Colour Of Magic Quotes

From Terry Pratchett

• Terry Pratchett first met Sean Astin “in a signing shoot, and I spotted him immediately, and I sorted him out and said ‘I know you! You were in Harry Potter!’” (Source: DenOfGeek.com) Pratchett said Astin plays Twoflower “absolutely wonderfully.”
• David Bradley is “absolutely magnificent” as Cohen the Barbarian.
• Jeremy Irons was Terry Pratchett’s “first choice” for the part of the Patrician. (Source: Thisisnottingham.co.uk)
• On the script read-through: “So there I was, at the first big read through of the script, with most of the cast assembled around the big oblong table and the laughs started. It really did look as everyone had got it. Not only did my gags get laughs, but the actors were bringing new laughs with them. The picture imp got one of the biggest laughs of the day. Cohen is superb and it’s hard to see how he could be beaten. In fact, I came straight home and wrote some new lines for Death because I would not wish him to think he was being upstaged after his success in Hogfather.” (Source: The Colour of Magic production site, which has since been taken off-line.)
• “[The Colour of Magic] hasn’t got too much of a complex plot, so when The Colour of Magic and Light Fantastic came up, we realized that we could actually extend one plot through two books quite well.” (Source: Colour Of Magic official site)
• “Vadim [Jean] put [the screenplay] together and then we spent a whole day going through it and putting in new bits and hacking here and there. I’m quite vicious when it comes to chopping my own stuff.”(Source: Colour Of Magic official site)
• “Sometimes [Vadim Jean is] too respectful. He says, ‘We’ve done it like this because that’s how it is in the book.’ And I have to say, ‘Yes, but if I’d have been doing it like a movie I would have done it this way. So you don’t actually have to stick to the book all the time.’” (Source: Colour Of Magic official site)
• Pratchett nitpicks as well as his fans, saying “[The Patrician] wears glasses in this, which he shouldn’t do if you read ahead in the books.” (Source: SFX)
• Pratchett was, however, pleased with the choice for The Patrician, saying “They phoned me to say who should play The Patrician and they chose the one I wanted. When I knew it was Jeremy, I changed the script because I knew how he would enunciate ‘now what should I do with you, you little scamp?’” (Source: Thisisnottingham.co.uk)
• “Hogfather was more serious; The Colour of Magic is about humour,” Terry Pratchett says. “It’s a buddy movie except that one of the buddies [Rincewind] doesn’t want to be a buddy. It’s a road movie although roads are probably the last thing they manage to travel on most of the time.” (Source: TimesOnline.co.uk)
• Terry Pratchett also comments on the film production, saying, “The nice thing is that The Colour of Magic really had no plot. It was a series of episodes and we could, like a smorgasbord, pick what we wanted. So it wasn’t quite the slaughter job that I thought it would have to be.” (Source: TimesOnline.co.uk)
• Pratchett addresses the choice of David Jason as Rincewind, a concern of many fans: “It was mainly the book cover illustrations that did that…. I’m very good at not describing characters. David Jason has got three amazingly good attributes. Firstly, he is an excellent actor. Secondly, he’s Sir David Jason, and that name counts for something. And thirdly he’s a Discworld fan and about 15 years ago he declared that he wanted to play Rincewind. I thought, ‘Wonderful!’” (Source: TimesOnline.co.uk)
• Terry Pratchett says at the premiere, on his feelings about seeing his books come to life, “It’s very bad for me. It’s like I’m wandering around in the inside of my head, you know. It’s kind of a strange feeling. On the other hand, the money comes in useful.” (Source: BBC)
• At the premiere of The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett was asked about the casting in the film. He said, “I’m very, very pleased with the casting, ’cause I got phoned up a lot, [them] saying, ‘What do you think of so and so?’ ‘Yeah, he’d be great!’ It was great. And the people I asked for I got too, which was wonderful.” (Source: BBC)
• Pratchett said of the movie’s low budget, “In a way I think that [the low budget] made it better, because lots of ingenuity went into it. And I think lots of ingenuity gets you through times with no money better than money gets you through times of no ingenuity.” (Source: DenOfGeek.com)
• Terry Pratchett also said, “And the other thing that was magnificent – I had the run of the place. I could go up as often as I liked, I actually re-wrote bits of the script, once again, the crew has managed to get away with an awful lot of props, they’ve got smart this time – some of the more expensive ones seem to have somehow vanished, so check eBay. It really was a pleasure. I mean, I had to knock him [Jean] about a bit know and again, he had to phone me to say who I wanted to play The Patrician, so I gave him a list of names. And they chose the one who I really wanted! When I found that it was Jeremy Irons I actually re-wrote part of the script because I knew how he would say ‘what are we going to do with you, you little scamp!’” (Source: DenOfGeek.com)
• “I get people occasionally, at parties, out of mischief perhaps or a desire for misplaced honestly, they say that ‘I…I’ve never read one of your books’ and I say that I don’t mind,” said Pratchett. “Which kind of upsets them a bit, which is the whole idea really. I know what my audience is. And it’s not the classic 14-year old boy called Kevin. And if you ever were a 14-year old boy called Kevin, there’s a cure for that – it lasts exactly 12 months. And now you’re a 36-year old IT manager called Kevin and you have all my books and can afford to buy them in hardback now.” (Source: DenOfGeek.com)
• Pratchett said of his fan kingdom, “One of my regular fan-ish correspondents is a nun, and there’s any amount of Wiccans – you can’t move for them these days. I know the size of my readership and I know that you never know them until you introduce themselves. I was actually given a book to sign by a Flight Attendant in a British Airways first-class lounge. Once you can get the BA Flight Attendants as fans, then you’ve won through! So, you know, those that want to see it, will like. Those who don’t can watch Rambo.” (Source: DenOfGeek.com)

