The writer of The Watch, BBC America's increasingly controversial "loose adaptation" of Sir Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels, has apparently forgotten about the late author and his estate whilst extending his thanks to people involved in the making of the television series. In fact, the writer fails to mention the Discworld book series, or that his TV show is based on novels, at all. He instead names himself as the "creator" of the story in a remarkable display of hubris.
The apparent snub was picked up on by Sir Terry's daughter and literary executor Rhianna Pratchett on Twitter. Needless to say, the response from the enormous, global Discworld fandom has not been kind.
Sir Terry Pratchett wrote 41 Discworld novels between 1983 and his premature death from early-onset Alzheimer's in 2015. At the time of his death, the Discworld novels had sold almost 90 million copies, making it the joint best-selling post-Tolkien secondary world fantasy series (with near sales parity with Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time and George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire). The series is a cultural institution in the UK, where Pratchett was a perennial bestseller. Sir Terry was also lauded for his work for charities and bringing greater awareness of issues such as the endangerment of orangutan populations and Alzheimer's research. He was one of the few writers in the "national treasure" category. He also has a growing fanbase in the United States (who were late but increasingly enthusiastic attendees of the Pratchett party).
Six of the Discworld novels have been adapted for the screen: Wyrd Sisters and Soul Music were adapted to animation by Cosgrove Hall in 1997, whilst Sky adapted Hogfather, The Colour of Magic, The Light Fantastic and Going Postal between 2006 and 2010. Development of The Watch began in 2011, with the original idea being to develop a TV-focused sequel to the Discworld novels set in the city of Ankh-Morpork and revolving around the City Watch (starting with Guards! Guards!), rather than adapting the books directly. This version of the series was in development with the BBC for several years before the BBC divested it to BBC America around the time of Sir Terry's death.
BBC America hired a new writer (Simon Allen, best known for The Musketeers) threw out all the work that had been done already, apparently chose not to involve Sir Terry's family (including his daughter, Rhianna, a talented writer in her own right who had been closely involved in the prior project) and completely reconceptualised the project, including throwing out major characters, turning the setting into a "cyberpunk" city (nonsensically; I think they meant steampunk) and "sexing up" other characters by making them younger, thinner and better-looking. The Pratchett fanbase responded negatively to the early publicity images of the show and this discontent grew as it became clear that the Pratchett Estate was unhappy with how things had gone.
Snubbing the creator and writer of the original stories in this manner will likely increase the discontent and negative publicity the show has engendered so far.
The Watch is currently scheduled to air on BBC America in January 2021. A UK broadcaster has not yet been announced.
Following the publication of yet another publicity image from BBC America's The Watch, a TV series loosely "inspired by" Sir Terry Pratchett's Discworld books, his family and associates have once again made it clear that they do not approve of the project and have distanced themselves from it.
The Watch - then also referred to as The City Watch and also less seriously as CSI: Ankh-Morpork - began life way back in 2011 as a co-development between Sir Terry Pratchett and the BBC. Pratchett had seen several adaptations of his work undertaken in the past, most notably the animated Channel 4 versions of the novels Wyrd Sisters and Soul Music, both released in 1997, and Sky One's live-action versions of Hogfather, The Colour of Magic, The Light Fantastic and Going Postal in 2007-10. Although none of these adaptations were outright terrible, none arguably were as good as they should have been given the strength of the source material. Pratchett wanted to get more involved in these adaptations and in 2012 set up a company called Narrativia. Narrativia's goal was to try to establish greater control over the process and ensure greater fidelity to the feel of Pratchett's work transplanted to the screen, although not necessarily being completely 100% book-accurate in all respects (Pratchett understanding well that changes were needed given the shift in medium).
Sir Terry himself led discussions with the writers and it looked like everything was set for a faithful adaptation based on the novels, but with the freedom to move things around and take different ideas from different books. One idea apparently baked in from the start was that the series would not directly adapt the novels, but would instead pick up in the "present day" Discworld setting and use the novels as backstory, with the characters already in place. Among Pratchett's own ideas were using Ankh-Morpork's oft-mentioned, never-seen hospital as the setting for one storyline and using the creation of a City Watch band as a running gag.
Pratchett and his assistant and business partner Rob Wilkins were filmed discussing the project with the team from Prime Focus, the production team originally slated to make the show, by SFX Magazine in March 2011. Gavin Scott (Small Soldiers) and Terry Jones (Monty Python) were slated to write and possibly direct some episodes, and Pratchett's daughter Rhianna, now a respected writer in her own right, was also attached. The series was envisaged as being made in the UK on a relatively modest budget of $2 million per episode for a 13-episode first season, to air on the BBC. Crucially, the deal for the project was signed in 2011, before Narrativia was founded, with Sir Terry as the only named person involved on the book side of things.
