Question A Good Omen

variety.com/2017/digital/news/neil-gaima...d-series-1201963763/

This is one of my all times favorite books. I really hope this project does not bog down. I also really hope that it leads to other Sir Terry projects.

The Watch seems to be in production limbo.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Watch_(TV_series)

I don't know so far Pratchett's work has proven hard to adapt for the screen. And the adaptations tha have happened haven't been all that good. The problem is that so much of the humour is in the descriptions, asides and inner monologue. All the things you lose when you tell the story on screen. Without it, the stories can get quite dark.

Love that book! I keep having to buy new copies too... because whenever a friend visits and reveals they haven't read it, what else can you do but hand it over to them?

I agree that a lot of the humor is in the narration of the story, or wedged other places like the list of characters: "Crowley (An Angel who did not so much Fall as Saunter Vaguely Downwards)". Hopefully a good script could convey it all - maybe they should recruit Ian McKellen to narrate between scenes...

Otherwise how would the audience be clued in to fun stuff like the "The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, witch" in proper detail?

"Do Notte Buye Betamacks."

Erisian wrote: "Do Notte Buye Betamacks."

Which is a joke that will probably go over the heads of anyone under the age of 20.

Erisian wrote: Love that book! I keep having to buy new copies too... because whenever a friend visits and reveals they haven't read it, what else can you do but hand it over to them?

There are two possible responses from me. One is "I found a copy of the paperback at the thrift shop a while ago, you're welcome to borrow that." I've gone through 2 or 3 that way.

The other, used when I don't have a spare copy like that, is "That's Neil's signature, that's Sir PTerry's signature, yes it's a 1st American printing. Are you me? No? Then no, you can't touch it."

I'm not even kidding when I say that buying that copy is the closest thing to a paranormal experience I've ever had. I was a college student with almost no money; I couldn't really afford a new hardback. I had never read anything by Pratchett at that point, the only thing by Gaiman I had read was Don't Panic, and neither of them were, well, THEM at that point. But the store had had a signing a couple days before, and still had signed copies for cover price. It's like my future self tapped me on the shoulder and let me know that if I didn't get it, I would regret it soon, and for the rest of my life.

I would have, too. Two of my all-time favorite authors.

Erisian wrote: maybe they should recruit Ian McKellen to narrate between scenes...

Otherwise how would the audience be clued in to fun stuff like the "The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, witch" in proper detail?

"Do Notte Buye Betamacks."

And that would just make the film critics pan it, It is, I have been informed, considered poor form to rely on narration or voice overs in movies. Even if without the voice over the movie is missing vital information, caugh, Blade Runner, caugh.

konzill wrote:

Erisian wrote: maybe they should recruit Ian McKellen to narrate between scenes...

Otherwise how would the audience be clued in to fun stuff like the "The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, witch" in proper detail?

"Do Notte Buye Betamacks."

And that would just make the film critics pan it, It is, I have been informed, considered poor form to rely on narration or voice overs in movies. Even if without the voice over the movie is missing vital information, caugh, Blade Runner, caugh.

Well, not using voiceovers is different from not having the info that's presented in the voiceovers.

That's a great prophecy!

konzill wrote:

Erisian wrote: maybe they should recruit Ian McKellen to narrate between scenes...

Otherwise how would the audience be clued in to fun stuff like the "The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, witch" in proper detail?

"Do Notte Buye Betamacks."

And that would just make the film critics pan it, It is, I have been informed, considered poor form to rely on narration or voice overs in movies. Even if without the voice over the movie is missing vital information, caugh, Blade Runner, caugh.

Nah. If you aren't breaking some rules, you aren't making art. The rules aren't arbitrary or useless, mind you; they're the guidelines that help you to avoid stupid mistakes when you don't know what you're doing yet. If you stay within those lines, everything is safe and easy, but also very boring. That territory has already been thoroughly explored. If you want more than mediocrity, you have to venture out beyond those safe borders. Of course, that's risky. You have to learn where the major pitfalls are before you can safely navigate the territory beyond the lines. And then, then you can break the rules and lead your audience through an adventure.

konzill wrote:

Erisian wrote: maybe they should recruit Ian McKellen to narrate between scenes...

Otherwise how would the audience be clued in to fun stuff like the "The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, witch" in proper detail?

"Do Notte Buye Betamacks."

And that would just make the film critics pan it, It is, I have been informed, considered poor form to rely on narration or voice overs in movies. Even if without the voice over the movie is missing vital information, caugh, Blade Runner, caugh.

I was always annoyed with the ways that film adaptations of my favourite books didn't work the way that i hoped, until i read an interview with Frank Herbert, where he was talking about the experience of him seeing David Lynch's first edit of Dune. Frank Herbert said to David Lynch, "You made an excellent film from the same story that i wrote a book from." (If i have misremembered the quote, then my apologies, but the sentiment is the same.)

It was then that i understood that they are completely different ways of telling stories, and that what works in a written story, will have to be expressed in a completely different manner in a film, or in a series.

The example that sprang to mind was Herbert saying that a single paragraph in a book could cover 2 centuries of back-story, that would take 8 hours of exposition in a film. This was before Firefly was made, where all of the history in the back-story, was expressed in the background that the characters accepted as "the normal-everyday-way-we-do-things" without any explicit explanation.

As for Blade Runner, watching it with the voice-over, and without the voice-over, gives you two different flavours of story-telling experience. While they are telling the same sequence of events, they are communicating in completely different styles, so give a very different flavour of experience.

Compare the difference between "Blade Runner" and "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep", or compare the written form of "The Man in The High Castle" and the TV series.

Either way, as Gaiman is involved, i'm looking forward to seeing what they come up with.

Also, if you haven't seen it yet, read, and then go watch "American Gods"...