From The Cast

David Jason (Rincewind)

• Sir David Jason had this to say about playing the part of Rincewind: “Taking up the role of Rincewind marks the achievement of a career-long ambition for me. It was wonderful to be a part of the success of Hogfather; and to be at the heart of this second family oriented adaptation, which is set to be every bit as fun and fulfilling.”
• He said at the world-wide premiere, “how many books has one read that have been more creative and imaginative than those this gentleman [Terry Pratchett] has done? I hope that in our humble way we will bring some of the same pleasure as you (Pratchett) have in the written word.”
• Also at the premiere, Jason said, “This was the first time I was made an offer I could not refuse by the mob.” (In reference to the contributions by the Mob Film Company in making the film.)
• He explained his experience filming the upside-down fight scenes, saying, “I was suspended upside down on wires for the sword fighting … I could only manage around four to five minutes each time before I wanted to deliver a technicolour yawn!… Not quite the colour of magic that Terry Pratchett had in mind!” (Source: The Sun)
• Sir David said the Luggage was “one of the finest props I’ve ever seen.” (Source: SFX)
• Jason also said, “My wizard’s costume was also very heavy when it got wet and it got very wet during filming.” (Source: The Sun)
• Jason spoke of getting into his costume, saying, “I put the costume on and the hat and that was it. I was done.” (Source: BBC)
• He said, “It’s good fun family entertainment. My daughter’s here as well. She’s seven and she can cope
  with Primeval and she can cope with Doctor Who, which she quite likes, so I don’t think there’s
  anything in this episode [the first part of the mini-series] that’s scary….” (Source: BBC)
• He also stated, “It’s good fun–good clean family fun–and [Sean Astin and I] are very pleased with it. And it’s a great movie.” (Source: BBC)
• Jason explained what gave him his desire to play Rincewind: “Well, the man himself [Terry Pratchett], sitting there! I read The Colour Of Magic many years ago, just after it first came out, and I just fell in love with it – the whole concept. I liked the character Rincewind particularly, I just thought he was such a lovely, mad sort of character. The whole magic, the whole invention of this world, the Discworld, just got straight to me. Ever since then I’ve wanted to do it. It wasn’t until The Mob [production company] came along and ‘made me an offer I couldn’t refuse’ – I’ve been waiting to say that for a long time! - that, yeah, we finally got it on the screen and it was very enjoyable; it was brilliant.” (Source: DenOfGeek.com)
• David Jason commented on his experience of riding on the Luggage, saying, “It’s better than first class! With all those little legs underneath you, you can’t go wrong can you? It was lovely, yes… I think it was a fantastic effect, by the way, it really brought it to life – I think it was one of the funniest props I’ve ever seen!” (Source: DenOfGeek.com)
• David Jason speaking of the stunt work he had to do, said, “I can’t obviously ride a horse that well and there were one or two other things [I didn’t do]. But basically, Sean [Astin] and I did half if not three quarters [of the stunts]. All that stuff in the tank where we were going over the edge of the world, that was he and I, we spent two days in the tank at Vinewood. And I have to tell you that it was bloody freezing! So I wouldn’t recommend it to anybody. But no, we both put our hearts and souls into it, but we didn’t do every single bit. But they did drag me upside down for two days on a harness to do the sword fight. Which I still haven’t forgiven [Vadim Jean] for! It was very painful!” (Source: DenOfGeek.com)
• “I tell you one thing that I would just like to say that, having worked on the film and seen it completed, it’s stunning,” said Jason. “One of the things you’ve got to say, how many books has one read that have been more creative and imaginative than the books that this gentlemen to my right [Pratchett] has written? On behalf of everybody in the film company, the production, and the millions – and I mean this – millions of people all over the world who he has brought tremendous pleasure to, I hope what we’ve done in our humble way will bring as much pleasure as you have with your written word as we have tried to do by breathing life into it visually. So, Terry, thank you very much from all of us, and I mean that.” (Source: DenOfGeek.com)
• David Jason said, when answering a question about why people who aren’t familiar with Pratchett’s work should come to the story now, “…Well, I think that this is probably quite original, it’s totally fresh for television, for the movies it’s very modern. I mean, CGI, the special effects that Vadim used so brilliantly, it’s being used in the big major movies, and people accept it, and this sort of entertainment is long overdue. It’s nothing gratuitious, there’s no violence in it. It’s not like what’s-his-name, Rambo, what is it, 257 deaths before the interval? That’s just a different audience, but I think this is accessible to everyone. The Rambo-lovers as well as mums and dads – we’ve got our little ones here and they’ve been loving it, and Sean’s little ones too. I think that given a fair go, and reasonable publicity, that this will attract a lovely family audience, and that’s what we made it for.” (Source: DenOfGeek.com)

