who is presented as older and, ah, 'big-boned' and turning her into a young, skinny action heroine.
@@SliverCAN no, no i did not... jesus tap dancing christ it gets worse doesn’t it. I guess a female dwarf character making her way own in the world wouldn’t be interesting enough. The fact that there is no sergeant colon or nobby makes me glad in a way becuase they cannot butcher those two
You ever get the feeling you're watching a bunch of narcissistic creatives that want to get their own self-insert stories off the ground, but to actually get funded they're forced to "adapt" someone else's work because it has an actual audience?
@JRPGFan20000 she put the last few books in writing by his dictation, of course her judgement has moral weight, far more so than any greedy production company.
And the irony of all this is that the books are pretty progressive, to begin with. Fantasy tropes were used all the time for subtle social commentary of all stripes. Entire books centered on themes of identity, race relations(both in general and with the police), and sexism. The book version of Cheery Littlebottom is probably the most obvious example. In the original books, while dwarves had two biological genders, dwarvish society placed no importance on the concept. They both dressed and acted masculine, not to mention the beards. "All dwarves have beards and wear twelve layers of clothing. Gender is more or less optional." - Terry Pratchett Cheery was notable for being the first dwarf on the Disc to come out as openly feminine. She had an entire arc where she comes out as female. I don't remember anyone complaining about these themes being in the book at the time. I wonder why this worked for him and not for the "progressives" of today? Oh that's right! Pratchett was a master of clever satire and these bozos are hacks. The only reasons I can think of for why they felt the need to woke it up further are that they didn't read any of it, or more likely that it flew over their heads and didn't see any of the stuff that in theory they should have connected with.
Well, Pratchett is pretty much anathema to the current woke regressive narrative. Personal responsibility instead of collective guilt, individuality and free thinking instead of hive minds, sexuality being only the person concerning's business, race and background not being the defining characteristics of a person, a sceptical and defiant view of mob mentality/mob justice and acting like a moral superior, and the list goes on and on. I definitly agree with his books being progressive though, but that is not something that is looked favourably upon by our current culturral and politicial regressive authoritarian "elite". "Stories of imagination tend to upset those without one." - T.P
The thing is the Discworld was simultaneously both progressive and traditional, while calling out the flaws in both. Some tropes were subverted and others were explained to be a required constant for the universe to exist. The reader could think about the issues raised in the book and the humour made it more palatable.
Don't forget about Sharna and Pepe, the creators of "Micromail", (Unseen Academicals). Even though Pepe seemed to be rather effete, He makes clear that he is both male and hetero, and Sharna, even though she wears armor and has a beard, is most definitely Female, and married to Pepe. I haven't read all of Terry's books, but I've read a lot of them. I'd never heard of Cheery Littlebottom before today, though.
"Without going into lots of detail, it's hit the familiar Hollywood iceberg (the one which would've set Good Omens in Indiana without the Four Horsemen). People suddenly grow an extra head and say things like "we have to make this relevant to the American teenager". And it's at times like this I get very glad that control has not been completely relinquished, because people are going to start suggesting really dumb things." -Terry Pratchett himself. They waited for Sir PTerry die, so they could commit this travesty.
That's it. That's exactly it. The hacks waited until a great man died then they started destroying his legacy. Hollywood has never respected authors and this is just another infuriating chapter in that book. I never wanted to see Sir Terry in the same group as Philip K Dick, the authors whose work has been bastardized and disgraced by mindless idiots in the entertainment industry.
@LTNetjak This has been in the works before Terry's death. HE had creative control, not Narrativia Limited (The company that is meant to handle all of his works.). So BBC America waited for Sir PTerry to die, so creative control passed on to them.
@@esmewvimes2901 Imagine how reading Thud or Nightwatch (am I misremembering the name?) feels. Death never said he's not returning Sir Pratchett, did he?
@@esmewvimes2901 : Read it, it's glorious, bittersweet and we get a chance to let all our tears go as a beloved character leads Terry away too. Figuratively speaking obviously.
If you license a property, you should remain faithful to that property. If you're just going to bastardize it and change the characters, setting, themes and messaging, just create your own unique new IP. Time and time again we've seen fanbases reject new adaptations the further away they get from the source material.
Why spend so much money licensing a product if you're just going to shit all over it, exactly. Although there's Sony and Spider-Man, and Ghostbusterettes, and... the world has gone to shit, so maybe talking sense has lost its place. This is she-Thor all over again. "There's not enough wahmyn superheroes" but "It's too hard to make a new superheroette" so "We're just gonna steal one and fuck you if you have good taste". All that'll be missing is someone in episode 1 saying "I thought you were a dude" to a gender-swapped character and then being brutally murdered by the main cast.
The Watch series always felt to me like the most "normal" part of Terry's beautiful world, in that you had a solid core cast of characters you empathized with, cared for, struggling through situations they found every bit as insane as the reader did. Yes, the setting is fantasy, but the love, hate, pride, racism, greed, hope, prejudice, acceptance, courage, warmongering, politicking and DEATH has a delicate trick of resonating with any reader with just the same power as any other media/genre. I urge anyone new to Discworld, watching this vid, to consider that, when you hear about the fan backlash.... the love folks have for these characters runs deep and, while I think Discworld fans would accept more changes than other fandoms would (if it meant getting the soul of the characters right) this just isn't it.... it's not just wrong, it the absence of it's soul. This cast is almost unrecognizable (I thought thumbnails of the vid showed a spruced up Nobby Nobs, not Vimes) and just the appearance of some of the cast negates key elements of their characters. I cannot believe this could happen in today's day and age, but there is less diversity in this group than the novels.... I never read anything by Terry that took at a shot at the way good people wanted to live, how they expressed themselves and who they really felt they were.... he only reserved his ire for those who manipulate others, lie, use controversy for profit and use politics/war as a mask for arrogance. Seeing this come together feels like a slap in the face to the spirit of the books.... and that's not counting the producers attitude towards Terry's family. Many folks have suggested books here for curious people to read... I'd go with GUARDS! GUARDS! as I'd struggled with some other books before, and this felt like the reading version of putting on comfy slippers. After this, I slowly explored other elements of the world
You know what's truly disgusting. I looked up the cast list and Nobs is not ANYWHERE on the cast list. Neither is Colon. Nor Cuddy for that matter. Cuddy is actually important you know. Particularly to Detritus. And Apparently Throat is gonna be a chick. I think I just et one of Throat's sausages. Excuse me. I think I need a years recovery. To be serious, there is nothing wrong with genderflipping characters or, for that matter turning cheery into a genderqueer UwU soft soy boy. BUT BUT BUT. Cherry is NOT SHORT. *points harshly to my desk* THAT is my problem. THAT is no where near faithful to the source material. Angua can look how she wants. Vetinari, it's actually pretty interesting to have him be a chick. BUT. BUT. *Still pointing* TH=he problem is that there is going to be romantic tension. Like disgusting pinning on Chick Vetinari's part that she has a quasi love boner for Vimes. I can just call it. You can have him be a chick. But I do not trust the change. THEN. WHY. WHY. Is Carrot not wielding a SWORD? That sword is actually kind of sort of IMPORTANT. Also apparently Vetinari is only in ONE. ONE FUCKING EPISODE. ONE. No. Vetinari needs to be IN EVERY EPISODE. Even if it means only a cut away to him writing on parchment. WHY why isn't NOBS in the picture? Nobs is like my favorite character. Nobs and Colon are actually important. Like REALLY important storywise. They are vital to the series. Period. The fact that they are not on the cast list, is cutting my own throat. Cutting my own throat it is! Everything, everything I learn about this series makes me just angry. I know without a doubt that the people who made it completely and utterly despise Sir Terry Pratchett. They hate him and all his books with such a passion that they want this shit to fail.
@@mariawhite7337 Ooooh Maria, I hope you have indeed recovered from your near inna bun incident.. I don't think they hate him, thats too strong a word I think. More like, they make money off him. Thats the difference. And more Important in their eyes, hence, the adaptation (of sorts, still haven't seen it but I am getting a distinct feeling from many posters on this video). I think I'd like to see it to make my own mind up and see if its got the soul in it.
For goodness sake. I've wanted a dramatisation of 'the watch' for so long, but not if they are going to defile it in such a heinous way. Poor Terry must be spinning in his grave.
The Watch stories, witch stories, wizard stories, assassin stories, Death / Mort stories... Discworld is a well of treasures, if taken from properly. Proper is problematic these days though. At least casting looks pretty solid for now. EDIT: On a second glance - what they seem to be doing to Vimes character disturbs me deeply. They made Richard Dormer look and overact like Floki from Vikings. They better not mess with Vimes.
@@vortigern7021 but David Jason was right for the part, he gave Rincewind the right type of look and sound, yes he was much older than the character but he was right. Looking at these characters they really aren't. Carrot looks like "some bloke" rather than a big lump of a man who towers over most and commands attention ; Vimes looks like foul Ron; Cheery looks bigger than Carrott but is supposed to be a dwarf; Cybal is supposed to be a well built mature lady, not some back flipping model. This is just using well regarded characters in a totally different setting and the fact even his daughter has said its nothing to do with her fathers books says it all.
@@annabella1650 Hogfather TV adaptation was perfectly all right. So there is no reason. But than again there is no reaso to make Ankh-Morpork Watch cynerpunk psychosquad either... Sooo.
@@annabella1650 That's kind of the point, isn't it? They have to destroy the old stories, so that their nihilism can be ascendant. Fortunately the stories are more powerful than they are, because they are human stories.
The issue I see is classic disregard for the source. There are so many progressive stories built into the characters they mutilated that I’m hoping they get slammed by the groups they ignored. Especially Cheery and Cybil. I still can’t believe they erased her Discworld Dwarf identity. Which causes an issue with the comedy of Carrot being a Dwarf by adoption, identity instead of race but treated as race. Theres so many layers and stories they destroyed with just the visual changes. Basically they nuked most of the character arcs from go because of how the characters look.
@@TheKarnophage Honestly until the trailer i thought she was playing Vetinari based on the infamous and excitement shattering interview with he vampire rockstar line...
The thing is if that wanted to do something with good female representation there are the witches novels which have it in Spades. That is the thing with Discworld. There is literally something for everyone. And the multiple storylines that run through it allow for it to appeal to some more than others, but that is okay because there is also this other set of stories that you may like set in the same continuity.
@@dapperchap572 You are 100% right. Granny Weatherwax even visits Ank-Morpork and stays at Mrs Palms! There are so many stories for every type of situation you can name or at least the abstraction of the same issue which is pure gold. It's a shame they don't have any respect for the source material. (Side note one consiquince by gender swapping lord Vetinari is that they effectively eliminated the defacto leader of Ubervauld and the founder of the blood temperance movement, one of the badass female characters in the series! The extended metaphor for their romance/not romance and the relationship of the two countries won't work now, there's no stereotypical sexual tension to build off of. Also Vetinari is clearly a metaphor for Machiavelli...)
Yeah, Terry was literally doing progressive before half of these fucks were born, and it all stands up to 'modern scrutiny' if you actually have a sense of humour and half a brain. Fucking book called Equal Rites n all.
Major part of why they were so good. There was none of this pandering bullshit. Equal Rites had a Real feminist message, about Equality. Weatherwax didn't Beat the archchancellor. They fought as equals. Eskarina wasn't "The bestest wizard evar." And it was so good, Terry received a large number of letters from fans thinking he was a woman. This thinks a feminist message is "Make Vetinari a woman."
You're right! I think the only time i noticed the British-ness was when an accent was written, but otherwise it felt like a story that could take place in any part of the world
The earlier novels especially were full of British puns that Yanks wouldn't get as they were rooted deep in the British sub-culture. A bit like Python in that respect. A lot of the early ones referenced American fantasy stories that only fans of that genre would get. He amused at a lot of levels which made his work so enjoyable.
I think it's more the British humour that a lot of Americans fail to grasp. But I agree the books are universal if you like that style of humor and writing.
I have no faith left in the BBC. "Hey, this is popular, let's do this!" "Ok, but let's get rid of this and this and change this and then add this." "Now it is perfect! People will love it!" ____later____ "Why didn't they like it? This was supposed to be popular!!!" No understanding of what makes things popular, only a desire to be popular.
It's more like, "Hey, this is popular, let's butcher it!" They're probably trying to meet the new Oscar requirements... soon to be applied to everything made by major corporations.
Made me think of Terry Pratchett's description of Hell. "You take, for example, a certain type of hotel. It is probably an English version of an American hotel, but operated with that peculiarly English genius for taking something American and subtracting from it its one worthwhile aspect, so that you end up with slow fast food, West Country and Western music and, well, this hotel. It’s early closing day. The bar is really just a pastel-pink paneled table with a silly bucket on it, set in one corner, and it won’t be open for hours yet. And then you add rain, and let the one channel available on the TV be, perhaps, Welsh Channel Four, showing its usual mobius Eisteddfod from Pant-y-gyrdl. And there is only one book in this hotel, left behind by a previous victim. It is one of those where the name of the author is on the front in raised gold letters much bigger than the tittle, and it probably has a rose and a bullet on there too. Half the pages are missing. And the only cinema in the town is showing something with subtitles and French umbrellas in it. And then you stop time, but not experience, so that it seems as though the very fluff in the carpet is gradually rising up to fill the brain and your mouth starts to taste like an old denture. And you make it last for ever and ever. That’s even longer than from now to opening time. And then you distil it." This show could well equal the above passage.
