Terry Pratchett on filming Hogfather

22 November 2007 (15:13) Terry Pratchett's Hogfather Interviews Films Terry Pratchett News News Archives

While not strictly news, Sci Fi Wire interviewed Terry Pratchett recently in preparation for the coming Hogfather television broadcast. Says Terry Pratchett of his cameo as the toymaker, “I was obviously terrified [about shooting the cameo] for two reasons: While I often do [public] talks, and I have a lot of fun doing that, it was my first time doing it in front of a movie camera. And the other thing was that Marnix [Van Den Broeke], who plays Death, or who we should say plays the figure of Death—because [the since-deceased] Ian Richardson played the voice of Death—at one point, out of camera shot, while I was looking at him during my scene, was giving me a thumbs up with his skeletal hand. It was beautifully articulated. The hand unfolded and the thumb came up, and I was thinking, ‘A man should not be so closely confronted with the products of his imagination.’” Terry Pratchett also commented on his close involvement with the production. To quote the article:

“Because I was so closely involved I saw bits of it all the time,” Pratchett said. “A DVD [containing dailies] would arrive every week. I was also on set. There was one stage where I was on the set, and I sort of spun around like Maria in The Sound of Music, because, A, they got this, and, B, got this right. It was a very nice feeling, I can assure you. And I had to keep telling myself that they were making it for other people and not just for me.”

The four-hour film will broadcast this weekend on November 25.