Going Postal

Retro News: Pratchett interview, in which he actually talks about things other than Alzheimer’s (29 November 2008)

28 December 2008 (19:57) Comment!

Deborah Orr at the Independent.co.uk interviewed Terry Pratchett late in November, and in doing so provides some insight into Terry Pratchett’s writing process.

The article gets the requisite Alzheimer’s questions done early. Terry Pratchett summed up the effect of his very public diagnosis:
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The Discworld Convention 2008

3 September 2008 (8:29) 3 Comments

Many of you were lucky enough to go to the convention–but many more weren’t so lucky (including the admin of this site, a.k.a. me).  Fortunately for us, demdike from The Cunning Artificer’s forum was nice enough to be our scribe and write a convention report, in which we learn a bit about Nation, slightly more about Going Postal and other future film adaptations, and a lot about our favorite fandom:

The First Day: Friday, August 22, 2008

[The convention] started (officially) with the Opening Ceremony. There were voice-over messages asking for the stage to be cleared of party debris and on came Lu Tze with his broom. After telling everyone to go home–the Con had been and gone, and the disruption in the Number 7 procrastinator was blamed–the Men in Saffron (1 of the 2 was me) were called in to rewind 72 hours.  Cue stone grinding and Tardis noises, the lights went up and Lu Tze and the Men in Saffron had been replaced by Terry.

After briefly touching on his illness (most of which has already been printed online in most places) he spoke about the last year which has propelled him from relative media obscurity to celebrity status.

The evening ended with Terry’s bedtime stories, where the usual nutters turned up in their nightwear clutching their various bed companions (mostly furry).  Terry then read from Nation. I had to leave after an hour and a half so I apparently missed the lighter passages.  Definitely a darker book than any previously written.

The Second Day: Saturday, August 23, 2008

[Saturday] was spent trying to familiarize myself with the Hotel. Although the standard of the rooms was very high, it lacked the atmosphere of previous venues. The rooms were at the end of very long corridors. There was no one place to congregate, [the hotel] having a number of bars and eating places, so I never saw some people I knew were attending, and some I saw briefly in passing and never again.  Although the lectures and workshops were very well attended, quite a lot were scheduled for the same time. In fact the lady running the candle workshop came down the corridor wondering what the queue was for and was quite horrified to find out it was waiting for her. Previously she had had around a dozen people attend and this time it was 60!  She had only brought the materials for 60 candles, so had to turn people away.

The Masquerade I shall have to leave others to describe as I took part and was locked up in the ‘Green room’ with the other participants for all of it, but I can say that during the acts the Ankh-Morpork street refuse collector was called and the anonymous disgusting gnoll that came to clear up was none other than our own Pam Gower, and the fact that she was unrecognised pleased her no end, and of course the costume was all her own work as usual.  In fact, off stage I didn’t recognise her myself until I overheard her speaking.

The Third Day: Sunday, August 24, 2008

I attended the “2008 Is Wallace Year” lecture given by Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen, which was both entertaining and informative and as usual showed that the Roundworld can be as wierd and wonderful as the Discworld, with many similarities.

Pat had made the great error of describing his audience as sitting ducks–bad move as most of the auction (and every other appearance he made) was punctuated by duck calls.  The Octavo made an extremely impressive centrepiece and I had to leave before it came up, because it never would have fitted in the car.

The evening was rounded off by the Gala Dinner and Dragon racing.  The meal was very enjoyable except for the fact that I went out for a nicotine fix between courses and someone replaced my pudding with 2 grapes on a plate!

Terry gave a speech mentioning that for half the attendees it was their very first convention, which does raise the question of what has happened to half of the regulars?  The last speech was given by Lord Vetinari and his statement of one man one vote and he had it was interrupted by Terry begging to differ. Terry also said that he wasn’t bad–he was just written that way, which amused everyone.

The Dragon racing was enjoyable with a Tote using our free money and despite numerous stewards enquiries, photo finishes and one dragon being lifted and ‘helped’ to the finishing post by Nac Mac Feegles went off very well.

The Fourth Day: Monday, August 25, 2008

[Monday] was spent mostly packing, saying goodbye to friends old and new.  The Mob had brought David Jason’s Rincewind hat (the one that had fallen in the water, so suitably snotted), Kring the magical sword, and the Bafta, which Stephen Briggs managed to photograph it held by many people.

During the Meet the Mob presentation it was mentioned that the order of the next films will be Going Postal, Making Money, then Sourcery.  Unfortunately there may be limited fan involvement as the next two will be filmed in Hungary due to a lack of suitable buildings here and that most of the action is set amongst architecture.