Back in the early 90's, I was working at bookstores when I first encountered Prachett. I went on to spend the decade running an award winning Historical Reenactment guild, who hired out to provide choreography, structure, and SFX to battle reenactments. Because we had a reputation, we were approached to start working Security at events as well, and we make a good run of it. Once I left I went into business for myself making leather clothes, but an injury prevented me from continuing so I drifted back into security, eventually winding up the Night Watch commander for our main Ren Faire production company, as a skinny, but slightly padded, somewhat emotionally broken, cynical, embittered, somewhat alcoholic, very experienced fighter and leader, although not a well paid one. So, a fan of the books might be able to see why I identify greatly with Vimes, and why I REALLY can't get behind this. What pisses me off most is this will probably delay an actual faithful and true Watch series. Thinking your particular spin will be more clever than the greatest satirist of the late 20th and early 21st century smacks of hubris
Remember when Cybil was a large feminine woman who was happily married and was so well connected that she could overturn the politics of a nation by simply writing letters? Or when Cherry was a dwarf who decided she wanted to identify as female even though it flew in the face of tradition and started wearing skirts and makeup but refused to even consider shaving her beard? Remember when Vimes said "Only crimes could take place in darkness, punishment had to be done in the light" and was so straight laced it's a common fan interpretation to view him as the personification of Law (and Vetinari as Order)? Well, these showrunners certainly don't. I don't even think they remembered there were books, or how to read
@@Goodbutevilgenius It is when you come from a society that only identifies as male. Discworld dwarves only let VERY close relations know if they're female, letting anyone else know is seen as obscene.
@@Goodbutevilgenius I think we're talking around each other here. Female dwarves do not OPENLY identify as female, which does not stop them from being female this is true. We don't actually know Cherry's biological sex though. And she doesn't even know what a woman is before she moves to the city. She does not like all the things she's "supposed" to like and prefers feminine things and has no idea how to feel about this. It's not just that dwarves don't admit when they're female, it's that they don't even know what being a woman IS. Cheery makes a CHOICE about how she wants to be seen, and that's the whole point of her narrative
ok, one more thing. I've seen a few comments about the "americanization" of the story. I'm an American fan of Pratchett. Let me say this loud and clear. TO THE BBC: Your American fans like your shows BECAUSE they 're British! So if you strip out what makes your show/film unique you've taken out the very thing that appeals to fans. Why does Hollywood/BBC think that audiences are incapable of empathizing with anything different? No, every production has to "represent" because people can only relate to others that look and think just like them apparently.
After having studied literature, having taught literature for years now and having lived a thousand lives, Terry Pratchett is my favourite author, so much so that I even proudly wear a tattoo of Great Atuin. Rest in Peace, you incredible genius.
Just finished reading it again. Such a great book. Moved on to THUD yesterday. I used to be a Rincewind fan, but I’m leaning more towards the ‘Watch’ books lately.
You haven't read the books Andre? You should really find some time to rectify that. If the Colour of Magic grabs you, his writing and world-building just gets better and better over time. Well, apart from the final couple of books but he was quite ill at that point, was having to dictate and needed quite a lot of help to get his thoughts down. EDIT: Stealing a comment from the trailer video "The writers of this travesty should very quickly find themselves in a scorpion pit, on one wall of which is painted READ THE BOOKS!"
I really don’t understand the thought process that goes through these production companies collective heads. “Ok so we can’t think of anything new so let’s find an established work with an established fan base. Then we are going to change many key points, ignore the original message, and do everything in our power to piss off that established fan base.” *A Few Hours Later* “Hmmm the established fan base decided not to watch our show, told all their friends not to watch our show, and ratings have been absolute shit. Let’s berate and gaslight the built in fan base and see if that helps. No? Oh well... Ok so we can’t think of anything new so...”
While I 100% agree with the your view on the current state of adaptations, I have to point out that film and TV production companies wasn't above changing major or minor details in much beloved franchises an fan favorites in the pre-woke era. Granted, the people that did so at least had the common sense to make the changes logical and explainable (for the most part), but I'm just highlighting the fact that screen writers DID change key points, the original message and did p*** fan bases off (I'm just taking the 80s an 90s book-to-film/TV adaptations as an example). Book readers would complain something fierce about films not following the content in the books. The big difference, though, was there was no SOCIAL MEDIA for people to air their grievances on. Bulletin boards and forums, perhaps, but no social media. :/
Andre, if you want a taste of Discworld, I highly recommend the Hogfather two-part TV movie. It’s the best of the live-action adaptations, plus with Christmas coming up it’ll be the perfect season to give it a watch. If you like it, start the books at the beginning with Colour of Magic and go by order of publication. It takes maybe 4-5 books for the series to really find its footing, but it’s absolutely worth seeing how Pratchett’s writing talent evolves.
@@r.l.royalljr.3905 Wyrd Sisters and Guards! Guards! would be my recommendations, both solid, with distinct tones (riffs on Shakespeare and policing) so that if one doesn't quite land with a newcomer, the other might. They're also early enough in the chronology that you can safely continue on from there and only miss a few events that get mentioned in passing. The earlier books can be circled back to a leisure, for completeness, and with the understanding that certain characters and world mechanics were only loosely nailed down. Those ones can be a bit of a slog at times, and you could easily turn off a newcomer.
If you can find it. Read Strata, I gave my copy to a friend who let his child destroy it. He's no longer a friend and I doubt they'll ever find the child. Reminds me, I need a new shovel and axe😉
It's not from one of the books but Snowgum Films' adaptation of the short story "Troll Bridge", which was crowdfunded and was approved by Terry himself, is brilliantly done (you can find it on youtube). Hogfather is probably the next best :)
The greatest crime of all - The Watch books are already perfect for series adaptation; they're fast-paced, witty, full of fantastic dialogue and compelling characters, and their stories don't get too surreal (compared to the Rincewind stuff, for example), and remain grounded enough that screen adaptation wouldn't struggle with highbrow concepts and excessive VFX. They are already brilliant observations of human nature, and scathing satire on society that have only become more relevant with age. A pure, straight adaptation, perhaps with a narrator (because in the Discworld books, Pratchett's narrative style is a character unto itself) would be the optimal path; no rewriting needed... practically copy and paste. Each Watch book could be a streaming-length season (so about 8-12 episodes), Expanse-style. The fact that they rewrote something that was already screen-ready demonstrates monstrous arrogance and incompetence.
The Discworld TV movies Sky made were actually pretty good, but that was when Sir Terry was still alive and before the woke fad. I'm sure the idiots in the entertainment industry will ruin the franchise now that Sir Terry is no longer with us. This one is going to hurt me because Discworld is my favourite book series and it's what made me into an avid reader and aspiring author. Ruining Discworld will be more insulting and rage inducing to me than ruining Star Wars was.
@@FatherStack I'm fond of the idea that if Pratchett were still alive and lucid (really, fuck Alzheimer's), he'd be mocking them in his books. And he'd probably use Cheery to do so because she was spearheading change after she was introduced.
I have deep sympathy for anyone who hasn't read Pratchett. He quite literally saved my life. Him diamond. And if Rhiannan and Neil aren't happy with this show, then I won't touch it.
Huge Pratchett fan, but this series looks terrible. I'll swerve this and stick with the books thanks. I don't need gender and race politics forced into my entertainment. There's enough of that skillfully written in Pratchett's work, that will now be meaningless due to the casting choices.
Instead of letting artists "rewrite the stories that inspire them", why not let artists just write their own stuff that's inspired by those stories? This is all the result of studios being so risk adverse and wanting to have "a sure thing", but creatives wanting to do their own thing. When will studios realize that their "sure thing" because even more risky than an unknown property if they don't do the source material justice? They need to create faithful adaptations, but also take a risk on new properties that can potentially become the NEW "sure thing". The way they are currently doing it, nobody wins. But instead of blaming studios for pursuing an unsuccessful strategy, the Twitterati blame fans for wanting to see faithful adaptations of the properties they love instead of "letting the creatives forge their own path"? That's some kind of bullshit right there.
They can't. None of the 'popular' people that these companies use for TV and film have the ability to create. They are practically barren of creativity and imagination. All they can do is copy and alter to fit their taste. Its why they destroy fan bases and property's. From what I can tell....there **are no** creative in the industry anymore. Those folks who can, are not considered trustworthy, probably because they don't follow today's 'progressive' plan.
As a huge Discworld novels/Pratchett fan and appreciative of previous movie, videogame and animation adaptation attempts ... Nevermind, not interested :(
After my mother was murdered I buried myself in Sir Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels, not just for the distraction from what had happened but also for the excellent humour and also the moral guidance that came in the form of the "Watch / Vimes" books, the having to wrestle daily with feelings of anger and the dark feelings of revenge ere threatening to end my own life, but I got through that thanks to Sir Terry's excellent writing and the character of Captain / Commander / Duke / Blackboard Monitor Vimes. I heartily recommend the entire discworld series as you have not read any, try starting at book 1 "The colour of Magic" on to book 2 "The Light Fantastic" and so on. The reason there is such a huge backlash against this isn't that fans are over-reacting to a new way of looking at the stories, it is that they have completely dismantled the stories in a way that all the character developments were trashed, all the storylines were trashed and everything that was recognisable as being the IP of Sir Terry was removed and yet it was presented to us as based on Sir Terry's works. It is like someone promising you a nice juicy steak cooked to your idea of perfection with maybe an interestingly experimental (But reasonable) sauce and then having a plate of cold canned dog food put before you and then the waiter pours a mixture of Strawberry Jam, Liquidised sardines, custard and Marmite on it and then expects you to be happy. If you choose to read the discworld series you will at some point encounter "The Campaign For Equal Heights", this was a lampoon on those people in life who campaign on behalf of others who they feel are too weak, pathetic and insignificant to campaign for themselves, which is sort of noble in a way until it transpires that they then think they know better what that certain group of people want without actually asking them and taking ridiculous actions in their name. Much of the backlash has been that not only did BBC America not understand this bit of humourous lampooning they actively went ahead with this project without any input from anybody even remotely interested in the Discworld novels and were so arrogant that they thought fans would just lap up whatever they vomit out like starving dogs and that is insulting to us all.
It's a bad business decision to create something that will alienate the fan base so badly given how many millions of loyal Pratchett readers there are. Somehow they managed to take all the humor out of a disc-world story.
Humans don't generally like change. We find something we like and want more of that. Too many corporate Numb skulls, generally ones with no talent, think that they have to mix it up and give us something new. When I get ice cream and order vanilla, do not give me rum raisin to mix it up.
It's not quite that simple. A person is more than a set of genitals and shade of skin. People who read stories know this. Drugged-up psychopath CEOs and idiot college students don't. Vetinari is not The Patrician because he has a dick, he's the patrician because he's a sadistic, sarcastic dictator who knows how to run things and can pin you in place with a quiet "Don't let me detain you", but you _know_ to watch out for his warnings when he's stroking his beard. It's a whole assemblage of traits and quirks and other incidental details. Like... Hermione Granger has wild, frizzy hair. If she's suddenly that general lady from Black Panther, there's dissonance. If she's suddenly Chadwick himself, tables will be flipped and pitchforks will be sharpened. Some personality traits are embedded in with everything else, and since race and gender are COMPLETELY irrelevant to the importance of a character but intertwined with all the incidental stuff, you're really just destroying the web of what makes up a personality by arbitrarily cutting parts out for the sake of tokenism. I think of Sam Vimes as a dark-haired Irish drunk. Because he's a drunk, he's somber, and Pratchett is very British and it feels appropriate because of the stereotype of the Irish always being drunk. If he suddenly becomes a black woman (I really hope that's not "him" in the still image promo shots...), then I'm no longer associating all his personality traits with the new he-she monstrosity. And if the _actress_ portraying him acts like Samuel Vimes, *then what was the fucking point of changing anything?* It's not so much that humans don't like change. It's true, we don't, but it's not _all_ about that. It's about.. recognizing the person. Uncanny Valley was mentioned in another comment and it fits: you can tell something isn't a real person when some of the little details you notice are wrong, and it's unsettling. If the details are completely wrong in not so little ways, then you no longer recognize that person. It's like mistaking a stranger for a friend in public; as you get closer, it feels more and more wrong, and then they turn around and you're almost _disgusted._ Nothing to do with race or gender, very little to do with change, just an innate feeling of _wrongness._
@@EdwardHowton I always thought how Vetinari "sort of" legalized crime was genius. So long as you had a license, you could mug people or if you paid enough, could legally have someone assassinated. (I found it hilarious how Sam Vimes knew how to counter the Assassins Guild so well, the rates rose until they eventually refused contracts on him.)
