Saturday, July 07, 2007

Colour of Magic the movie

It looks like it is official: Terry Pratchett's first two novels The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic are being filmed as a two-in-one movie. Following the success of Hogfather, SKY Network has apparently doubled the budget, which is a good thing because Hogfather occasionally suffered for its low budget, and The Mob's Vadim Jean is again directing.

Both novels are extremely lightweight, so it shouldn't be hard to turn the two of them into a single screenplay. Obviously a lot of scenes and characters are going to have to be dropped, but I can live with that. I do hope they manage to keep Hrun's speaking sword.

Details at this time are very thin on the ground, although rumour has it that Sir David Jason is going to play Rincewind. Sir David is a fine actor, and can play many roles wonderfully, but having him play Rincewind would be the second-most egregious example of miscasting ever. So let's hope the rumours are mistaken.

The most egregious example of miscasting ever, surely, is the suggestion that The 40 Year Old Virgin star Steve Carell should play Twoflower.

Although... [grits teeth] ... Japanese tourists were very much a 1980s thing, but clueless, obnoxious American tourists are an eternal truth. Maybe that makes a kind of sense?

Nah. The important thing about Twoflower is his child-like innocence. Who else should play Twoflower but Masi Oka?

Hiro and Ando(Click for larger image.)

As for Rincewind, I give my vote for Pirates of the Caribbean actor Mackenzie Crook. The man was born to play cowardly, moth-eaten, skinny anti-hero Rinso the Wizzard.

Ragetti the pirate(Click for larger image.)

Paul Kidby writes in his blog that he will have a cameo in the film. (That story hasn't been archived yet, but when it is, it will probably end up in the archive for June.)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sean Astin of Hobbit fame is playing Twoflower (I thought white guys playing Asians went out with Mickey Rooney as Mr. Yunioshi) and yes...David Jason IS playing Rincewind. How that turns out remains to be seen bu its amazing what being the executive producer can do when you want a plum part. Christopher Lee is reprising his role as the voice of death. The mind boggles.

Anonymous said...

if you look at the timeline for the disc world youll see rincewind was only 33 in the time of the events of colour of magic nevertheless i have full faith that sir david jason will not dissapoint most movies have miscasts but it always works out some how, now if they did what the makers of the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy movie and tottaly destory what the whole book series was about id be appaled but since there gonna stick to the story line ill be happy to see whatever they come up with

Anonymous said...

Rick Moranis would be also good as Twoflower. Remember his performance from Ghostbusters :D