“It had to be Death. No-one else went around with empty eye sockets and, of course, the scythe over one shoulder was another clue.”
Consider me surprised to find out via press release that a two-part tv adaptation of Terry Pratchett’s The Colour of Magic had been released this March. Not only that, but it’s already on its way to dvd and Blu-Ray.
The only catch? It’s Region 2 only. That’s why you might have never even heard about it- it’s never hit North American shores.
Some explanation- I’m a huge Terry Pratchett nut. If you’ve never delved into any of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels (or played either of the games starring Eric Idle!) you really should consider jumping in. The series must number in the thousands by now, andwhile they are skewed towards a younger audience each and every one are quick, fun reads, with some of the most witty writing you’re likely to find. No author (save Christopher Moore) has made me laugh out loud and embarrass myself in public more.
The Colour of Magic (Color if you buy it here and don’t like needless vowels) was the first
Discworld novel, introducing us to the wizard Rincewind and the strange fantasy world of Discworld. While it’s an excellent story it’s possibly the weakest novel in the series, as Pratchett seems to have been figuring out a tone for the series. He soon found it, though, and the best part of this world he created was the many different types of books he could wring out of it. There are murder mysteries, vampire stories, Christmas tales, hell, there’s even a novel that’s a parody of Faust. This film adaptation’s actually an amalgamation of the first two novels- the second being The Light Fantastic.
After inept wizard Rincewind is expelled from Unseen University for failing to learn even basic
magic he is forced to become tour guide to Discworld’s first tourist,
naive insurance salesman Twoflower.
Following their adventures as they flee a fire in Ankh-Morpork, endure
dangerous encounters with the disc’s mythical creatures, dice with
Death and fight to prevent the world from ending, Colour of Magic
offers an exhilarating ride through a magical realm quite unlike any
other.
Sounds like a lame Lord of the Rings ripoff, but if they did it right it will be nothing like it. The film has received a bunch of positive reviews, so let’s hope for the best. It stars David Jason as Rincewind and Sean Astin as Twoflower. Supporting cast includes Tim Curry, Jeremy Irons, and Christopher Lee as Death! (or is that DEATH?)
Besides that there was already an adaptation of Hogfather that came out in 2006 and an upcoming adaptation of Going Postal, one of my favorite of his novels, planned for release in 2009. Hopefully someone will bring them out here so we don’t have to import them to check them out. You lucky Brits can pick it up on the 3rd of November, in both 1-disc barebones dvd or 2-disc dvd (or Blu-ray) formats. The latter two will have a bunch of extras such as Discworld ‘Tourist Guides’, deleted scenes, and interviews.
Has anyone seen this film yet? Let us know how it is in the comments!
12 comments
This was screened on the UK's Sky channel over the Easter weekend this year. It was pretty good – my 9-year-old loved it – and my wife who has read plenty of Pratchett said it was a decently faithful adaptation.
It is signiifcantly better than Hogfather, which was just far too muddled to make any sense at all. Cheers.
Hogfather has a far superior story which although didn't work 100% on screen, made a lot more sense than Colour Of Magic which was a shambles. And why didn't the tourist have four eyes?
They just showed it here in NZ and I really REALLY wanted to like it as I love Terry Pratchett books but it just didn't do it for me. The direction was just very poor, Ankh Morpork felt like a set rather than a real pea soup smoged city and the diskworld just felt too.. 'fantasy'. I know it's the most ridiculous over the top fantasy concept but it is a living breathing world in his books and deserved better. Bless them the actors tried their very best but it was just… kind of lame.
I'd love more than anything see a proper adaptation of a Terry Practehtt book, the man manages to put nuance and alegory alongisde the most gut busting humour, I genuinely think he's one of the best, and most underrated, authors around.
For God's sake stop casting David Jason in these things – he was horribly miscast as Albert in Hogfather and was horribly miscast as Rincwind in COM – Rincewind should have been played by Macenzie Crook and no-one else.
And huxathon – Twoflower did have four eyes – they were his glasses, two eyes plus two lenses equals four eyes.
Holy shit, that's one bad poster! Why does Tim curry look like he's had a botched nose job and why are his eye balls popping out like he's just visited the surface of mars via total recall? And wtf is that huge mound of green petrified shit on the bottom left had corner? Terry Pratchett must be rolling in his grave.
Sadly it is not as faithful as i wished for as they struggled a little too hard to fit the story of the novels into two 90 Minute episodes.
David Jason as Rincewind is indeed a miscast here. In the first Novels Rincewind should be MUCH younger than he is portrayed here (as true Pratchett Nerds will know from different Timelines and all that stuff you can found on the interweb).
But this is still fun to watch, since Sean Astin's Twoflower is spot on, effects are ok for TV, it has a nice pace and the jokes came off right. Especially the Magic Sword scene did it for me.
Unknown User's review above is spot-on – it's not quite as good as it could have been, but given the highly episodic source material they mostly worked a coherent story out of it, Sean Astin is spot-on throughout, and it's fun (but not vital) to watch.
I'm surprised that they've been adapting the less straightforward books – Hogfather merges mythology and mystery in (slightly) challenging ways, and Colour of Magic/Light Fantastic are frankly a collection of episodes with a light storyline layered across the top (formats which are frankly easier to pull off in book than movie form). I haven't read "Going Postal" yet, but I hope t lends itself better to the screen.
tried to watch this, but it is what it is: a cheap made for TV adaptation with poor performances, awful music and irritating 'stage' lighting.. so it ends up looking more like an episode of 90s Star Trek where the crew beam down to Discworld rather than the rich, colorful world it could have been. Directed by a Sky One Executive's family member? Maybe… Rincewind was horribly miscast alright… Jason is simply decades too old for the character and doesn't retain that spritely dumbfoundedness the Rincewind of the books excudes.
I have to say the CG was impressive though.
it's not needless you twat. If it was mean to be spelled color it would be pronounced co- law, like colon. If anything the "o" is needless as colur or better still culur is the right pronunciation.
Also, this could be the reason it's only on region 2….
Also, sky has to make a certain amount of original drama in the uk to keep it's licence and this is cheap to keep knocking out.
You found out about it NOW?
Well, actually, consider yourself lucky, in that case. While that TV adaptation of "Hogfather" was mostly unimpressive, it was incomparably better than TCoM.
This, on the other hand, is the usual trash TV pseudo-adaptation, complete with everything, from the awfully miscast characters, to lazy non-performances, to Boredom 101. Take any of all the bland, unwatchable "Mick Garris Adapts Stephen King" TVideos, make them 50% duller and uninvolving, throw in some ridiculously cheap props and sets (Garris at least tries to have some decent TV effects in his bad series) and you'll reach the quality of this.
The DVD, however, will make a great gift for anyone whom you'd want to introduce to Pratchett and make sure that they'll never again look at anything with Pratchett's name on it, afterwards.
That poster is a fucking abomination. God stabbed himself in the face when he saw that.
Was on in NZ and david jason was miscast as Rincewind, in the books hes a spindly mid 30 looking chap…not a overweight mid 60s…just didnt work. Rest of the cast was great.
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