@@Maniacman2030 Oh don't get me started about how much I love Vetinari or the books in general, I won't ever stop. As someone who has _stealth games_ indelibly printed on my DNA, he and the entire assassin's guild is one of my favorite parts of the _Guards_ subseries. I still can't read 'death' without pronouncing it _D'eath_ half the time, and I usually use dark green colors on characters. Like I said, don't get me started. I'm forcing myself to stop at that as it is!
The later books were getting into the realm of Steampunk. The books were a reflections on how a society changes with technology and different ideas were introduced.
Have a look at "Cheery" in the shot of the watchhouse - she wears what looks like modern-style sunglasses around her neck, and the color choice of her clothing - the makeup choices of Angua... all that is typical retro-80s cyberpunk chic. Steampunk is corsets and tophats and pilot goggles. I think stylistically he nailed it. This is more vaporwave than steampunk at the very least.
I got a Dieselpunk energy myself, which in and of itself is not bad, but isn't appropriate for the Disc. The Disc is mideaval-esque, with direct references to the industrial revolution in the later books, along with it's already distinctive Steampunk flair.
The distance between my initial excitement over hearing there was going to be a series based on The Watch and the disgusted realization of the travesty it's turning out to be can only be measured in light years. You couldn't pay me to watch it.
The stories are already progressive (in the good sense) as you have a 6'6" Dwarf named Carrot, and continual issues about bringing in more types of beings into the Night Watch, and this is portrayed as a net positive. The setting is also more early-modern than Medieval (at least in the more developed cities) with strong Clock-Punk elements. This looks so clueless that Ventinari will have a sense of humor.
Hey, Vetinari has a great sense of humor smirking behind that cool visage! You can’t run (without actually running) Ankh Moporkh without some humor. His punishment for Moist Lipwig is a great example of that humor,
Terry Pratchett did sometimes use something like "steampunk" tropes in his books more as a way to satirize modern technology. This was put to good use in possibly the "best" adaptation of his work so far - "Going Postal."
@@screamingblue7 Yeah, I mean, Discworld doesn't have to look like Lord of the Rings, the Witcher or something out of AD&D, but there is plenty in the book that conjures that sort of look to the stories when you read them. For me, the Victorian era idea of Knights and Chivalry mixed with some modern sensibilities is what the aesthetic of Discworld brings out.
1) In the books, Ankh-Morpork went from generic medieval high-fantasy city through to 19th century steampunk city over a decade or two of internal chronology. The Watch itself goes from the guardsmen who hang around the city gates expecting to be bribed to allow "suspicious strangers" (people who look like they have money but aren't heavily armed and aren't known to have influential friends) in and out, to an Edwardian police force. As of the end of the series, there's rapid internal and international communication (via Clacks and a robust post office), paper money (on the Golem standard), broadsheet and tabloid newspapers, forensic investigation, a mainframe computer (Hex), a thriving rail industry, the equivalent of electronic personal organisers (which can even interface with the Clacks network), and I'm sure there's plenty I'm overlooking. Having a steampunk setting from the start, rather than trying to follow the not perfectly consistent development of the city over time, is not an unreasonable decision. 2) It sounds like the series is actually a terrible adaptation, but it may or may not be any good in its own right. There is, of course, a long tradition of TV/movies getting hold of a script and saying "you know what would really sell this story? Getting hold of X IP and changing a few names" (which I'm surprisingly okay with in the case of I, Robot, which was very much in line with Asimov's work thematically, even if it had nothing to do with the specific book whose title got appropriated - meanwhile, I didn't like the Bicentennial Man adaptation at all), which is its own problem. This appears to be a different, and, in my opinion, significantly worse, problem - starting out to do an adaptation, but not wanting to actually follow the stories you're supposedly adapting (was Zack Snyder involved at any point?). Of course, distant adaptations and reimaginings can also be great - Clueless and 10 Things I Hate About You are examples of completely rewriting the source (Emma and Taming of the Shrew, respectively) to end up with something good. It might be worth watching if you ignore the alleged Discworld of it, though signs are not promising.
So very heart breaking. I had such high hopes a year ago when I found out the show was coming. His Grace, The Duke of Ankh, Commander Sir Samuel Vimes is my favorite Fictional character of all times. The moments between he and Vetinari were always classic, with Ol Vimes going dead eyed and staring inches above the Patrician's head and saying "Sir" That's Sam. He would never dare give Havelock the finger. That was all I need to see to give this show the finger.
... and with their current track record, they will end up RIGHT in the trash can. I hear there is an ever increasing effort on getting the license fee scrapped over there in the UK ? I have no such luck here - our Broadcasting Corporation has "managed" itself into financial difficulty to almost the point of implosion - nothing but low-key soapies and 1 or 2 new local movies made a year.:/
Even with a faithful adaptation, I don't think Discworld will ever work as a visual series. Far too many of the jokes are not just the dialogue, but how things are described or explained, such as when he describes a trickster god as owning "the robust sort of humour that thinks nothing of swapping the woopie cushion out for a landmine"
My grandmother could have done with the landmine version, she was possibly the most spiteful and bitterly sectarian and racist person I've ever met and I met Ian Paisley.
Man, a turtle is an animal with a rock on its back (for really ancient people), sometimes it gathers moss and such. When the turtle is breathing (sometimes) while in water, it looks like a small island. And you're surprised that the myth rose in many places. I'd say wherever turtles are and people are, there will be a version of the myth.
I was fortunate to meet Terry Pratchett at a book signing he did at my school in my teens. He received fans enjoying his work very well. Especially well since I was gushing at him hard.
Wow on title alone i hate this already...why cant Hollywood make anything the way it's supposed to be. It's always lets take a name and then just do whatever we want to it, f anyone who actually likes the story the way it was we know better. I'm done, im out. Hollyweird can burn at this point and I won't care at all.
That's called exploitation. Like you see with Star Trek. When you have a real and talented fan helming the work, you get The Orville. When you have a greedy untalented hack, you get Discovery. I am not a fan of Discworld. yet, I feel exactly about it as I do with Trek; once more they are destroying our modern mythology with ignorance, disrespect and narcisim. They are spoiled brats fingerpainting over the Mona Lisa with their own poo and wanting a piece of cake as a reward.
When Charlie and the Chocolate factory was made, Roald Dhal was asked by a reporter what he thought of the finished film. The reporter was expecting glowing praise and adulation but was more than bitterly disappointed when Dhal said, "Give Hollywood a good story and they f**k it up".
Reminder: If you want to adapt Shadowrun, get the rights for adapting Shadowrun. Don't buy some other rights to put that label on your Shadowrun-inspired story. Same goes for Star Wars, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, ... and so on.
I'm a big fan of the Discworld series. If you'd like to see an adaptation of it, they made a tv-movie based on his book Hogfather that's available for free on youtube. It feels like a pretty solid adaptation of his world and style
Disc World is one of the best social satires in the last 40 years. At least they didn't try to make an animated social satire like Star Trek Below Decks.
As a Discworld fan, I'm waiting for the Motive Pictures version. This one can pound sand. Narrativa does not make announcements just for publicity. It's talking to its base, who will be all over them about progress. This isn't Disney we're talking about here. The relationship with its fans is personal. Rhianna has her own job and own creative projects. Since Sir Terry died this is more about keeping his wonderful works alive. If a project falls through, it won't because they didn't try hard enough.
I think the only reason Good Omens was able to be successful was because of Neil Gaiman being on board making sure people didn’t screw it up. Clearly nobody like that was involved with this.
The funny thing about the Discworld is that it makes more sense than actual flerfs do. Flat Earthers can't explain sunsets nor gravity, but on the Discworld, the four elephants occasionally have to lift a leg to allow the small Sun to go by on its orbit around the Disc, light travels more slowly as it passes through magic, and that, magic, explains everything else flerfs are mystified by because on the Disc magic actually exists. I'm mildly upset to discover that they're doing a pointlessly jazzed-up version of the Ankh-Morpork Watch. I can't help but think of Sergeant Angua. She's described in the books as blonde. This is important, because she's a blonde werewolf, and _everybody_ knows the Watch has a werewolf and that it has the same color as her but nobody says anything. If they make her a black woman, the joke just... dies. And for what? Not even as a sacrifice to Offler, just as a victim on the altar of general _pandering._ So which characters can they mangle for that entirely pointless exercise? Nobby Nobbs, with his official document stating that he is, in fact, human? Sergeant Colon, who is fat and stupid? Maybe Samuel Vimes, the alcoholic who, according to Colon, is always knurd, I.E. needing two drinks to be sober? Horribly deformed guy, fat and stupid guy, or super-alcoholic guy, which one becomes the woman? Maybe the Patrician, who looks every bit the evil dictator? You can't mess with Pratchett's characters without ruining them. They're beautifully crafted entities, and we all know that if you make a fat and stupid woman character you'll hear no end of bitching about it, and not just because Melissa McCarthy shouldn't be anywhere near a role with Discworld quality for her to taint. But... I can sort of understand the setting change. Discworld takes a lot of explaining. I snuck in a bunch of references just to point that out. You'd need a few early episodes dedicated to getting a general audience up to speed. If they leave the characters alone (doesn't sound like they will) they could pull it off... with difficulty. A lot of how the City Watch works relies on the fact that people don't have cell phones or infolink brain implants with wi-fi. Edit: Ah. Gender-swapped Vetinari after all. And Terry Pratchett opposed this kind of bastardization? I'm more than mildly upset now. Burn it to the ground.
I contend that it's mildly probable to create _a_ Watch adaptation that doesn't have to break down the whole world. So long as you don't get into Magic or mess with the University, it should be doable. It'd basically be a fantasy cop show.
@@Maniacman2030 That was my original thinking as well. It would take Rihanna Pratchett herself, if not the late great Terry in person to do it properly, but it could be done if the rest of the people in charge were also _incredibly_ competent. In other words, it _could_ be done, just like you _could_ win the lottery six times in a row on a left-hand Thursday. *_But._* That all goes away, however, with the knowledge that Terry Pratchett was opposed to this sort of thing and his daughter is standing in firm legally-safe-can't-sue-me opposition to the project. Call me a sentimentalist, but I don't believe in shoving a stick up a desecrated corpse's ass and puppeteering it for profit. I'm weird that way.
the 2000's Hitchhiker's Guide movie did pretty good....or was close I mean.....gods that movie does match the humor perfectly i read the first 3 of the books after I saw the movie and enjoyed em, they're bizarre, off the wall, illogical and if you accept that they're actually smart as hell cus in the middle of tossing current logic out they still end up going places that'll blow your mind.....and say things important about life the universe and everything 😈
BS. Yes, some of Pratchett's Discworld novels are literally impossible to translate into film, because he describes concepts and ideas that literally cannot be shown, like colours you can't see or a realm where the sky is directly above you, the ground is directly beneath you, and between them is an eye-twisting absence. Yes, those books would be impossible to translate into film and TV. But the Watch books are incredibly _easy_ to translate to TV. They're police procedurals - a genre TV writers can knock out in their sleep (and frequently do) - where the murder weapon might be a dragon, or a golem. They're character-driven and intensely political, and their politics is decidedly progressive. The Watch are _easy_ to adapt for TV, but these guys apparently didn't even try.
"Reimagining Mr. Pratchett's work to the point of being unrecognizable is...unhygienic." ~Mustrum Ridcully DThau, DM, BS, DMn, DG, DD, DMPhil, DMS, DCM, DW & BEIL --------------------------- "Ook." TRANSLATION: "Now look what the trailer for this show has done - the books are restless and all the grimoires have eaten through their chains and are threatening to fly off! Humans...they're supposed to be our superiors. Hrumph!" ~ The Librarian/Pongo Pongo/perh. Dr. Horace Worblehat ----------------------------- Okay, yes - many of these characters would be at home in the world of the Discworld, but not until the main characters have been established. The Watch are all about hiring people normally not considered "proper" by the snobbish gentry. So, yes - a non-binary character (here in this series as Corporal Cheery Littlebottom) would have been hired, but as another character. Cheery Littlebottom is a spectacular example of gender fluidity. I would have loved to have seen her evolution as she transitions from "he" to "she". As for a female tyrant...I do have a sneaking suspicion that if Terry Pratchett had lived to write more books, (after Lord Havelock Vetinari passed on), that there'd be a transfer of power to a female. Vetinari may have ensured that the task of running the city would have fallen to Lady Margolotta. This would serve to massively annoy Commander Sir Samuel "Sam" Vimes (a hobby of Vetinari). Not only would she have been a VAMPIRE, but more annoyingly to Vimes, she's of the aristocracy! The disservice to Lady Sybil Deidre Olgivanna is tragic. She's a large lady who has suffered immensely throughout her youth for her body size, yet she maintains a deep sense of compassion and knows and appreciates herself. The mishandling of Delphine Angua von Überwald is also a great disservice. She's strong, sarcastic, yet surprisingly warm. She carries herself with confidence, knowing her powers can cause great mayhem...but she doesn't. Also, her hair is iconic (the character in this adaptation has her shorn). Well, honestly - this adaptation appears to have "buggered it up!"
Not a HUGE Discworld fan and the only thing I watched is the things with Death and is my favorite one as a result. I don't know if this will feature Death but I hope so. He is so cool.
