TV and film adaptations

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Despite his (deserved) scepticism, several of Pratchett's books have been adapted as television series or specials, and movies are being planned.

"The difference between me and Neil in our attitude to movie projects is that he doesn't believe they're going to happen until he's sitting in his seat eating popcorn, and I don't believe they're going to happen."
—Terry Pratchett, alt.fan.pratchett

Aired

Documentaries

Terry Pratchett has also starred in several documentaries covering important subjects close to his heart:

Planned and speculated

The Wee Free Men

In 2006, the BBC reported that Sam Raimi would direct a big-screen adaptation the book. As detailed in Terry Pratchett: A Life with Footnotes, this was scuppered as Pratchett thought the script was "shit".

On July 19, 2016 The Jim Henson Company announced to be creating a feature film version of The Wee Free Men in conjunction with Narrativia. It will be written by Rhianna Pratchett and produced by Brian Henson. (The Narrativia announcement has been removed from their website, but you can find it here at archive.org.)

Mort

The first book rumoured to be put on the big screen, as far back as 1992, according to talk on alt.fan.pratchett. But even then the prospects weren't too good:

"A production company was put together and there was US and Scandinavian and European involvement, and I wrote a couple of script drafts which went 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 centres 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."
—Terry Pratchett, alt.fan.pratchett

In 1998, an update was posted about Mort, the Movie:

"...is looking like it won't happen now, despite months of development work.
"Without going into lots of detail, it's hit the familiar Hollywood iceberg (the one which would've set Good Omens in Indiana without the Four Horsemen). People suddenly grow an extra head and say things like "we have to make this relevant to the American teenager". And it's at times like this I get very glad that control has not been completely relinquished, because people are going to start suggesting really dumb things. There's still some UK involvement, but I really cannot see a purely UK movie made. Mort isn't fashionable UK movie material – there's no parts in it for Hugh or Emma, it's not set it Sheffield, and no one shoves drugs up their bum..."
—Terry Pratchett, alt.fan.pratchett

A fan adaptation of Mort was created in 2001 by Orange Cow Productions.

In 2016 it was announced that Mort would be adapted as a film, directed by Terry Rossio, produced by Rod Brown, Narrativia Ltd. and Gooji Limited. A screenplay was completed, but so far goes unproduced.

The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents

In 2019 an animated adaptation of The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents, The Amazing Maurice, was announced, to be produced by Ulysses Filmproduktion alongside Cantilever Media with a screenplay by Terry Rossio. It's been completed and will be released in December 2022.

Aired: Pre-release News

  • Good Omens production started in 2000, but due to lack of funds the movie has been postponed to an unknown date. Although both Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman have never publicly said it isn't going to happen, chances are slim. As Neil Gaiman said:
"Personally I don't really think the Good Omens movie is dead. I think of it as lying in a glass coffin with white lilies on its chest and with mournful dwarfs all around it, all of them waiting for a prince to ride up on a big white horse, carrying with him about sixty million dollars."

Pratchett said:

"I currently regard it like all other film projects – it's not absolutely certain that it won't happen..."

The movie is no longer listed on IMDB.com.

It appears that the film could be back on as Prime Focus have confirmed that will be their first project for their new Productions section of their company.

Neil Gaiman announced in 2016 that he would be adapting the book into a television series.

Thursday 19th January 2017 Narrativia announced the production of the Good Omens TV Series to be co-produced with BBC Studios and Neil Gaiman's Blank Corporation, the series will be broadcast in 2018 by Amazon Prime Video and the BBC. Announcement On February 14th 2019 Amazon announced that the Good Omens TV series would begin streaming on May 31st 2019 with six one hour episodes being available simultaneously on Amazon Prime Video [1]

  • The Watch crime series. Prime Focus Productions are going to produce a crime-a-week drama set in Ankh-Morpork. See [[2]].

Greenlit by BBC America in 2018: Release News

Not happening, postponed to unknown date

  • Unseen Academicals: airing in 2012, or not.
  • Sourcery: Terry Pratchett has stated that Sourcery will be the fifth discworld novel to be adapted for Sky One, although he initially wanted to adapt Making Money. However, he thinks it may work better as a film and he can have fun with characters like *Nijel the Destroyer.
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