Science Fiction Fantasy Chronicles: forums - View Single Post - The Colour of Magic AND The Light Fantastic coming to Sky One!

Werthead · 14th July 2007, 03:22 AM

Yep, after the success of The Hogfather, the first two Discworld books are being made into TV movies to be aired on Sky One in 2008. It's unclear exactly how they're going to handle them (each book becomes one 90-minute film, or if both books get the two-episode treatment, for six hours worth of material in total), but it makes sense given The Colour of Magic's cliffhanger ending.

The most dubious piece of news is that David Jason is playing Rincewind. Now this just doesn't make much sense. Not only is he already playing the recurring role of Albert, but Rincewind is much younger (in his 30s in TCoM, IIRC). OTOH, I understand that Jason is also acting as executive producer and his presence in the cast is understood to be thought of as a big ratings draw (you know, rather than this being the biggest-selling series of British fantasy novels in history without the words 'Potter' or 'Rings' in the title).

Some more nuggets of info here.

14th July 2007, 03:22 AM	#1 (permalink)
Werthead Lemming of Discord Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: United Kingdom Posts: 960	The Colour of Magic AND The Light Fantastic coming to Sky One! Yep, after the success of The Hogfather, the first two Discworld books are being made into TV movies to be aired on Sky One in 2008. It's unclear exactly how they're going to handle them (each book becomes one 90-minute film, or if both books get the two-episode treatment, for six hours worth of material in total), but it makes sense given The Colour of Magic's cliffhanger ending. The most dubious piece of news is that David Jason is playing Rincewind. Now this just doesn't make much sense. Not only is he already playing the recurring role of Albert, but Rincewind is much younger (in his 30s in TCoM, IIRC). OTOH, I understand that Jason is also acting as executive producer and his presence in the cast is understood to be thought of as a big ratings draw (you know, rather than this being the biggest-selling series of British fantasy novels in history without the words 'Potter' or 'Rings' in the title). Some more nuggets of info here.