Sean Astin (Twoflower)

• Sean Astin has said of his role, “I’m honored to be given the chance to make the part of Twoflower my own, starring in a fantasy tale that has captured the imagination of millions of people around the world.”
• According to Beck and Smith’s celebrity gossip column published in October, Sean Astin said, “It’s like Lord of the Rings meets Harry Potter meets Monty Python … I show up with the big, flowered shirt and my camera, and when I pull the lever on my camera, there’s a one-inch-tall picture imp in there, drawing the pictures real fast.”
• Sean Astin said, “I had a sinking feeling originally that they’d never let that bad-English-accent-speaking Hobbit play Twoflower.” (Source: SFX)
• Astin said of Terry Pratchett, “Terry obviously loves Tolkien and fantasy but he also loves to … take the piss out of it.” (Source: TimesOnline.co.uk)
• Astin commented on his chances of getting the role of Twoflower, saying, “I had this very sad, sinking feeling when I learned about Twoflower, when I started reading The Colour Of Magic, that I would never get to play him, because it would clearly be an English production if it ever got made, and I told Terry that I knew it would get made, and soon. I actually said it should get made immediately. I had this sinking feeling that I thought they’d never let the guy who was the bad English-sounding Hobbit to ever play [in the movie].” (Source: DenOfGeek.com)
• Astin spoke of the Luggage prop and its prop guy, saying, “Richard, the prop guy who worked it from inside – there actually was someone inside working it – after 45 minutes you’d forget someone was inside there. You’d lift the lid and he’d be just about dead, make-up running, sweating and everything, and they’d like ‘we’re gonna go for another one, jump over the hill again?’ and he’d say ‘no problem! No problem!’” (Source: DenOfGeek.com)

Tim Curry (Trymon)

• Tim Curry said of Terry Pratchett, “Terry’s big on satire and drawing conclusions in his worlds that you can take into this one.” (Source: TimesOnline.co.uk)
• Speaking about his character, Trymon, he observes, “I don’t think class has passed him by, or the advancements of technology. Trymon is such a wonderfully double-dealing slimeball -he’d be totally at home in Brussels. I’ve had a lot of extremely uncomfortable pointy shoes to wear, and lots of great hats.” (Source: TimesOnline.co.uk)
• Curry said of the creatures in The Colour Of Magic, “I’ve seen images of them … I saw the two dragons today that looked fantastic.” (Source: TV Zone magazine #226)
• He also commented on the question of his knowledge of Pratchett prior to the film, saying, “I wasn’t aware of Terry Pratchett until I was sent this script, although I’m told that he sells very well in America… I hadn’t been aware of him before.” (Source: TV Zone magazine #226)

From The Crew

Vadim Jean (director and co-script writer)