The Closing Ceremony

The closing ceremony was the usual mix of sadness and joy.

Joy because the prizes were given out, and we were all able to fit into the room together as at the Opening ceremony, but also sadness as one of the prizes for the Guild member who remained in charactor for the whole convention and who had contributed greatly to their guild and in promoting other peoples enjoyment was given an award named for Ewan the young assassin who captured everyone’s heart at the 2006 convention and who died shortly afterwards.

At the very end when the guests and con committee had left the stage there was the voice overs asking for someone to clear the stage of the mess and on came Lu Tze and despite being told we had only just got there, was adamant that we only got one time turn and this time really had to go home, so we did.

Home again, Wadfest next weekend, then the frantic saving for Hogswatch and Nadcon in Arizona.

Many many thanks to demdike for the report!

Would anyone else like to share their experiences? And for those who couldn’t go, how jealous are you?

An update from Terry Pratchett

4 August 2008 (8:58) 2 Comments

www.PJSMPrints.com has another update from Terry Pratchett. Here it is in full:

Folks,

To those that want to know, it would be true to say that my life right now is occasional short periods of writing interspersed and interrupted with requests for interviews.  As my UK readers will know, merely catching a variant of Alzheimer’s has propelled me onto more prestigious chat show sofas than I have ever seen in 25 years of quietly writing the Discworld series. 

My general health is good.  The most recent test by my specialist indicates, in effect, that I am no worse now, and possibly slightly better than I was at the back end of November.  I have no idea when Unseen Academicals will be finished, simply because of the amount of media interest that continues to be generated by recent developments in the treatment of AD.  Frankly, and with the agreement of my publishers, I feel that this is something that I should give priority to.

In a week’s time we are flying to the States to talk to a number of specialists in AD research and, incidentally, go out with the LAPD officers who are tasked with – and I am not kidding – locating and bringing home those elderly joggers with memory difficulties who have jogged five miles and can’t remember where they live.  I thought this was an urban myth, but apparently it is true.  We will, obviously, be back in time for UK convention, which I would not miss for root canal surgery.

The bad news is that it looks as if, for various reasons, Going Postal The Movie will be delayed and shooting will not begin until the start of next year. However, the guys from Mob turned up this morning and filmed my sequence for the Colour of Magic DVD which will be released in October.

From Terry Pratchett: Alzheimer’s, documentary, book, and film news.

19 April 2008 (14:13) Comment!

Over at the Discworld illustrator’s website, Terry Pratchett has kindly updated his fans with information about everything: the BBC documentary (”broadcast next year”), dealing with Alzheimer’s (”I am now firmly ensconced with a specialist”), Nation (”line-edited”), and the coming TV adaptation of Going Postal. The full text of the letter follows:

My office is now effectively at a standstill. In fact, my office is probably moving slightly backwards. It has not helped that a five story rack of filed mail collapsed under the weight recently, thus shuffling several thousand documents into new and interesting combinations. Right now it is a good day if we can answer just those emails that turn up on that day. Most days are nothing like good days. Can we please say this:

I very much appreciate all the letters, emails and cards that have come in, many of them recounting personal experiences and quite a few passing on “survival kits”. There does seem to be some people out there who have managed at least to slow AD, although I have to say that it does appear by taking various supplements, not by milligram, but by grams :o)

Nation has now been line-edited, and in theory I was going to have a month or so off, although a large part of that will now be spent reassembling what passes as our post room. In reality there are now more calls on my time than there have ever been, to the point where we are simply having to ignore approaches. I think we must have had more than a dozen approaches from documentary companies alone, and I think we shall now just stop sending out the “You are too late, guys” emails (You may see us around and about being followed by Craig and Charlie, who are making a documentary about me for the BBC which will be broadcast next year.) I never intended that I would be some kind of AD spokesman, but the world seems to be deciding otherwise.

On a brighter note, I am now firmly ensconced with a specialist, testing last week showed that nothing much had moved since the end of November, except that in situations where I must parallel process I find that serial processing is about as much as I can achieve :o)

There are a number of things planned for the rest of the year, and they include cracking on with Unseen Academicals and also, with any luck, playing a rather larger role in the making of Going Postal.

