Prime Focus has released a press statement informing the world that it has come to an agreement with sir Terry Pratchet to make a television series based on the Night Watch of his popular Discworld series.
Personally, I love the Discworld novels and the Night Watch is my favorite group of characters so I really hope this cooperation will result in a great new fantasy TV series!
Press statement
Sir Terry Pratchett and Rod Brown, managing director of Prime Focus Productions, have announced an agreement for the unprecedented and exclusive worldwide television rights to create brand new storylines for the iconic characters of Pratchett’s phenomenally successful Discworld series.
Terry’s universal success has seen him create one of the leading fantasy fiction franchises of all time, with 70 million worldwide sales of his 38-book Discworld titles. This will rise to 39 following another book to be published in October 2011. While there have been three successful mini-series adaptations of his Discworld books made for television in the UK, this is the first time Pratchett has granted a production company the international rights to his characters and their world. The agreement will see Prime Focus Productions create a series of new stories exclusively for a television audience.
The main focus of the series will be the bustling, highly mercantile, largely untrustworthy and vibrant city of Ankh Morpork. It will follow the day-to-day activities of the men, women, trolls, dwarves, vampires and several other species who daily pound its ancient cobbles. This will of course also include Igor in the forensics department. Terry commonly refers to the City Watch police force series as “the jewels in his Discworld Crown.” These richly developed and highly compelling characters will feature in a ‘crime of the week’ episodic storyline. As each weekly adventure unfolds, viewers will be taken on a ride through Pratchett’s genius imagination, with the author overseeing the creation of the series. In this world, wild and exciting encounters with werewolves, dragons, dwarfs, trolls, golems and the classic heroes and villains are an everyday occurrence… many of whom even make outstanding crime fighters!
“I believe the globally successful Discworld franchise will readily translate to the small screen in the form of a high-end, mass appeal weekly drama series, giving the audience the anticipation and excitement of brand new Discworld stories every week through the medium of television, rather than books,” said Rod Brown, managing director of Prime Focus Productions. “It’s a huge responsibility to get this right for Terry, his legions of Discworld fans and the new followers that we’ll attract along the way. I believe they’ll be in for a treat with a high calibre writing team already attached, including Monty Python’s Terry Jones and Gavin Scott (Small Soldiers, The Borrowers). We’ve already spoken to a number of international broadcasters who’ve shown early interest and we hope to move forward very quickly to bring this exciting project to fruition.”
Sir Terry Pratchett said of the agreement: “I’m very excited and incredibly happy about this because Rod was co-head of the team that produced the very successful Sky One adaptations. My message of encouragement to him now is: don’t bugger it up!”
Source: Prime Focus Productions
British author Terry Pratchett has written a large number of fantasy stories all set in a world called Discworld. Over the last few decades these Discworld novels together have formed a great fantasy series that is uncomparable to any other.
Not only are the stories brilliantly thought up and extremely funny, sir Pratchett has also written them very well. It is classic humorous fantasy as it combines high-class comedy in a world that is almost too fantastical too believe. It is fantasy making fun of fantasy: simply hilarious. Discworld itself is carried on the backs of four elephants, standing on the back of a turtle… need I say more.
Characters and themes
The stories are not all connected, although many characters and groups of characters feature in more than one story. Well-known examples of recurring (groups) of characters are Rincewind, the Wizards, the Witches, the City watch, Tiffany Aching and Death.
Many different topics and themes are discussed in the Discworld novels, from political to religious to business issues but always they are looked at from a humoristic point of view.
Novels and other works
Pratchett has written close to fourty Discworld novels so far but also many short stories and related works, like The Science of Discworld. Several of the Discworld novels, e.g. Hogfather and Going Postal, have been made into television movies.
Terry Pratchett has been diagnosed with Alzheimer but let’s hope he has many more fantastic novels to write!
Overview of the novels
1983 The Colour of Magic
1986 The Light Fantastic
1987 Equal Rites
1987 Mort
1988 Sourcery
1988 Wyrd Sisters
1989 Pyramids
1989 Guards! Guards!
1990 Eric
1990 Moving Pictures
1991 Reaper Man
1991 Witches Abroad
1992 Small Gods
1992 Lords and Ladies
1993 Men at Arms
1994 Soul Music
1994 Interesting Times
1995 Maskerade
1996 Feet of Clay
1996 Hogfather
1997 Jingo
1998 The Last Continent
1998 Carpe Jugulum
1999 The Fifth Elephant
2000 The Truth
2001 Thief of Time
2001 The Last Hero
2001 The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents
2002 Night Watch
2003 The Wee Free Men
2003 Monstrous Regiment
2004 A Hat Full of Sky
2004 Going Postal
2005 Thud!
2006 Wintersmith
2007 Making Money
2009 Unseen Academicals
2010 I Shall Wear Midnight
Sir Terence David John Pratchett, famous for wearing his black cowboy hat (and sometimes other strange hat-like creations), was born on April 28, 1948. He is extremely popular in Great Britain and also very successful around the world. Novels of his famous fantasy series Discworld have sold tens of millions of times.
Pratchett’s Discworld novels are by far the greatest example of humour in the fantasy genre. Stories by the hand of Pratchett are always brilliantly written with a lot of word puns and strange but fascinating characters, often resembling to other fictional of real persons.
Combined with well-thought-of storylines in a carefully created world, this makes for highly entertaining novels. Pratchett is not afraid to combine classic fantasy with lots of humour and modern-day political and social themes and issues.
Discworld
As mentioned above, the most famous work of Terry Pratchett is his Discworld series. Or better, the collections of novels with stories taking place in the Discworld. Over the last 25 or so years, Pratchett has written close to forty of these higly acclaimed Discworld novels with titles as Night Watch, Hogfather, Going Postal, Mort and Guards! Guards! among the most most popular and best known examples.
Allthough not being a fan of Hollywood, several of Terry Pratchett’s novels have also been made into television movies.
Sadly, Pratchett is suffering from a form of Alzheimer. We can only hope he will stay healthy and writing fit for a long time to come and will extend his Discworld empire even further.