The books are fantastic and hilarious! Four main story lines: Rincewind (fantastical adventures - but he has NO appreciation for it), Death (philosophical, but really good), Witches (most funny and very magical), The Watch (mystery's)
I've been reading discworld since i was 9, and have read almost everything Sir Pratchett has written. His writing contains some of the most beautiful prose i have ever read and he was able to invoke within me both thought and emotion often at the same time. Others have adapted his work in ways that i have found to be fun and respectful, but this sounds like desecration of something sacred to me.
I actually came across this neat little bookstore a couple of days ago, and inside were tons of older books. Two of which were from the Discworld series, so I got one called Guards! Guards! The other had a picture of a treasure chest and parrot, but I can't remember its name. Kind of excited to sit down and read some of it. Heard the series was really good.
As always: somebody sees there is a big fanbase for something, so proceeds to mold it into their own expectations, without understanding *why* the fanbase is loving it.
That show almost look like Shadowrun, not Discworld, I don't get when they change the settings of a universe when there is another one that seem to be a match to what you want to do.
@@annabella1650 Shadowrun is basically fantasy stuff put in a Cyberpunk world, why not get the license for that in this case? It require even less work than having to convert Discworld to whatever this is.
@@daghostds I agree. Shadowrun is easier to convert into something current day. It'll take a lot less physical effort to get Shadowrun going then a full-on fantasy concept. :/
This looks interesting. As a long term Terry Pratchett fan I would still like to see the Discworld as he wrote it and see the characters look as they were intended.
If u haven't read his books or seen the collection of older works live action and cartoon you are missing out. Diskworld is vert entertaining one of my favorite series
There were two animated miniseries produced in 1997, based on Wyrd Sisters and Soul Music. They're both really funny and charming. Also, Death is voiced by Christopher Lee.
An endorsement of the pseudoscience of Graham Hancock totally blindsided me, definitely didn't expect you to be taken in by someone like that. What's next Erich von Däniken?
Like Andre, I've only read GOOD OMENS from Pratchett and Gaiman, but I've wanted to give The Discworld Series a try. This news doesn't come as a surprise at all. We've all seen the downfall of Star Wars, Trek and Dr. Who, so it only seems to follow that another beloved series would be disrespected by these entertainment industry clowns. I feel bad for the fans of these books. Join the club guys, we'll have a cold beer waiting for you.
The Watch is my favourite book. It is my Father's favourite book. It switches between humour, drama and bittersweet melancholy with a grace no other piece of fiction has managed before or since. And now here we are, getting a Shadowrun knock-off (because that worked so well for Bright, didn't it?) with Terry Pratchetts name tacked on to it for no other reason than to p**s on his grave and try to sell this garbage. I'm not normally one to get worked up about this sort of thing, even the rare good adaption has to make compromises and changes, but this is an insult. And now one of the greatest works of fiction is going to be tarnished by association with this audio-visual silage. This is how culture dies.
I love The Discworld books. If you've not read them, I strongly recommend that you do. Not only because they're great. (You'll be halfway through one, when bam! You'll suddenly see what he's getting at, you'll see the joke that's been there the whole time.) But also because I think you need to have read the books to see why what they've done is so offensive. Frodo in space is about the size of it, quite literally the names are the only thing they haven't changed. bah, I'm just going to pretend that this dosn't exist.
I've read all the books (except for the last one, I just want there to be "one more") I've watched the cartoons and the TV shows, played the games and even seen the play version of Guards! Guards!, Paul Darrow was an excellent Vimes. There is no way on Earth that I am going to watch this piece of shit. I don't have words to describe how insulting this show is to the fanbase and more importantlly to the great man himself. I describe Pratchett as the Dickens of our age, I can't believe anybody would so arrogant to rewrite and reimagine his amazing work.
I didn't want my expectations to be subverted, I just wanted them to adapt the source material. Sky One's Hogfather and the Wyrd Sisters animation are proof that you can directly adapt Pratchett without 'translating' his work to fit the screen.
This is what adaptation has become in Hollywood. People have weird, stupid ideas for social justice driven movies and shows, but they know that that sort of stuff is box office/ratings poison. Thus, they try to attract a new audience to make up for the one they'll lose. So, they make their weird, stupid idea an adaptation. That's what an adaptation is now, not an attempt to transfer a beloved property to a new medium, but an attempt to fit a beloved property to the mold of social justice. We usually say that injecting social justice into beloved properties is an attempt to gain a new audience at the expense of the property's built in audience, and in the case if Star Wars and Star Trek it may well have been, but in this case I think it's just the opposite, though still just as bad.
@@RocketboyX If a trailer for a movie is interesting, people will go watch it. The fact that the movie often turns out to be a bad one, is not an issue. I've watch some obscure films I've LOVED, not because they were "good" in the traditional sense, but because it hit a good spot (story/character/setting/theme wise) in my film tastes, and they weren't even advertised on any mainstream channels or platforms. I've even like some web series that most people don't even know EXISTED. ;)
Tbh Guards Guards is one of my favourite Discworld books, along with Mort, and I can WHY they did this, Cyberpunk is very popular at the moment, and I guess if its bad its far away enough from the source materials settings to be considered separate, and there are some ideas that could come from this, for example, Great A'tuin actually being a big metal spaceship thing, but tbh I, as a fan, just wants a faithful, good adaptation. I can see why they go in different directions, but I can't see Prachetts sly whit and blunt absurd humour in this kind of setting.
So in other words, this is Discworld in name only. As for the books, I've read most of the series and highly recommend it. Basically, it's the fantasy version of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
The Hogfather is Pratchett's best work. In the movie, every time the Hogfather dies and resurrects I cry. And I'm an atheist, not a christian , and I really don't like Christmas...
04:30 "A number of Discworld adaptations have been made before, both in animation as well as in earlier made for TV productions." Hey, don't forget the videogames! The 90s point-and-click Discworld I & II with Rincewind voiced by Eric Idle always felt the most faithful realisation of Pratchett's world to me (although I have to admit I've not seen all the specials Sky made years back). But really, I think animation would be the best way to go on TV/film. It can't look too clean though, should be stop-motion or CGI that manages to evoke that stop-motion feeling. 2D would of course be nice but good 2D animators don't really exist in the west anymore, at least not in the way that would fit with the franchise.
I swear, if I were watching anything on the BBC, this might have gotten me to stop. Discworld is intelligent, funny, and gut-wrenching by turns, and I hate to see the BBC happen to it. When Rhianna Pratchett said that she wouldn't be continuing the Discworld series, or allowing anyone else to continue it, I was OK with that. I loved the series, and I knew I would miss the series, but I didn't think anyone but Terry Pratchett could really handle it. I thought even he had some trouble with later books. Never in a million years, however, would I have thought they could do this bad a job. I should have, given what they've done to Dr. Who, but this time my sanity protected itself by not letting my imagination wander in that direction. And if I had enough alcohol to wash the memory of this down the drain, my brain cells would happily sacrifice a number of their company in that worthy cause. I'm OK updating the setting of fiction for many stories, such as Sherlock Holmes where the setting is not really that important to most fans. But in Discworld the setting is important. It has dark magic and darker humor. It explains why they don't solve every problem by casting a spell. It pokes fun at fantasy conventions in a way that entertains fantasy fans. It tied the stories together and added more depth. Even if they couldn't swing that for budgetary reasons, I doubt they'll leave out the woke. Pratchett had a deft touch that poked fun at all sides without cutting too deeply. He wrote a book with a strong anti-gun message, but in a later book acknowledged that if someone was going to break a bunch of laws that day, outlawing guns would have a pretty limited effect. His humor could be turned on men, women, majorities, minorities, the rich, the poor, religion, industry, and even social justice movements themselves. He had one perfect hero -- AND THAT WAS THE JOKE. But this is the BBC. They see their job as propaganda nowadays, to better the riff-raff who are simply too small-minded to agree with their moral betters. The idea that a minority could be downtrodden and have troubles of their own making too is just beyond them. They'll give a dragon big orange hair and pat themselves on the back for their cleverness. This isn't Discworld. This is an emetic with a Discworld label.
I'm not entirely opposed to the idea of taking a familiar story and twisting the setting to show us something new. I rather enjoyed Tin Man, for instance, and not just because of Kathleen Robertson's dresses. I'm not opposed to telling new stories in a familiar setting, or using a familiar setting as the background for something new. All fine. Battlestar Galactica took a pretty mediocre and cheesy old sci-fi and turned it into something special (at first, anyway).
The Watch is not that. In order to look at a story from a new direction, you need to have an _old_ direction. To subvert the status quo, there needs to _be_ a status quo. You can't just leap straight into a twisted re-imagining of a classic and important narrative right out the gate. The Watch stories are probably the most 'cinematic' series in the Discworld already, needing the _least_ adaptation to get onto screen. None of this was necessary.
And don't even get me _started_ on taking a strong female character who is presented as older and, ah, 'big-boned' and turning her into a young, skinny action heroine.
Both Tin Man and BSG were rubbish. BSG more so.
God, it didn’t click to me that the bald chick was lady sybil. God all-sodding mighty
@@gwem1979 Did you know that the dude with the long black hair is Cheery Littlebottom?
@@SliverCAN no, no i did not... jesus tap dancing christ it gets worse doesn’t it. I guess a female dwarf character making her way own in the world wouldn’t be interesting enough. The fact that there is no sergeant colon or nobby makes me glad in a way becuase they cannot butcher those two
You ever get the feeling you're watching a bunch of narcissistic creatives that want to get their own self-insert stories off the ground, but to actually get funded they're forced to "adapt" someone else's work because it has an actual audience?
Rhianna's disowning of this project is all I need to know. What a trainwreck.
In fairness she hasn’t said it will be shit she just said it isn’t really discworld
@JRPGFan20000 You know he means Rhianna Pratchett, right...?
Weighted down with 16 tonnes of brick.
@JRPGFan20000 she put the last few books in writing by his dictation, of course her judgement has moral weight, far more so than any greedy production company.
Lol who?!
And the irony of all this is that the books are pretty progressive, to begin with. Fantasy tropes were used all the time for subtle social commentary of all stripes. Entire books centered on themes of identity, race relations(both in general and with the police), and sexism.
The book version of Cheery Littlebottom is probably the most obvious example. In the original books, while dwarves had two biological genders, dwarvish society placed no importance on the concept. They both dressed and acted masculine, not to mention the beards.
"All dwarves have beards and wear twelve layers of clothing. Gender is more or less optional." - Terry Pratchett
Cheery was notable for being the first dwarf on the Disc to come out as openly feminine. She had an entire arc where she comes out as female. I don't remember anyone complaining about these themes being in the book at the time. I wonder why this worked for him and not for the "progressives" of today?
Oh that's right! Pratchett was a master of clever satire and these bozos are hacks. The only reasons I can think of for why they felt the need to woke it up further are that they didn't read any of it, or more likely that it flew over their heads and didn't see any of the stuff that in theory they should have connected with.
Well, Pratchett is pretty much anathema to the current woke regressive narrative.
Personal responsibility instead of collective guilt, individuality and free thinking instead of hive minds, sexuality being only the person concerning's business, race and background not being the defining characteristics of a person, a sceptical and defiant view of mob mentality/mob justice and acting like a moral superior, and the list goes on and on.
I definitly agree with his books being progressive though, but that is not something that is looked favourably upon by our current culturral and politicial regressive authoritarian "elite".
"Stories of imagination tend to upset those without one." - T.P
The thing is the Discworld was simultaneously both progressive and traditional, while calling out the flaws in both. Some tropes were subverted and others were explained to be a required constant for the universe to exist. The reader could think about the issues raised in the book and the humour made it more palatable.
I can't remember where I read/heard it but PT said (and I'm paraphrasing): "You can get a lot of important things across if you make it funny"
@Elwood Blues Morris New favorite word: "Progressorized"!!! :D
Don't forget about Sharna and Pepe, the creators of "Micromail", (Unseen Academicals). Even though Pepe seemed to be rather effete, He makes clear that he is both male and hetero, and Sharna, even though she wears armor and has a beard, is most definitely Female, and married to Pepe. I haven't read all of Terry's books, but I've read a lot of them. I'd never heard of Cheery Littlebottom before today, though.
"Without going into lots of detail, it's hit the familiar Hollywood iceberg (the one which would've set Good Omens in Indiana without the Four Horsemen). People suddenly grow an extra head and say things like "we have to make this relevant to the American teenager". And it's at times like this I get very glad that control has not been completely relinquished, because people are going to start suggesting really dumb things." -Terry Pratchett himself.
They waited for Sir PTerry die, so they could commit this travesty.
That's it. That's exactly it. The hacks waited until a great man died then they started destroying his legacy. Hollywood has never respected authors and this is just another infuriating chapter in that book. I never wanted to see Sir Terry in the same group as Philip K Dick, the authors whose work has been bastardized and disgraced by mindless idiots in the entertainment industry.
@LTNetjak This has been in the works before Terry's death. HE had creative control, not Narrativia Limited (The company that is meant to handle all of his works.).
So BBC America waited for Sir PTerry to die, so creative control passed on to them.