Colour Of Magic premiere Q&A transcript

1 April 2008 (21:00) Comment!

DenOfGeek.com, in addition to the review we told you about earlier, has made available a complete transcript of the Q&A session that followed the screening March 3. Director Vadim Jean, Sir David Jason (Rincewind), Sean Astin (Twoflower), and of course Terry Pratchett participated in the session. Some selections:

Terry Pratchett: … some screens actually glittered at home but now, well, some screens didn’t glitter so much – I’ll put it that way.
Vadim Jean: It’s definitely the projector! In glorious high definition – which you’re all going to go out and buy just to see this, it’s, well, stunning.
Terry Pratchett: Actually, for once, he’s not lying! I’ve seen it on the big TV screens and there was masses of colour.
Vadim Jean:We’re just stretching the technology to the limit, throwing it 150 feet.

————

Sean Astin: 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!’

————

David Jason: 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.

Colour official site updated; expanded trailer; first review online

5 March 2008 (21:01) 2 Comments

The people at SkyOne have updated the official Colour of Magic site, http://www1.sky.com/colourofmagic/index.html, which can now also be found at thebrokendrum.net. Updates include an expansion to the Terry Pratchett section with a new page called “Pratchett’s Thoughts” tells readers about, well, Pratchett’s thoughts on the film:

It wasn’t too difficult to turn the Colour of Magic and Light Fantastic into one movie. The project was helped by the fact that the Colour of Magic, being a kind of road movie, had no perceptible plot whatsoever other than people kept moving. Once we realised that, it was just a matter of cutting things out and splicing things together and I’m pretty happy with the result.

Pratchett even addressed many fans’ concerns about the casting of Sean Astin as Twoflower:

Keen fans will say “Yes, but isn’t Sean Astin not really very, you know, Oriental enough?” Observant fans, though, will know that Twoflower was merely exotically foreign until Interesting Times and Sean told me years ago that he wanted to be in a Discworld movie and so we decided that West Coast American is exotic enough!

He ended by saying, “I am very pleased with it, I hope you will be too. [sic]”

The site also features an extended trailer (which can be found under “The Film” or “Video”). Here’s the transcript:

The Arch-Astronomer: The colour of magic …
Rincewind: The colour of magic!
Rincewind: Well… it’s … um.
Twoflower: It’s–It’s–It’s sort of … um..
The Arch-Astronomer: Magenta.
Rincewind: It’s a little bit yellow.
Herrena: Gred. (?)
The Librarian: Oook. (Caption: “Orange!”)
Rincewind: It’s a little bit blue.
The Arch-Astronomer: Blue?
Cohen: It’s silvery.
Twoflower: Hm.
Bethan: I think it’s gray.
Trymon: It’s very, very gray.
Death: Some say a little darker.
The Arch-Astronomer: Wow.
Twoflower: I’ve got it!
The Arch-Astronomer: Puce
Twoflower: It’s a fluorescent … greenish-purple.
Rincewind: It’s a pigment of your imagination.
Announcer: Terry Pratchett’s The Colour of Magic. This Easter on SkyOne and SkyOne HD.

Other major updates include a page on Gavin Finney, the multi-award-winning director of photography for the film, another cast list with several added names, and an entire new section entitled “The Magic,” with information about the Unseen University, Discworld, and the power of eight.

The first review of The Colour of Magic has been posted online. While only the first half of The Colour of Magic was shown at the premiere on March 3, the review gives a very insightful glance into the film.

Also at the premiere on March 3, fans and the press finally found out who played the Patrician: Jeremy Irons.

Another exciting announcement: the next Discworld book to be adapted for the small screen will be Going Postal, for which David Jason will not return.

Plans are to air The Colour of Magic in two parts over Easter in the U.K. and sometime later this year in the U.S. More specific dates and times have yet to be announced.

Colour of Magic premiere yesterday; Going Postal to be adapted next

4 March 2008 (19:57) 2 Comments

The world-wide premiere of The Colour of Magic took place yesterday (March 3) at the Curzon Cinema in London. Terry Pratchett, David Jason, Sean Astin, and many fans were present. Several news sources are reporting on the event, including Digital Spy, which reported that, “The Colour of Magic author Terry Pratchett fell to his knees before Sir David Jason on stage last night … Pratchett joked that he should not speak over a knight of the realm and knelt down.”
Some selected quotes from the exciting night:

David Jason: “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.”

David Jason: “On behalf of millions of people all over the world you have brought true pleasure to us.”

David Jason: “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.)

David Jason: “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!”

Vadim Jean: The increased budget for The Colour of Magic was a “dream come true.”

As if all that excitement weren’t enough, director Vadim Jean revealed at last night that Going Postal, featuring our favorite Moist von Lipwig, is next up to be adapted. David Jason will not be returning for the adaptation, though he may in the future. FromRimToHub.com also used this article to compile our report.