March 2009

Terry Pratchett’s Truckers is alive! Again! Maybe!

31 March 2009 (21:18) 2 Comments

An animated adaptation of Truckers, Terry Pratchett’s children’s novel about tiny nomes whose entire world (that is, a department store) is ending, has apparently found a new writer: Slumdog Millionaire’s Simon Beaufoy.

This comes after a flurry of rumors in the past couple of days that Beaufoy would be writing a Wolverine sequel.

Are we right in assuming this means the animated adaptation of Truckers is once again alive? Hopefully. The film has been in development since at least 2001, but has suffered some false starts–Frank Cotrell Boyce’s name has previously been attached to the project as writer.

This January, planned director Danny Boyle (also of Slumdog Millionaire fame) seemingly definitively said the Truckers adaptation was dead: “It’s fallen apart. Frank Cotrell Boyce (Millions) and I were going to do it for DreamWorks but sadly no longer.”

But after Slumdog Millionaire’s awards sweep this year, Boyle and Beaufoy have chosen to start working on an animated Truckers, for Dreamworks.

Links:
Ready2Beat
AceShowBiz
The Playlist
Slash Film

Terry Pratchett commemorative stamps available on eBay

27 March 2009 (17:58) Comment!

Two fans and artists of Terry Pratchett’s writings have created a set of commemorative stamps celebrating Pratchett’s life. The stampsheets are available now on eBay (or by emailing sirterry@stampsmyth.com). Here is the info, straight from the artists’ mouths:

We are Alan Batley and Colin Edwards, two fans of Terry Pratchett and his books from the UK, and two of the artists who worked with Terry on the very first Discworld stamps which you may know from the inside cover of the Going Postal hardback.

We thought it would be a fitting tribute to produce a set of commemorative stamps that celebrated Terry’s great achievements, and were thrilled that after receiving permission (and a lot of assistance with the details) from Terry’s agent Colin Smythe, he suggested that a framed copy of our work should be presented to Sir Terry at the lunch that followed his knighthood.

The 3 stamps celebrate:
40 Years of Published Writing
25 Years of Discworld novels
and his 60th Year, culminating in his Knighthood at Buckingham Palace.

In order to give Terry the very best quality of printing, Alan and I had to buy a small print run of the stampsheets and we are now trying to sell the remaining sheets of stamps to help pay for the printing and perforation of the stamps. A proportion of the royalties from the sales will be donated to Alzheimers charities in the East Anglia region; Alan’s mother had the disease.

We do not have a shop or website so we are selling these on eBay. The item details are at… http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=250376103054&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT&ih=015

The artwork features an illustration of a very young Terry, based on Colin Smythe’s archive photographs of Terry at the launch of The Carpet People at the very start of his commissioned writing career; and Terry’s early signature from those days.

The central image is of Great Atuin, and the Discworld flying through space, celebrating the 25 years of Discworld novels.

The third stamp in the sequence is of Sir Terry as we all know him today in his trademark black hat and carries the modern signature we are more familiar with today.

Each stamp minisheet is presented with a numbered, certificate of authenticity dated on the day of Terry’s knighthood, signed by both of us, and hand stamped with a silver Great Atuin.

We hope you will take time to have a look at the listing, and might support a couple of fans who wanted to celebrate Sir Terry’s knighthood in an appropriate way, if you do not have an eBay account you can contact us at sirterry@stampsmyth.com for further details.

Thank you and congratulations again SIR Terry! Your recognition for services to literature has been long overdue.

Pictures!
http://s676.photobucket.com/albums/vv125/stampsmyth/?action=view&current=triptychcloseupRGB.jpg
http://s676.photobucket.com/albums/vv125/stampsmyth/?action=view&current=1minisheetcard2lores.jpg
http://s676.photobucket.com/albums/vv125/stampsmyth/?action=view&current=1lotsofminisheets.jpg]

Good Omens is Audible.co.uk’s Audiobook Download Of The Year

26 March 2009 (21:51) 1 Comment

Nearly twenty years after it was first published, which book is still a phenomenon? Good Omens, of course. The Neil Gaiman-Terry Pratchett collaboration, narrated by Stephen Briggs, was voted the 2008 winner of the annual Audible.co.uk Audiobook Download Of The Year awards. Sir Terry received his award at a The Athenaeum, Pall Mall, London at a luncheon just after being formally knighted by Her Majesty.

This news is a bit late, but I thought it was still newsworthy all the same.

Thanks to Colin Smythe for the information.