Truckers

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:
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Slash Film

Danny Boyle to direct Truckers?

20 September 2008 (22:51) Comment!

Coming Soon reports that Danny Boyle wants to direct an animated Truckers movie based on Terry Pratchett’s children’s book.

“You’re more like a ringmaster,” 28 Days Later director Boyle said of directing an animated feature, “[You’re] kind of organizing this huge army of illustrators who can change the movie. It’s really weird.”

Boyle tentatively hopes to work with screenwriter Frank Cottrell Boyce, who has called Truckers his favorite book.

“Part of me thought: brilliant,” Boyce said of hearing Truckers would be adapted for the screen. “That’ll be a great film. But another part of me felt mugged. Truckers was my secret, a blessing I bestowed on the people I most liked.”

Danny Boyle has also directed Sunshine, Trainspotting, and Slumdog Millionaire, and hopes to work with Dreamworks on Truckers.

BBC birthday celebrations for Terry Pratchett

27 April 2008 (14:06) Comment!

BBC 7 celebrates Terry Pratchett’s sixtieth birthday (this Monday) with a mini series of Terry Pratchett interviews, radio adaptations of the Discworld novels, and more. A summary of what’s still available:

• The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents: A radio adaptation, dramatized by Peter Kerry and starring Harry Myers, Tom George, David Tennant and Annie Rowe. Airs April 27 at 8 p.m.
• Mort: A radio adaptation, dramatized by Robin Brooks, narrated by Anton Lesser, and starring Carl Prekopp as Mort and Geoffrey Whitehead as Death. Airs April 28 to May 2 at 6:30 p.m. and 12:30 a.m.
• Book Club: Terry Pratchett talks to James Naughtie about Mort and the Discworld series. Airs May 2 at 6:30 pm. and 12:30 a.m.
• Truckers: The first novel in Terry Pratchett’s trilogy about nomes, read by Philip Pickard. Airs May 5 to May 8 from 7 a.m. to 8 a.m. on Big Toe Books.

All programs, including the dramatization of Small Gods that aired yesterday, should be available on BBC’s Listen Again feature for about a week after airing.