Vadim Jean speaks: “It helps that I am a fan.”

25 December 2008 (18:02) Cast and Crew Films News News Archives

A University Of Warwick podcast released on September 17, 2008 interviews Colour Of Magic director and screen-writer Vadim Jean.

Jean adapted and directed the first live-action film based on the Discworld novels, Hogfather, and subsequently adapted the first two Discworld novels into another made-for-TV film, titled The Colour Of Magic. The next
planned adaptation is Going Postal, based on the book of the same name.

To quote the podcast:

“One of my dream things, one of the things I wanted to do before I died was to adapt, and ideally be the first person to adapt, Discworld novels for the screen, so that’s a dream come true.”

“I remember when I sat down, first of all, to start adapting Terry Pratchett’s Hogfather and thought ‘Oh, dear, I have a national icon in my hand. How the hell can I hope to do justice to Britain’s biggest-selling adult author?’”

“I think it helps that I’m a fan and I loved the books before I actually started to make the movies.”

“I remember the day on which we sent the first draft that I was happy with to Terry, and waited to hear his response. I remember the huge sigh of relief when his agent rang up and said ‘Well, he’s read it. He actually wants you to go down and meet him and go over the script. And I thought, ‘Oh, no.” [But] he said, “This is fantastic. He’s never asked anybody to do that before, normally he just reads it and says, “Very good. Get on with it,” because he hates it so much he knows that if he gets involved in any kind of dialogue with the people he’ll just take it off their hands and want to re-write it himself.’”

“[Terry Pratchett] said to me, “I really like [the script]. It’s largely because it’s mainly my own words,” which was true, because they were mainly his own words, but that’s what I wanted it to be. I wanted it to be really faithful to the books. There seems to me to be no point adapting a book that you love and then turning it into something that isn’t like the original book.”

“We run all the major casting by [Terry Pratchett]. He is, I have to say, been utterly delighted with the casting. He got on record and said he can’t see anybody else now as [Nobby Nobbs than] the actor who plays Nobby Nobbs in Hogfather, and can’t see anybody else as Susan other than Michelle Dockery (who plays Susan).”

“The moment I really knew I was okay [was] when, during that first script meeting, he said ‘Oh, this is a good line. Is it one of yours or one of mine?’ I said ‘Well, actually, it’s one of mine,’ and he said ‘Oh, well, I’d have been proud if that had been one of mine.’ I thought ‘Well, oh, gosh, that really is something.’ I do think now after doing two of them that I really feel like I have his voice in my head.”

“The thing I suppose I’m happiest about is that he constantly has said in public, ‘The thing is, Vadim gets it.’ I think in the past most people who’ve tried to do it have not ‘got it.’

“What makes me happy is that I think Terry and large numbers of the fans really feel that [the movies are] faithful to the books, and given that we love the books and they are national treasures, that’s all I could hope for.”

Jean also describes how the skills he learned as a history student at the University Of Warwick transfer to his current career as an award-winning director.