@@calemr this was the series that was meant to sit in between the novels as a cannon continuation of the stories.
@LTNetjak Correct me if I'm wrong but in passing my imprrssion of her is that she is also very...."woke" herself. Again, correct me if I'm wrong.
Well, the've waited for the majority of adult WWII participants to die, so they could have civilisation walk the plank...
His death in 2015.
Still Hurts man
Too soon too soon
Still too young to go...
I can't bring myself to read the last Wee Free Men book. Just can't. Too emotional.
@@esmewvimes2901 Imagine how reading Thud or Nightwatch (am I misremembering the name?) feels.
Death never said he's not returning Sir Pratchett, did he?
GNU Terry Pratchett
@@esmewvimes2901 : Read it, it's glorious, bittersweet and we get a chance to let all our tears go as a beloved character leads Terry away too. Figuratively speaking obviously.
If you license a property, you should remain faithful to that property. If you're just going to bastardize it and change the characters, setting, themes and messaging, just create your own unique new IP. Time and time again we've seen fanbases reject new adaptations the further away they get from the source material.
Why spend so much money licensing a product if you're just going to shit all over it, exactly.
Although there's Sony and Spider-Man, and Ghostbusterettes, and... the world has gone to shit, so maybe talking sense has lost its place.
This is she-Thor all over again. "There's not enough wahmyn superheroes" but "It's too hard to make a new superheroette" so "We're just gonna steal one and fuck you if you have good taste". All that'll be missing is someone in episode 1 saying "I thought you were a dude" to a gender-swapped character and then being brutally murdered by the main cast.
Agreed, not only would you save money but also more freedom creativity in the long run.
The Watch series always felt to me like the most "normal" part of Terry's beautiful world, in that you had a solid core cast of characters you empathized with, cared for, struggling through situations they found every bit as insane as the reader did. Yes, the setting is fantasy, but the love, hate, pride, racism, greed, hope, prejudice, acceptance, courage, warmongering, politicking and DEATH has a delicate trick of resonating with any reader with just the same power as any other media/genre.
I urge anyone new to Discworld, watching this vid, to consider that, when you hear about the fan backlash.... the love folks have for these characters runs deep and, while I think Discworld fans would accept more changes than other fandoms would (if it meant getting the soul of the characters right) this just isn't it.... it's not just wrong, it the absence of it's soul.
This cast is almost unrecognizable (I thought thumbnails of the vid showed a spruced up Nobby Nobs, not Vimes) and just the appearance of some of the cast negates key elements of their characters. I cannot believe this could happen in today's day and age, but there is less diversity in this group than the novels.... I never read anything by Terry that took at a shot at the way good people wanted to live, how they expressed themselves and who they really felt they were.... he only reserved his ire for those who manipulate others, lie, use controversy for profit and use politics/war as a mask for arrogance. Seeing this come together feels like a slap in the face to the spirit of the books.... and that's not counting the producers attitude towards Terry's family.
Many folks have suggested books here for curious people to read... I'd go with GUARDS! GUARDS! as I'd struggled with some other books before, and this felt like the reading version of putting on comfy slippers. After this, I slowly explored other elements of the world
You know what's truly disgusting. I looked up the cast list and Nobs is not ANYWHERE on the cast list. Neither is Colon. Nor Cuddy for that matter. Cuddy is actually important you know. Particularly to Detritus. And Apparently Throat is gonna be a chick.
I think I just et one of Throat's sausages. Excuse me. I think I need a years recovery.
To be serious, there is nothing wrong with genderflipping characters or, for that matter turning cheery into a genderqueer UwU soft soy boy. BUT BUT BUT. Cherry is NOT SHORT. *points harshly to my desk* THAT is my problem. THAT is no where near faithful to the source material. Angua can look how she wants. Vetinari, it's actually pretty interesting to have him be a chick. BUT. BUT. *Still pointing*
TH=he problem is that there is going to be romantic tension. Like disgusting pinning on Chick Vetinari's part that she has a quasi love boner for Vimes. I can just call it. You can have him be a chick. But I do not trust the change. THEN. WHY. WHY. Is Carrot not wielding a SWORD? That sword is actually kind of sort of IMPORTANT. Also apparently Vetinari is only in ONE. ONE FUCKING EPISODE. ONE. No. Vetinari needs to be IN EVERY EPISODE. Even if it means only a cut away to him writing on parchment.
WHY why isn't NOBS in the picture? Nobs is like my favorite character. Nobs and Colon are actually important. Like REALLY important storywise. They are vital to the series. Period. The fact that they are not on the cast list, is cutting my own throat. Cutting my own throat it is!
Everything, everything I learn about this series makes me just angry. I know without a doubt that the people who made it completely and utterly despise Sir Terry Pratchett. They hate him and all his books with such a passion that they want this shit to fail.
@@mariawhite7337 Ooooh Maria, I hope you have indeed recovered from your near inna bun incident.. I don't think they hate him, thats too strong a word I think. More like, they make money off him. Thats the difference. And more Important in their eyes, hence, the adaptation (of sorts, still haven't seen it but I am getting a distinct feeling from many posters on this video).
I think I'd like to see it to make my own mind up and see if its got the soul in it.
As a pTerry fan I'd really need a degree in astrophysics to calculate how far this show can eff off. and then some
how's about...they can frakk off to INFINITY AND BEYOND?!
😈
At this point I think it can eff off to the another universe, and into its Sun.
@@annabella1650 We'll need Dr. McKay to build a Zero Point Module for that. General Carter can help blow up a sun, just to make sure.
The p is a nice touch... from a book I don't like
Try my story The man who found the end of the earth instead.
For goodness sake.
I've wanted a dramatisation of 'the watch' for so long, but not if they are going to defile it in such a heinous way.
Poor Terry must be spinning in his grave.
The Watch stories, witch stories, wizard stories, assassin stories, Death / Mort stories... Discworld is a well of treasures, if taken from properly. Proper is problematic these days though.
At least casting looks pretty solid for now.
EDIT: On a second glance - what they seem to be doing to Vimes character disturbs me deeply. They made Richard Dormer look and overact like Floki from Vikings. They better not mess with Vimes.
He's too busy crossing The Desert for all this shit (:
I think he would be fine with it. he had no problem casting David Jason as rincewind who was like 40 years too old.
@@vortigern7021 but David Jason was right for the part, he gave Rincewind the right type of look and sound, yes he was much older than the character but he was right.
Looking at these characters they really aren't. Carrot looks like "some bloke" rather than a big lump of a man who towers over most and commands attention ; Vimes looks like foul Ron; Cheery looks bigger than Carrott but is supposed to be a dwarf; Cybal is supposed to be a well built mature lady, not some back flipping model.
This is just using well regarded characters in a totally different setting and the fact even his daughter has said its nothing to do with her fathers books says it all.
Just remember Discworld fans, if you don't like this, it's because it wasn't made for you. 😧
Hopefully this production is not hoping for our viewership then. Next thing you know they’ll be going after The Hog Father.
@@annabella1650 Hogfather TV adaptation was perfectly all right. So there is no reason. But than again there is no reaso to make Ankh-Morpork Watch cynerpunk psychosquad either... Sooo.
@@piotrskodowski7544
I wouldn’t put it passed them to try it, then have a bunch of “reviewers” claim the new one is better.
@@annabella1650 That's kind of the point, isn't it? They have to destroy the old stories, so that their nihilism can be ascendant.
Fortunately the stories are more powerful than they are, because they are human stories.
Lets also remember that we are man babies for complaining about it
The issue I see is classic disregard for the source. There are so many progressive stories built into the characters they mutilated that I’m hoping they get slammed by the groups they ignored. Especially Cheery and Cybil. I still can’t believe they erased her Discworld Dwarf identity. Which causes an issue with the comedy of Carrot being a Dwarf by adoption, identity instead of race but treated as race. Theres so many layers and stories they destroyed with just the visual changes. Basically they nuked most of the character arcs from go because of how the characters look.
Lady Cybil is suppose to be a large robust woman with a personality to match. I don't know who this super model is suppose to be.
@@TheKarnophage Honestly until the trailer i thought she was playing Vetinari based on the infamous and excitement shattering interview with he vampire rockstar line...
The thing is if that wanted to do something with good female representation there are the witches novels which have it in Spades.
That is the thing with Discworld. There is literally something for everyone. And the multiple storylines that run through it allow for it to appeal to some more than others, but that is okay because there is also this other set of stories that you may like set in the same continuity.
@@dapperchap572 You are 100% right. Granny Weatherwax even visits Ank-Morpork and stays at Mrs Palms! There are so many stories for every type of situation you can name or at least the abstraction of the same issue which is pure gold. It's a shame they don't have any respect for the source material.
(Side note one consiquince by gender swapping lord Vetinari is that they effectively eliminated the defacto leader of Ubervauld and the founder of the blood temperance movement, one of the badass female characters in the series! The extended metaphor for their romance/not romance and the relationship of the two countries won't work now, there's no stereotypical sexual tension to build off of. Also Vetinari is clearly a metaphor for Machiavelli...)
Yeah, Terry was literally doing progressive before half of these fucks were born, and it all stands up to 'modern scrutiny' if you actually have a sense of humour and half a brain.
Fucking book called Equal Rites n all.
You know funnily enough, I've never gotten a British feeling from the Discworld books. The writing and world felt timeless, like it was for everyone.
Major part of why they were so good.
There was none of this pandering bullshit.
Equal Rites had a Real feminist message, about Equality. Weatherwax didn't Beat the archchancellor. They fought as equals. Eskarina wasn't "The bestest wizard evar."
And it was so good, Terry received a large number of letters from fans thinking he was a woman.
This thinks a feminist message is "Make Vetinari a woman."
You're right! I think the only time i noticed the British-ness was when an accent was written, but otherwise it felt like a story that could take place in any part of the world
The earlier novels especially were full of British puns that Yanks wouldn't get as they were rooted deep in the British sub-culture. A bit like Python in that respect. A lot of the early ones referenced American fantasy stories that only fans of that genre would get. He amused at a lot of levels which made his work so enjoyable.
I think it's more the British humour that a lot of Americans fail to grasp. But I agree the books are universal if you like that style of humor and writing.
I have no faith left in the BBC.
"Hey, this is popular, let's do this!"
"Ok, but let's get rid of this and this and change this and then add this."
"Now it is perfect! People will love it!"
____later____
"Why didn't they like it? This was supposed to be popular!!!"
No understanding of what makes things popular, only a desire to be popular.
You forgot the part where they blame the fans for not enjoying it
It's more like, "Hey, this is popular, let's butcher it!"
They're probably trying to meet the new Oscar requirements... soon to be applied to everything made by major corporations.
"Let's blame and insult the fans."
It sounds just like the most annoying and Vapid of High Schoolers.
THREE exclamation marks? Good god...
To quote Eric Idle: “That doesn’t work.”
You just brought back old memories, LMAO
Ahah you see, that's important. If it weren't it wouldn't have a tag on it.
I'd rather quote the Hulk, "HULK SMASH!!!"
Made me think of Terry Pratchett's description of Hell.
"You take, for example, a certain type of hotel. It is probably an English version of an American hotel, but operated with that peculiarly English genius for taking something American and subtracting from it its one worthwhile aspect, so that you end up with slow fast food, West Country and Western music and, well, this hotel.
It’s early closing day. The bar is really just a pastel-pink paneled table with a silly bucket on it, set in one corner, and it won’t be open for hours yet. And then you add rain, and let the one channel available on the TV be, perhaps, Welsh Channel Four, showing its usual mobius Eisteddfod from Pant-y-gyrdl. And there is only one book in this hotel, left behind by a previous victim. It is one of those where the name of the author is on the front in raised gold letters much bigger than the tittle, and it probably has a rose and a bullet on there too.
Half the pages are missing.
And the only cinema in the town is showing something with subtitles and French umbrellas in it.
And then you stop time, but not experience, so that it seems as though the very fluff in the carpet is gradually rising up to fill the brain and your mouth starts to taste like an old denture.
And you make it last for ever and ever. That’s even longer than from now to opening time.
And then you distil it."
This show could well equal the above passage.
By the way, it's AMAZING how bad has been EVERY BBC adaptation from the last 5 years or so.
They couldn't resist changing War Of The Worlds
@@Cartoonman154 The War of the Worlds is my favorite book :(
His Dark Materials is probably the only really great offering from them (HBO only distributed it)
Back in the early 90's, I was working at bookstores when I first encountered Prachett. I went on to spend the decade running an award winning Historical Reenactment guild, who hired out to provide choreography, structure, and SFX to battle reenactments. Because we had a reputation, we were approached to start working Security at events as well, and we make a good run of it. Once I left I went into business for myself making leather clothes, but an injury prevented me from continuing so I drifted back into security, eventually winding up the Night Watch commander for our main Ren Faire production company, as a skinny, but slightly padded, somewhat emotionally broken, cynical, embittered, somewhat alcoholic, very experienced fighter and leader, although not a well paid one.
So, a fan of the books might be able to see why I identify greatly with Vimes, and why I REALLY can't get behind this.
What pisses me off most is this will probably delay an actual faithful and true Watch series.