• Director Vadim Jean said, of creating the screenplay, “It was a lengthy process…. First I had to work out the broad structure of the story, then I started to turn every scene into a screenplay until I ended up with a huge document which I had to refine. At the second draft stage I went to see Terry and we worked together on the script. He made suggestions and we made sure that what we’d written tied in with Discworld. Then it was a case of fine tuning and making sure we could do it for the money.” (Source: Colour Of Magic official site)
• Vadim Jean explains how working on Hogfather helped the team with The Colour Of Magic: “I think we learnt just how much we need to tell people who don’t already know about Discworld so they get used to it, yet we still keep the books…. Even though we won the BAFTA for best visual effects, I think we’ve now found better ways of doing things, better ways of doing composite shots.  Now we shoot things so that the layers fit together better.” (Source: Colour Of Magic official site)
• Speaking of the technology used in the film, Vadim Jean said, “The cameras we use give a very cinematic look. It looks like 35mm…. and because we’re already in the digital domain all our effects fit much better…. This is much more advanced than Hogfather; there’s more CGI. We have dragons and trolls, the edge of the world and the Potent Voyager (which is a Jules-Verne-style brass vessel Rincewind and Twoflower end up being shot over the edge of the Disc in), to name just a few.” (Source: Colour Of Magic official site)
• Jean also explains how the scenes at the edge of the Disc were shot, saying, “We filmed with a big crane and, while making sure the crane was in exactly the right position so we could get the shots we needed, the actors couldn’t keep control in the fast flow of water and they’d drift off…. Once we’d got our shots in the tank we then had to combine them with all the shots from location. A unit went to Niagara Falls and shot all the plates for the waterfall, because at the edge of the Disc the water falls off the edge. Combining all those things together was the toughest week of the shoot.”(Source: Colour Of Magic official site)
• Jean is enthusiastic about David Jason’s portrayal of Rincewind, saying “What David has done is capture the essence of Rincewind and I think he’s wonderful in the role. Terry’s really pleased with his portrayal. He might not be as skinny as Discworld fans expect Rincewind to be and he might be a bit older, but David has put in a great performance. And his chemistry with Sean Astin [the actor who plays Twoflower] is wonderful.” (Source: Colour Of Magic official site)
• The increased budget for The Colour of Magic was a “dream come true,” Jean said at the premiere.
• “No one else can play the role of Rincewind,” director Vadim Jean said, speaking of David Jason, “so we’ll wait to get him back [for future adaptations].” (Source: SFX)
• Vadim Jean, when asked whether he regretted leaving any scenes from the book out, said, “Gosh. I’ll give a little nod to the kinds of editorial decisions you can make, in the scene where Sean [Astin] is deciding which milestone to follow – do I go to the giant spider or the dragons? I thought ‘you know what? We’ve never seen transparent dragons before, and we’ve definitely never seen upside-down sword fighting – I would love to see David [Jason] doing that!’ So that was the decision made there. The book – both books – are so incredibly rich and I think all those dilemmas we went to. But that was one example where I wanted to see something I’d never seen before. And besides, Sean had already been attacked by a spider, you know – so I’m lead to believe.” (Source: DenOfGeek.com)
• Jean explained why people who aren’t familiar with Pratchett’s work should come to this story now, saying, “I think that even though it’s a book written 25 years ago - 25th anniversary this year – it’s the first book I read, the first book that got me into the series, and I still think that it’s really original and very, very funny. I still think it holds up, and I came to the books 6 or 7 years ago and it was still fresh then – there’s nothing like it, and it’s still very funny and very original.” (Source: DenOfGeek.com)

Ian Sharples (producer)

• Producer Ian Sharples said, of the set of the Broken Drum, “It’s dirty. It’s a bit grubby in Ankh-Morpork, not the clean, pristine place you find on location. Whereas if you build your own, you can make it as filthy as you like…. Terry Pratchett’s idea incorporates the ages of London–Victorian, Medieval, and Georgian–and we’ve tried to re-create that in the back streets.”(Source: Colour Of Magic official site)
• Ian Sharples said, “All historic cities have burnt down at some stage and Ankh-Morpork is no different…. Terry has drawn parallels from the Great fire of London with people having to flee. In this case it’s Rincewind and Twoflower when the drum’s barman sets fire to his own pub in order to capitalize on the insurance policy Twoflower sold him.” (Source: Colour Of Magic official site)
• Sharples talks about filming the Wyrmberg scenes: “Terry imagined the dragon’s lair to be like a bat cave where the dragons are hanging upside-down…. So that’s what we had to do…. We had David upside down for about a day filming his fight scene. Not only was he upside down, he was having to pretend that his sword had a life of its own. His acting was phenomenal. We did six or seven takes with David, then used a stunt double to set up with, but it was so demanding, even the stunt double had problems with it. It’s not a pleasant thing to do.”(Source: Colour Of Magic official site)

Robert Halmi Jr. (producer)

• Halmi discussed the adaptation’s part in RHI’s public image, saying, “Major productions such as The Color of Magic are rapidly making the RHI movies on ION synonymous with must-see television… As we continue to deliver the finest in original event programming, awareness keeps growing and viewership keeps building.” (Source: World Screen)