DW Film... (was Re: Guards! Guards! play
Terry Pratchett
The Mort Film:
A production company was put together and there was US and Scandinavian and
European involvement, and I wrote a couple of script drafts which wet down
well and everything was looking fine and then the US people said 'Hey, we've
been doing market research in Power Cable, Nebraska, and other centes of
culture, and the Death/skeleton bit doesn't work for us, it's a bit of a
downer, we have a prarm with it, so lose the skeleton". The rest of the
consortium said, did you read the script? The Americans said: sure, we LOVE
it, it's GREAT, it's HIGH CONCEPT. Just lose the Death angle, guys.
Whereupon, I'm happy to say, they were told to keep on with the medication
and come back in a hundred years.
Currently, since the amount of money available for making movies in Europe is
about sixpence, the consortium is looking for some more intelligent Americans
in the film business. This may prove difficult.
It could have been worse. I've heard what Good Omens was looking like by the
time Sovereign's option mercifully ran out -- set in America, no Four
Horsemen...oh god.
Chris Waters
>I'm not sure if this ended up in the FAQ or not....anyhow...
>The Mort Film:
>A production company was put together and there was US and Scandinavian and
>European involvement, and I wrote a couple of script drafts which wet down
>well and everything was looking fine and then the US people said 'Hey, we've
>been doing market research in Power Cable, Nebraska, and other centes of
>culture, and the Death/skeleton bit doesn't work for us, it's a bit of a
>downer, we have a prarm with it, so lose the skeleton".
^^^^^
Cute. Took a few seconds to penetrate my typo-overloaded brain. :-)
Anyway, this is why the people in Northern California have much the same
attitude towards Southern CA in general, and Hollywood in particular,
that the Scots do towards the great mass of "Southerners".
I'd advise waiting till they put Tim Burton in charge of production.
I'm a little dubious about his more serious works (Batman?!?), but I
think that he could capture the humor in the Disc novels better than
much of anyone else in Hellywood. (See _Edward Scissorhands_ and
_Beetlejuice_.)
In the meantime, what can the rest of us do? Buy lots of Terry's books.
Lots and lots. Buy copies for *all* your friends. Make him the most
popular author in the world--something he richly deserves anyway--then
they'll have to listen to his input! :-)
OKAY!! Got my brown-nosing done, now, on to bigger and better things! :-)
--
Chris Waters | the insane don't | "Don't you boys know NICE songs?"
xt...@netcom.COM| need disclaimers | -- Joe's mama
Michael J. Hennebry
Has A&E been tried? All I know about A&E's ability to make movies is that
they did at least one good work in conjunction with the BBC: The House of
Elliot series. No skellingtons or other special effects though.
If some other ugly American tells you that the skellington has got to go,
suggest that Dirty Harry should have a Derringer.
--
Mike henn...@plains.NoDak.edu
"I still thing it's garbage, but beautifully cooked." -- TP on TP
Benedikt Heinen
t> lose the Death angle, guys.
Hey, jolly good... Mort without the DEATH-character... Let me guess, without
DEATH we should be able to compress the whole book "Mort" into a few pages, eh?
;(
t> Currently, since the amount of money available for making movies in Europe
t> is about sixpence, the consortium is looking for some more intelligent
t> Americans in the film business. This may prove difficult.
Ever thought about TriBeCa? They want to make "more intelligent" films... (Just
think of their first production "Mistress" - noone in the U.S. wanted it, so it
was published in Europe later...) :) But I don't know, whether they're so fond
of Fantasy movies...
Perhabs they could do the "Good Omens" movie?
bye,
Benedikt
Ulrich Schreglmann
>The Mort Film:
>A production company was put together and there was US and Scandinavian and
>European involvement, and I wrote a couple of script drafts which wet down
>well and everything was looking fine and then the US people said 'Hey, we've
>been doing market research in Power Cable, Nebraska, and other centes of
>culture, and the Death/skeleton bit doesn't work for us, it's a bit of a
>downer, we have a prarm with it, so lose the skeleton". The rest of the
>consortium said, did you read the script? The Americans said: sure, we LOVE
>it, it's GREAT, it's HIGH CONCEPT. Just lose the Death angle, guys.
You should have shown them the last minutes of Monty Python's "The Mean-
ing of Life" to have them realize a Skellington Death fits very well in-
to the rest of the American Way of Afterlife.
May the Cool Be with You!
(C)OOL mcmxcii
Guddeevenin Ladies'n Genlmun.
It's truly a real unerable xpernce tubee here in this eevning...
It's Christmas in heaven. The snow falls from the sky.
Tho' it's nice'n warm and ev'ryone looks smart'n wears a tie.