Thinking your particular spin will be more clever than the greatest satirist of the late 20th and early 21st century smacks of hubris
Remember when Cybil was a large feminine woman who was happily married and was so well connected that she could overturn the politics of a nation by simply writing letters? Or when Cherry was a dwarf who decided she wanted to identify as female even though it flew in the face of tradition and started wearing skirts and makeup but refused to even consider shaving her beard? Remember when Vimes said "Only crimes could take place in darkness, punishment had to be done in the light" and was so straight laced it's a common fan interpretation to view him as the personification of Law (and Vetinari as Order)? Well, these showrunners certainly don't. I don't even think they remembered there were books, or how to read
Thank you very much for this comment
"who decided she wanted to identify as female"
I mean, that's not too unexpected for a female.
@@Goodbutevilgenius It is when you come from a society that only identifies as male. Discworld dwarves only let VERY close relations know if they're female, letting anyone else know is seen as obscene.
@@mgormley7530 Yeah, but it's not like the female dwarves don't IDENTIFY as female. They just hadn't openly shown it before Cherry started the wave.
@@Goodbutevilgenius I think we're talking around each other here. Female dwarves do not OPENLY identify as female, which does not stop them from being female this is true. We don't actually know Cherry's biological sex though. And she doesn't even know what a woman is before she moves to the city. She does not like all the things she's "supposed" to like and prefers feminine things and has no idea how to feel about this. It's not just that dwarves don't admit when they're female, it's that they don't even know what being a woman IS. Cheery makes a CHOICE about how she wants to be seen, and that's the whole point of her narrative
ok, one more thing. I've seen a few comments about the "americanization" of the story. I'm an American fan of Pratchett. Let me say this loud and clear. TO THE BBC: Your American fans like your shows BECAUSE they 're British! So if you strip out what makes your show/film unique you've taken out the very thing that appeals to fans. Why does Hollywood/BBC think that audiences are incapable of empathizing with anything different? No, every production has to "represent" because people can only relate to others that look and think just like them apparently.
After having studied literature, having taught literature for years now and having lived a thousand lives, Terry Pratchett is my favourite author, so much so that I even proudly wear a tattoo of Great Atuin. Rest in Peace, you incredible genius.
The Turtle Moves
I think I'm just going to read 'Night Watch' again instead.
Probably my favourite book.
Lao Tse. Carcer. Young Vimes. So many interesting characters to explore.
starting the watch series from guards guards right now
Just finished reading it again. Such a great book. Moved on to THUD yesterday. I used to be a Rincewind fan, but I’m leaning more towards the ‘Watch’ books lately.
You haven't read the books Andre? You should really find some time to rectify that. If the Colour of Magic grabs you, his writing and world-building just gets better and better over time. Well, apart from the final couple of books but he was quite ill at that point, was having to dictate and needed quite a lot of help to get his thoughts down.
EDIT: Stealing a comment from the trailer video "The writers of this travesty should very quickly find themselves in a scorpion pit, on one wall of which is painted READ THE BOOKS!"
I recommended all the books featuring the Watch, The Witches (including Tiffany Aching), and the books led by Death.
@@reikun86 Moist von Lipwig also has it's moments. I really like his story arc as an easy entry to the universe.
@@rinserofwinds if I recall, was he first introduced in Going Postale?
I started with the Watch and would highly recommend starting there as well.
None of those are a bad idea, but from what he said about what he finds fascinating I think he'd really love Hogfather.
X-Clacks-Overhead: GNU Terry Pratchett
GNU Terry Pratchett
GNU Terry Pratchett
I really don’t understand the thought process that goes through these production companies collective heads. “Ok so we can’t think of anything new so let’s find an established work with an established fan base. Then we are going to change many key points, ignore the original message, and do everything in our power to piss off that established fan base.” *A Few Hours Later* “Hmmm the established fan base decided not to watch our show, told all their friends not to watch our show, and ratings have been absolute shit. Let’s berate and gaslight the built in fan base and see if that helps. No? Oh well... Ok so we can’t think of anything new so...”
And to add to that they'll announce 2 more seasons...
You expected logic where is none of that commodity...
While I 100% agree with the your view on the current state of adaptations, I have to point out that film and TV production companies wasn't above changing major or minor details in much beloved franchises an fan favorites in the pre-woke era. Granted, the people that did so at least had the common sense to make the changes logical and explainable (for the most part), but I'm just highlighting the fact that screen writers DID change key points, the original message and did p*** fan bases off (I'm just taking the 80s an 90s book-to-film/TV adaptations as an example). Book readers would complain something fierce about films not following the content in the books. The big difference, though, was there was no SOCIAL MEDIA for people to air their grievances on. Bulletin boards and forums, perhaps, but no social media. :/
Andre, if you want a taste of Discworld, I highly recommend the Hogfather two-part TV movie. It’s the best of the live-action adaptations, plus with Christmas coming up it’ll be the perfect season to give it a watch.
If you like it, start the books at the beginning with Colour of Magic and go by order of publication. It takes maybe 4-5 books for the series to really find its footing, but it’s absolutely worth seeing how Pratchett’s writing talent evolves.
This. The early books are good but a little scatterbrained. By the time you hit Wyrd Sisters, that's when Pratchett has hit his stride.
@@r.l.royalljr.3905 Totally agree.
@@r.l.royalljr.3905 Wyrd Sisters and Guards! Guards! would be my recommendations, both solid, with distinct tones (riffs on Shakespeare and policing) so that if one doesn't quite land with a newcomer, the other might. They're also early enough in the chronology that you can safely continue on from there and only miss a few events that get mentioned in passing.
The earlier books can be circled back to a leisure, for completeness, and with the understanding that certain characters and world mechanics were only loosely nailed down. Those ones can be a bit of a slog at times, and you could easily turn off a newcomer.
If you can find it. Read Strata, I gave my copy to a friend who let his child destroy it. He's no longer a friend and I doubt they'll ever find the child. Reminds me, I need a new shovel and axe😉
It's not from one of the books but Snowgum Films' adaptation of the short story "Troll Bridge", which was crowdfunded and was approved by Terry himself, is brilliantly done (you can find it on youtube). Hogfather is probably the next best :)
I guess the whole concept of Cheery Littlebottom was way over their heads.
The greatest crime of all - The Watch books are already perfect for series adaptation; they're fast-paced, witty, full of fantastic dialogue and compelling characters, and their stories don't get too surreal (compared to the Rincewind stuff, for example), and remain grounded enough that screen adaptation wouldn't struggle with highbrow concepts and excessive VFX.
They are already brilliant observations of human nature, and scathing satire on society that have only become more relevant with age.
A pure, straight adaptation, perhaps with a narrator (because in the Discworld books, Pratchett's narrative style is a character unto itself) would be the optimal path; no rewriting needed... practically copy and paste. Each Watch book could be a streaming-length season (so about 8-12 episodes), Expanse-style.
The fact that they rewrote something that was already screen-ready demonstrates monstrous arrogance and incompetence.
The Discworld TV movies Sky made were actually pretty good, but that was when Sir Terry was still alive and before the woke fad. I'm sure the idiots in the entertainment industry will ruin the franchise now that Sir Terry is no longer with us.
This one is going to hurt me because Discworld is my favourite book series and it's what made me into an avid reader and aspiring author. Ruining Discworld will be more insulting and rage inducing to me than ruining Star Wars was.
The last thing we need is the woke brigade to get their hands on Discworld.
Just ignore this. And wait for the GOOD one in a few years. (or decades)
@@kin2naruto Yeah, that's what I'd do.
@@FatherStack I'm fond of the idea that if Pratchett were still alive and lucid (really, fuck Alzheimer's), he'd be mocking them in his books. And he'd probably use Cheery to do so because she was spearheading change after she was introduced.
The Hogfather TV movie is great.
I have deep sympathy for anyone who hasn't read Pratchett. He quite literally saved my life. Him diamond. And if Rhiannan and Neil aren't happy with this show, then I won't touch it.
Is any body else sick of getting their Heart broken :(
Huge Pratchett fan, but this series looks terrible. I'll swerve this and stick with the books thanks. I don't need gender and race politics forced into my entertainment. There's enough of that skillfully written in Pratchett's work, that will now be meaningless due to the casting choices.
well said.
Fuck it the second book of the watch series is litterally centered around diversities joining the Night Watch, why couldn't they go with that?
i thought you were one of those PROUD and AMERICAN CONCERVATIVE SJW SHOOTERS until I read halfway your comment
"Look how they massacred my boy." 😢
I started to worry when I heard the showrunner say that there was nothing in the books that could be used for a 8 episode run
That's when you have a word with someone in the guild about a quiet but swift removal.
This show is another case of a franchise being murdered for no reason.
Instead of letting artists "rewrite the stories that inspire them", why not let artists just write their own stuff that's inspired by those stories? This is all the result of studios being so risk adverse and wanting to have "a sure thing", but creatives wanting to do their own thing. When will studios realize that their "sure thing" because even more risky than an unknown property if they don't do the source material justice? They need to create faithful adaptations, but also take a risk on new properties that can potentially become the NEW "sure thing". The way they are currently doing it, nobody wins.
But instead of blaming studios for pursuing an unsuccessful strategy, the Twitterati blame fans for wanting to see faithful adaptations of the properties they love instead of "letting the creatives forge their own path"? That's some kind of bullshit right there.
They can't. None of the 'popular' people that these companies use for TV and film have the ability to create. They are practically barren of creativity and imagination. All they can do is copy and alter to fit their taste. Its why they destroy fan bases and property's. From what I can tell....there **are no** creative in the industry anymore. Those folks who can, are not considered trustworthy, probably because they don't follow today's 'progressive' plan.
As a huge Discworld novels/Pratchett fan and appreciative of previous movie, videogame and animation adaptation attempts ... Nevermind, not interested :(
Am sure it's just a matter of speaking *LOUDLY AND SLOWLY* to make the subverters understand.
After my mother was murdered I buried myself in Sir Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels, not just for the distraction from what had happened but also for the excellent humour and also the moral guidance that came in the form of the "Watch / Vimes" books, the having to wrestle daily with feelings of anger and the dark feelings of revenge ere threatening to end my own life, but I got through that thanks to Sir Terry's excellent writing and the character of Captain / Commander / Duke / Blackboard Monitor Vimes. I heartily recommend the entire discworld series as you have not read any, try starting at book 1 "The colour of Magic" on to book 2 "The Light Fantastic" and so on.
The reason there is such a huge backlash against this isn't that fans are over-reacting to a new way of looking at the stories, it is that they have completely dismantled the stories in a way that all the character developments were trashed, all the storylines were trashed and everything that was recognisable as being the IP of Sir Terry was removed and yet it was presented to us as based on Sir Terry's works. It is like someone promising you a nice juicy steak cooked to your idea of perfection with maybe an interestingly experimental (But reasonable) sauce and then having a plate of cold canned dog food put before you and then the waiter pours a mixture of Strawberry Jam, Liquidised sardines, custard and Marmite on it and then expects you to be happy.
If you choose to read the discworld series you will at some point encounter "The Campaign For Equal Heights", this was a lampoon on those people in life who campaign on behalf of others who they feel are too weak, pathetic and insignificant to campaign for themselves, which is sort of noble in a way until it transpires that they then think they know better what that certain group of people want without actually asking them and taking ridiculous actions in their name. Much of the backlash has been that not only did BBC America not understand this bit of humourous lampooning they actively went ahead with this project without any input from anybody even remotely interested in the Discworld novels and were so arrogant that they thought fans would just lap up whatever they vomit out like starving dogs and that is insulting to us all.
It's a bad business decision to create something that will alienate the fan base so badly given how many millions of loyal Pratchett readers there are. Somehow they managed to take all the humor out of a disc-world story.
I'll bet everything I own that "critics" are going to love this show.
Humans don't generally like change. We find something we like and want more of that. Too many corporate Numb skulls, generally ones with no talent, think that they have to mix it up and give us something new. When I get ice cream and order vanilla, do not give me rum raisin to mix it up.
It's not quite that simple. A person is more than a set of genitals and shade of skin. People who read stories know this. Drugged-up psychopath CEOs and idiot college students don't. Vetinari is not The Patrician because he has a dick, he's the patrician because he's a sadistic, sarcastic dictator who knows how to run things and can pin you in place with a quiet "Don't let me detain you", but you _know_ to watch out for his warnings when he's stroking his beard. It's a whole assemblage of traits and quirks and other incidental details.
Like... Hermione Granger has wild, frizzy hair. If she's suddenly that general lady from Black Panther, there's dissonance. If she's suddenly Chadwick himself, tables will be flipped and pitchforks will be sharpened. Some personality traits are embedded in with everything else, and since race and gender are COMPLETELY irrelevant to the importance of a character but intertwined with all the incidental stuff, you're really just destroying the web of what makes up a personality by arbitrarily cutting parts out for the sake of tokenism.
I think of Sam Vimes as a dark-haired Irish drunk. Because he's a drunk, he's somber, and Pratchett is very British and it feels appropriate because of the stereotype of the Irish always being drunk. If he suddenly becomes a black woman (I really hope that's not "him" in the still image promo shots...), then I'm no longer associating all his personality traits with the new he-she monstrosity. And if the _actress_ portraying him acts like Samuel Vimes, *then what was the fucking point of changing anything?*
It's not so much that humans don't like change. It's true, we don't, but it's not _all_ about that. It's about.. recognizing the person. Uncanny Valley was mentioned in another comment and it fits: you can tell something isn't a real person when some of the little details you notice are wrong, and it's unsettling. If the details are completely wrong in not so little ways, then you no longer recognize that person. It's like mistaking a stranger for a friend in public; as you get closer, it feels more and more wrong, and then they turn around and you're almost _disgusted._ Nothing to do with race or gender, very little to do with change, just an innate feeling of _wrongness._
@@EdwardHowton I always thought how Vetinari "sort of" legalized crime was genius. So long as you had a license, you could mug people or if you paid enough, could legally have someone assassinated. (I found it hilarious how Sam Vimes knew how to counter the Assassins Guild so well, the rates rose until they eventually refused contracts on him.)
@@Maniacman2030 Oh don't get me started about how much I love Vetinari or the books in general, I won't ever stop. As someone who has _stealth games_ indelibly printed on my DNA, he and the entire assassin's guild is one of my favorite parts of the _Guards_ subseries.
I still can't read 'death' without pronouncing it _D'eath_ half the time, and I usually use dark green colors on characters.
Like I said, don't get me started. I'm forcing myself to stop at that as it is!
The images look more Steampunk, not Cyberpunk...Which seems to follow.
Yeah, I was thinking the same. Maybe he was confused?
The later books were getting into the realm of Steampunk. The books were a reflections on how a society changes with technology and different ideas were introduced.
Have a look at "Cheery" in the shot of the watchhouse - she wears what looks like modern-style sunglasses around her neck, and the color choice of her clothing - the makeup choices of Angua... all that is typical retro-80s cyberpunk chic. Steampunk is corsets and tophats and pilot goggles. I think stylistically he nailed it. This is more vaporwave than steampunk at the very least.
I got a Dieselpunk energy myself, which in and of itself is not bad, but isn't appropriate for the Disc. The Disc is mideaval-esque, with direct references to the industrial revolution in the later books, along with it's already distinctive Steampunk flair.
The distance between my initial excitement over hearing there was going to be a series based on The Watch and the disgusted realization of the travesty it's turning out to be can only be measured in light years. You couldn't pay me to watch it.
The stories are already progressive (in the good sense) as you have a 6'6" Dwarf named Carrot, and continual issues about bringing in more types of beings into the Night Watch, and this is portrayed as a net positive.
The setting is also more early-modern than Medieval (at least in the more developed cities) with strong Clock-Punk elements.
This looks so clueless that Ventinari will have a sense of humor.
Hey, Vetinari has a great sense of humor smirking behind that cool visage! You can’t run (without actually running) Ankh Moporkh without some humor. His punishment for Moist Lipwig is a great example of that humor,
Terry Pratchett did sometimes use something like "steampunk" tropes in his books more as a way to satirize modern technology. This was put to good use in possibly the "best" adaptation of his work so far - "Going Postal."
The unseen academy’s computer (that required more bugs to run properly), known as HEX as I recall was another great satire on tech.
@@screamingblue7 Yeah, I mean, Discworld doesn't have to look like Lord of the Rings, the Witcher or something out of AD&D, but there is plenty in the book that conjures that sort of look to the stories when you read them. For me, the Victorian era idea of Knights and Chivalry mixed with some modern sensibilities is what the aesthetic of Discworld brings out.
1) In the books, Ankh-Morpork went from generic medieval high-fantasy city through to 19th century steampunk city over a decade or two of internal chronology. The Watch itself goes from the guardsmen who hang around the city gates expecting to be bribed to allow "suspicious strangers" (people who look like they have money but aren't heavily armed and aren't known to have influential friends) in and out, to an Edwardian police force. As of the end of the series, there's rapid internal and international communication (via Clacks and a robust post office), paper money (on the Golem standard), broadsheet and tabloid newspapers, forensic investigation, a mainframe computer (Hex), a thriving rail industry, the equivalent of electronic personal organisers (which can even interface with the Clacks network), and I'm sure there's plenty I'm overlooking.
Having a steampunk setting from the start, rather than trying to follow the not perfectly consistent development of the city over time, is not an unreasonable decision.
2) It sounds like the series is actually a terrible adaptation, but it may or may not be any good in its own right. There is, of course, a long tradition of TV/movies getting hold of a script and saying "you know what would really sell this story? Getting hold of X IP and changing a few names" (which I'm surprisingly okay with in the case of I, Robot, which was very much in line with Asimov's work thematically, even if it had nothing to do with the specific book whose title got appropriated - meanwhile, I didn't like the Bicentennial Man adaptation at all), which is its own problem. This appears to be a different, and, in my opinion, significantly worse, problem - starting out to do an adaptation, but not wanting to actually follow the stories you're supposedly adapting (was Zack Snyder involved at any point?). Of course, distant adaptations and reimaginings can also be great - Clueless and 10 Things I Hate About You are examples of completely rewriting the source (Emma and Taming of the Shrew, respectively) to end up with something good.
It might be worth watching if you ignore the alleged Discworld of it, though signs are not promising.
So very heart breaking. I had such high hopes a year ago when I found out the show was coming.
His Grace, The Duke of Ankh, Commander Sir Samuel Vimes is my favorite Fictional character of all times.
The moments between he and Vetinari were always classic, with Ol Vimes going dead eyed and staring inches above the Patrician's head and saying "Sir"
That's Sam. He would never dare give Havelock the finger. That was all I need to see to give this show the finger.
“I will talk 10 minutes for something I didn’t even bother to read”. Sad
The BBC do not have to worry about viewing figures, it is all about being on the right side of history.
... and with their current track record, they will end up RIGHT in the trash can. I hear there is an ever increasing effort on getting the license fee scrapped over there in the UK ? I have no such luck here - our Broadcasting Corporation has "managed" itself into financial difficulty to almost the point of implosion - nothing but low-key soapies and 1 or 2 new local movies made a year.:/
Even with a faithful adaptation, I don't think Discworld will ever work as a visual series. Far too many of the jokes are not just the dialogue, but how things are described or explained, such as when he describes a trickster god as owning "the robust sort of humour that thinks nothing of swapping the woopie cushion out for a landmine"
My grandmother could have done with the landmine version, she was possibly the most spiteful and bitterly sectarian and racist person I've ever met and I met Ian Paisley.
Man, a turtle is an animal with a rock on its back (for really ancient people), sometimes it gathers moss and such. When the turtle is breathing (sometimes) while in water, it looks like a small island. And you're surprised that the myth rose in many places. I'd say wherever turtles are and people are, there will be a version of the myth.
“See the Turtle of enormous girth/ and upon his back resides the earth”
-from Stephen King’s Dark Tower series.
I was fortunate to meet Terry Pratchett at a book signing he did at my school in my teens. He received fans enjoying his work very well. Especially well since I was gushing at him hard.
Wow on title alone i hate this already...why cant Hollywood make anything the way it's supposed to be. It's always lets take a name and then just do whatever we want to it, f anyone who actually likes the story the way it was we know better. I'm done, im out. Hollyweird can burn at this point and I won't care at all.
The devil cannot create. He can only corrupt.
That's called exploitation. Like you see with Star Trek. When you have a real and talented fan helming the work, you get The Orville. When you have a greedy untalented hack, you get Discovery.
I am not a fan of Discworld. yet, I feel exactly about it as I do with Trek; once more they are destroying our modern mythology with ignorance, disrespect and narcisim. They are spoiled brats fingerpainting over the Mona Lisa with their own poo and wanting a piece of cake as a reward.
When Charlie and the Chocolate factory was made, Roald Dhal was asked by a reporter what he thought of the finished film. The reporter was expecting glowing praise and adulation but was more than bitterly disappointed when Dhal said, "Give Hollywood a good story and they f**k it up".
@@spikemullins1845 ironically that one Became a childhood classic while the more accurate remake is praised not as much
Reminder: If you want to adapt Shadowrun, get the rights for adapting Shadowrun.
Don't buy some other rights to put that label on your Shadowrun-inspired story.
Same goes for Star Wars, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, ... and so on.
I'm a big fan of the Discworld series. If you'd like to see an adaptation of it, they made a tv-movie based on his book Hogfather that's available for free on youtube. It feels like a pretty solid adaptation of his world and style
There is also a stage play of Guards, Guards on RUclips. They do pretty well with it.
Disc World is one of the best social satires in the last 40 years. At least they didn't try to make an animated social satire like Star Trek Below Decks.
Star Trek Lower Decks. Show's so forgettable I can't even remember its name. :')
There WAS an animated social satire film based on DiscWorld - Wyrd Sisters, or something like that. Saw something here on RUclips about it. :/
I've read every book three times and listened to them all at least that many more. I can't be havin' with this!
As a Discworld fan, I'm waiting for the Motive Pictures version. This one can pound sand.
Narrativa does not make announcements just for publicity. It's talking to its base, who will be all over them about progress. This isn't Disney we're talking about here. The relationship with its fans is personal. Rhianna has her own job and own creative projects. Since Sir Terry died this is more about keeping his wonderful works alive. If a project falls through, it won't because they didn't try hard enough.
I think the only reason Good Omens was able to be successful was because of Neil Gaiman being on board making sure people didn’t screw it up. Clearly nobody like that was involved with this.
The funny thing about the Discworld is that it makes more sense than actual flerfs do. Flat Earthers can't explain sunsets nor gravity, but on the Discworld, the four elephants occasionally have to lift a leg to allow the small Sun to go by on its orbit around the Disc, light travels more slowly as it passes through magic, and that, magic, explains everything else flerfs are mystified by because on the Disc magic actually exists.
I'm mildly upset to discover that they're doing a pointlessly jazzed-up version of the Ankh-Morpork Watch. I can't help but think of Sergeant Angua. She's described in the books as blonde. This is important, because she's a blonde werewolf, and _everybody_ knows the Watch has a werewolf and that it has the same color as her but nobody says anything. If they make her a black woman, the joke just... dies. And for what? Not even as a sacrifice to Offler, just as a victim on the altar of general _pandering._
So which characters can they mangle for that entirely pointless exercise? Nobby Nobbs, with his official document stating that he is, in fact, human? Sergeant Colon, who is fat and stupid? Maybe Samuel Vimes, the alcoholic who, according to Colon, is always knurd, I.E. needing two drinks to be sober? Horribly deformed guy, fat and stupid guy, or super-alcoholic guy, which one becomes the woman? Maybe the Patrician, who looks every bit the evil dictator?
You can't mess with Pratchett's characters without ruining them. They're beautifully crafted entities, and we all know that if you make a fat and stupid woman character you'll hear no end of bitching about it, and not just because Melissa McCarthy shouldn't be anywhere near a role with Discworld quality for her to taint.
But... I can sort of understand the setting change. Discworld takes a lot of explaining. I snuck in a bunch of references just to point that out. You'd need a few early episodes dedicated to getting a general audience up to speed. If they leave the characters alone (doesn't sound like they will) they could pull it off... with difficulty. A lot of how the City Watch works relies on the fact that people don't have cell phones or infolink brain implants with wi-fi.
Edit: Ah. Gender-swapped Vetinari after all. And Terry Pratchett opposed this kind of bastardization? I'm more than mildly upset now. Burn it to the ground.
I contend that it's mildly probable to create _a_ Watch adaptation that doesn't have to break down the whole world. So long as you don't get into Magic or mess with the University, it should be doable. It'd basically be a fantasy cop show.
@@Maniacman2030 That was my original thinking as well. It would take Rihanna Pratchett herself, if not the late great Terry in person to do it properly, but it could be done if the rest of the people in charge were also _incredibly_ competent.
In other words, it _could_ be done, just like you _could_ win the lottery six times in a row on a left-hand Thursday. *_But._*
That all goes away, however, with the knowledge that Terry Pratchett was opposed to this sort of thing and his daughter is standing in firm legally-safe-can't-sue-me opposition to the project. Call me a sentimentalist, but I don't believe in shoving a stick up a desecrated corpse's ass and puppeteering it for profit. I'm weird that way.
Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams’ novels are near impossible to translate well into film & tv. Max Landis was close with Dirk Gently.
@JRPGFan20000 Billius, the "OH, God" of Hangovers was in it.
Going Postal worked well for me. The others not so much.
The Sky TV movies were okay. Not amazing but okay. I liked the Going Postal adaptation.
the 2000's Hitchhiker's Guide movie did pretty good....or was close I mean.....gods that movie does match the humor perfectly
i read the first 3 of the books after I saw the movie and enjoyed em, they're bizarre, off the wall, illogical and if you accept that they're actually smart as hell cus in the middle of tossing current logic out they still end up going places that'll blow your mind.....and say things important about life the universe and everything
😈
BS. Yes, some of Pratchett's Discworld novels are literally impossible to translate into film, because he describes concepts and ideas that literally cannot be shown, like colours you can't see or a realm where the sky is directly above you, the ground is directly beneath you, and between them is an eye-twisting absence. Yes, those books would be impossible to translate into film and TV. But the Watch books are incredibly _easy_ to translate to TV. They're police procedurals - a genre TV writers can knock out in their sleep (and frequently do) - where the murder weapon might be a dragon, or a golem. They're character-driven and intensely political, and their politics is decidedly progressive. The Watch are _easy_ to adapt for TV, but these guys apparently didn't even try.
"Reimagining Mr. Pratchett's work to the point of being unrecognizable is...unhygienic."
~Mustrum Ridcully
DThau, DM, BS, DMn, DG, DD, DMPhil, DMS, DCM, DW & BEIL
---------------------------
"Ook."
TRANSLATION: "Now look what the trailer for this show has done - the books are restless and all the grimoires have eaten through their chains and are threatening to fly off! Humans...they're supposed to be our superiors. Hrumph!"
~ The Librarian/Pongo Pongo/perh. Dr. Horace Worblehat
-----------------------------
Okay, yes - many of these characters would be at home in the world of the Discworld, but not until the main characters have been established.
The Watch are all about hiring people normally not considered "proper" by the snobbish gentry. So, yes - a non-binary character (here in this series as Corporal Cheery Littlebottom) would have been hired, but as another character.
Cheery Littlebottom is a spectacular example of gender fluidity. I would have loved to have seen her evolution as she transitions from "he" to "she".
As for a female tyrant...I do have a sneaking suspicion that if Terry Pratchett had lived to write more books, (after Lord Havelock Vetinari passed on), that there'd be a transfer of power to a female. Vetinari may have ensured that the task of running the city would have fallen to Lady Margolotta. This would serve to massively annoy Commander Sir Samuel "Sam" Vimes (a hobby of Vetinari). Not only would she have been a VAMPIRE, but more annoyingly to Vimes, she's of the aristocracy!
The disservice to Lady Sybil Deidre Olgivanna is tragic. She's a large lady who has suffered immensely throughout her youth for her body size, yet she maintains a deep sense of compassion and knows and appreciates herself.
The mishandling of Delphine Angua von Überwald is also a great disservice. She's strong, sarcastic, yet surprisingly warm. She carries herself with confidence, knowing her powers can cause great mayhem...but she doesn't. Also, her hair is iconic (the character in this adaptation has her shorn).
Well, honestly - this adaptation appears to have "buggered it up!"
Repeal the TV license. Don't let the BBC steal your money for this tripe.
If they want to have a fantasy cyberpunk show, they should've just adapted Shadowrun.
Talk about destroying childhoods...
Not a HUGE Discworld fan and the only thing I watched is the things with Death and is my favorite one as a result. I don't know if this will feature Death but I hope so. He is so cool.
The books are fantastic and hilarious! Four main story lines: Rincewind (fantastical adventures - but he has NO appreciation for it), Death (philosophical, but really good), Witches (most funny and very magical), The Watch (mystery's)
You should definitely watch the TV adaption of 'Good Omens' - David Tennant and Michael Sheen have the best on-screen chemistry I have ever seen.
The trailer alone sells the series, because they play SO WELL off each other. :/
It was actually very well done, Sheen and Tenant do bounce off each other extremely well.
citing graham hancock? This is sarcasm or irony right... right? Also Sky already did a number of very faithful mini series adaptations of discworld.
I've been reading discworld since i was 9, and have read almost everything Sir Pratchett has written. His writing contains some of the most beautiful prose i have ever read and he was able to invoke within me both thought and emotion often at the same time. Others have adapted his work in ways that i have found to be fun and respectful, but this sounds like desecration of something sacred to me.
I actually came across this neat little bookstore a couple of days ago, and inside were tons of older books. Two of which were from the Discworld series, so I got one called Guards! Guards! The other had a picture of a treasure chest and parrot, but I can't remember its name. Kind of excited to sit down and read some of it. Heard the series was really good.
I hope you enjoy it. The Discworld books are fantastic.
As always: somebody sees there is a big fanbase for something, so proceeds to mold it into their own expectations, without understanding *why* the fanbase is loving it.
That show almost look like Shadowrun, not Discworld, I don't get when they change the settings of a universe when there is another one that seem to be a match to what you want to do.
Because then they can chase trends AND use a known IP to draw in an audience.
@@annabella1650 Shadowrun is basically fantasy stuff put in a Cyberpunk world, why not get the license for that in this case? It require even less work than having to convert Discworld to whatever this is.
@@daghostds
I’d guess because more people know of Discworld than Shadowrun.
@@daghostds I agree. Shadowrun is easier to convert into something current day. It'll take a lot less physical effort to get Shadowrun going then a full-on fantasy concept. :/
I have read a few of the Discworld novels, pure lunatic genius. Pyramids is my favorite.
The Djellibaby line got me and I loved the camel, but my god they are indeed foul smelling bastards.
This looks interesting. As a long term Terry Pratchett fan I would still like to see the Discworld as he wrote it and see the characters look as they were intended.
There is a trend of taking great artistic works and using it to prop up whatever productions they have that couldn’t stand on their own.
I lasted half an episode ,thought to myself how dare they do this, then switched it off.
If u haven't read his books or seen the collection of older works live action and cartoon you are missing out. Diskworld is vert entertaining one of my favorite series
See if the BBC wasn't involved I might give it a try....
A great starting place for anyone commenting on Terry Pratchett’s work is actually reading the novels.
Yesss...this is the first I've heard of Pratchett's world coming to film.
There have been a few films, dude. I know Going Postal, The Hogfather and The Colour of Magic were made into films.
There were two animated miniseries produced in 1997, based on Wyrd Sisters and Soul Music. They're both really funny and charming. Also, Death is voiced by Christopher Lee.
@@bigbadseed7665 YES! Those too!
@@bigbadseed7665 Thanx for the info....I'm going to find out more about watching them.
@@FatherStack Thanx for the info...I'm going to start digging and find out how I can get them.
An endorsement of the pseudoscience of Graham Hancock totally blindsided me, definitely didn't expect you to be taken in by someone like that. What's next Erich von Däniken?
Going postal, Hogfather, those were very good adaptations in my opinion.
Hell the Guards, Guards! visual comic novel was great,
Like Andre, I've only read GOOD OMENS from Pratchett and Gaiman, but I've wanted to give The Discworld Series a try. This news doesn't come as a surprise at all. We've all seen the downfall of Star Wars, Trek and Dr. Who, so it only seems to follow that another beloved series would be disrespected by these entertainment industry clowns. I feel bad for the fans of these books. Join the club guys, we'll have a cold beer waiting for you.
I’d guess Mort or The Hog Father, if you want to get started. Or the first book, The Colour of Magic.
@@annabella1650 Thank you Anna.
Thanks for this. Now I know what to expect.
The Watch is my favourite book. It is my Father's favourite book. It switches between humour, drama and bittersweet melancholy with a grace no other piece of fiction has managed before or since. And now here we are, getting a Shadowrun knock-off (because that worked so well for Bright, didn't it?) with Terry Pratchetts name tacked on to it for no other reason than to p**s on his grave and try to sell this garbage. I'm not normally one to get worked up about this sort of thing, even the rare good adaption has to make compromises and changes, but this is an insult. And now one of the greatest works of fiction is going to be tarnished by association with this audio-visual silage. This is how culture dies.
Where’s the “Smoking Gnu” when you need them? 😜
I love The Discworld books. If you've not read them, I strongly recommend that you do.
Not only because they're great.
(You'll be halfway through one, when bam! You'll suddenly see what he's getting at, you'll see the joke that's been there the whole time.)
But also because I think you need to have read the books to see why what they've done is so offensive.
Frodo in space is about the size of it, quite literally the names are the only thing they haven't changed.
bah, I'm just going to pretend that this dosn't exist.
Discworld is to the fantasy genre with hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is to science fiction.
I've read all the books (except for the last one, I just want there to be "one more") I've watched the cartoons and the TV shows, played the games and even seen the play version of Guards! Guards!, Paul Darrow was an excellent Vimes. There is no way on Earth that I am going to watch this piece of shit. I don't have words to describe how insulting this show is to the fanbase and more importantlly to the great man himself. I describe Pratchett as the Dickens of our age, I can't believe anybody would so arrogant to rewrite and reimagine his amazing work.
I didn't want my expectations to be subverted, I just wanted them to adapt the source material. Sky One's Hogfather and the Wyrd Sisters animation are proof that you can directly adapt Pratchett without 'translating' his work to fit the screen.
This is what adaptation has become in Hollywood. People have weird, stupid ideas for social justice driven movies and shows, but they know that that sort of stuff is box office/ratings poison. Thus, they try to attract a new audience to make up for the one they'll lose. So, they make their weird, stupid idea an adaptation. That's what an adaptation is now, not an attempt to transfer a beloved property to a new medium, but an attempt to fit a beloved property to the mold of social justice. We usually say that injecting social justice into beloved properties is an attempt to gain a new audience at the expense of the property's built in audience, and in the case if Star Wars and Star Trek it may well have been, but in this case I think it's just the opposite, though still just as bad.
You can blame the movie going public for this a well. It is a harder sell to consumers to have a movie that is not based on some preexisting ip.
@@RocketboyX If a trailer for a movie is interesting, people will go watch it. The fact that the movie often turns out to be a bad one, is not an issue. I've watch some obscure films I've LOVED, not because they were "good" in the traditional sense, but because it hit a good spot (story/character/setting/theme wise) in my film tastes, and they weren't even advertised on any mainstream channels or platforms. I've even like some web series that most people don't even know EXISTED. ;)
Tbh Guards Guards is one of my favourite Discworld books, along with Mort, and I can WHY they did this, Cyberpunk is very popular at the moment, and I guess if its bad its far away enough from the source materials settings to be considered separate, and there are some ideas that could come from this, for example, Great A'tuin actually being a big metal spaceship thing, but tbh I, as a fan, just wants a faithful, good adaptation. I can see why they go in different directions, but I can't see Prachetts sly whit and blunt absurd humour in this kind of setting.
We know that whatever the bbc touches nowadays will be shite. I'm not holding for this being good.
I envy you .... You have every diwcworld book left to read.
Terry Pratchett was a genius
So in other words, this is Discworld in name only. As for the books, I've read most of the series and highly recommend it. Basically, it's the fantasy version of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
I didnt even know know about this and now I wish it would stay that way.
The Hogfather is Pratchett's best work. In the movie, every time the Hogfather dies and resurrects I cry. And I'm an atheist, not a christian , and I really don't like Christmas...
04:30 "A number of Discworld adaptations have been made before, both in animation as well as in earlier made for TV productions."
Hey, don't forget the videogames! The 90s point-and-click Discworld I & II with Rincewind voiced by Eric Idle always felt the most faithful realisation of Pratchett's world to me (although I have to admit I've not seen all the specials Sky made years back).
But really, I think animation would be the best way to go on TV/film. It can't look too clean though, should be stop-motion or CGI that manages to evoke that stop-motion feeling. 2D would of course be nice but good 2D animators don't really exist in the west anymore, at least not in the way that would fit with the franchise.
Indians/native americans are asians that traveled across the great ice bridge to America.
I'll check it out anyway. Read Guards! Guards! and it's hilarious. Really enjoyable stuff.
I swear, if I were watching anything on the BBC, this might have gotten me to stop. Discworld is intelligent, funny, and gut-wrenching by turns, and I hate to see the BBC happen to it.
When Rhianna Pratchett said that she wouldn't be continuing the Discworld series, or allowing anyone else to continue it, I was OK with that. I loved the series, and I knew I would miss the series, but I didn't think anyone but Terry Pratchett could really handle it. I thought even he had some trouble with later books.
Never in a million years, however, would I have thought they could do this bad a job. I should have, given what they've done to Dr. Who, but this time my sanity protected itself by not letting my imagination wander in that direction. And if I had enough alcohol to wash the memory of this down the drain, my brain cells would happily sacrifice a number of their company in that worthy cause.
I'm OK updating the setting of fiction for many stories, such as Sherlock Holmes where the setting is not really that important to most fans. But in Discworld the setting is important. It has dark magic and darker humor. It explains why they don't solve every problem by casting a spell. It pokes fun at fantasy conventions in a way that entertains fantasy fans. It tied the stories together and added more depth.
Even if they couldn't swing that for budgetary reasons, I doubt they'll leave out the woke. Pratchett had a deft touch that poked fun at all sides without cutting too deeply. He wrote a book with a strong anti-gun message, but in a later book acknowledged that if someone was going to break a bunch of laws that day, outlawing guns would have a pretty limited effect. His humor could be turned on men, women, majorities, minorities, the rich, the poor, religion, industry, and even social justice movements themselves. He had one perfect hero -- AND THAT WAS THE JOKE. But this is the BBC. They see their job as propaganda nowadays, to better the riff-raff who are simply too small-minded to agree with their moral betters. The idea that a minority could be downtrodden and have troubles of their own making too is just beyond them. They'll give a dragon big orange hair and pat themselves on the back for their cleverness.
This isn't Discworld. This is an emetic with a Discworld label.