Despite there being a strong wind in the sails of the project at this juncture (in October 2012 it was even reported - later erroneously - that the show had been greenlit), it appears that the BBC began to have second doubts and around 2013 put the brakes on the project. The BBC was under fire at the time for what was deemed to be over-extravagant spending in the aftermath of the global recession, and with The Watch coming in at significantly more expensive than Doctor Who, one of the BBC's own flagship programmes, it appears that enthusiasm for the project had dried up.
At some point between 2013 and 2016, possibly around the time of Sir Terry's sad passing in March 2015, the rights for the project were transferred from BBC Enterprises to BBC America, which decided to completely re-tool the project from the ground up with a whole new writing team. It appears during this time that Narrativia was effectively shut out of the process. Both Rhianna Pratchett and Rob Wilkins later reported (with somewhat-but-not-really concealed misgivings) that neither they nor Narrativia as an entity had been involved in the show for "many years." Nevertheless, when the show was formally greenlit (for real this time) in October 2018, Narrativia was namechecked as still being involved.
Prior to this point it appeared that the project was still going to be in line with Pratchett's original vision, where the novels are canon background material but the story takes place in the present-day of the book universe. Early reports that Ankh-Morpork was being modernised makes more sense in that context; although the city starts life in the first Discworld novel as a traditional medieval fantasy city, by the end of the series it as become a lot more Victorian and steampunk in technology and character, complete with railways and telegraphs. However, the initial casting reports from the series provoked concern, particularly when it was revealed that Sybil Ramkin, a middle-aged, rotund woman in the books who is nevertheless a major and powerful character, was being aged and slimmed considerably down to add sex appeal and action in her newfound role as a "vigilante," fighting crime on the streets of the city. The character of Cheery had also been changed from a young dwarfish woman anxious to prove her worth in her patriarchal society whilst also retaining her femininity to a young, non-binary human raised by dwarfs, borrowing Carrot's background and story for no immediately obvious reason.
By November 2019 it was clear that the project bore little, if any, resemblance to the source material, causing an immense backlash from fans and critics alike. In January 2020 the first publicity pictures from the project were released, reigniting the furore as it became clear that Ankh-Morpork in the TV show was a much more contemporary city, inspired by "punk rock" and featuring very modern-looking street lights and graffiti. It was at this point that Rhianna Pratchett and Rob Wilkins addressed the situation. Wilkins noted, rather forcefully, that The Watch is "inspired by, NOT based on," the series. Rhianna Pratchett further noted that the series being developed by BBC America is not the same series that her father signed off on, when it was a very different (and presumably better) beast and she hadn't been involved for years.
The Discworld Monthly published a run-down of the project here which seems to explain the root cause of the problem: the original contracts between the BBC and Sir Terry Pratchett stipulated that Sir Terry had some degree of influence and approval over the production, not Narrativia; Narrativia wasn't formally founded until after the initial contract was signed. As a result, when Sir Terry sadly left this Mortal Disc in 2015, there was no longer any kind of creative control being exercised from the book end of things and that allowed BBC American to effectively do whatever it wanted with no input from Narrativia.
The Watch is currently scheduled to air on BBC America in January 2021. Narrativia has signed a series of new deals with Moving Pictures to develop TV and film projects based on the other Discworld novels. The Wee Free Men is also in production at the Jim Henson Company, with Rhianna Pratchett attached as a writer. It appears that BBC America only has the rights to the City Watch sub-series of Discworld novels (Guards! Guards!, Men at Arms, Feet of Clay, Jingo, Night Watch, Thud! and Snuff) and cannot include any elements from the other books. Moving Pictures may have the rights to all the other books (including those previously filmed by Sky One and Cosgrove Hall, since the rights reverted to the Pratchett Estate in the early 2010s), with Narrativia likely having more say over these adaptations.
The Discworld book series consists of 41 novels and numerous ancillary works and is the joint-biggest-selling adult fantasy series since The Lord of the Rings, currently tying with Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time and George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire at around 90 million book sales apiece.
The Watch is "very loosely" based on Pratchett's source material, but has seen a raft of changes made to the books which have alienated the fanbase. These include creating a "young, sexy," crimefighting version of Lady Sybil Ramkin (a larger and older woman in the books) and turning Ankh-Morpork into some kind of steampunk metropolis rather than the Renaissance-level post-medieval city of the books.
Terry Pratchett's business partner Rob Wilkins and daughter and literary executor Rhianna Pratchett were originally both involved with the project, when it was a much more faithful adaptation with the UK BBC, but have publicly distanced themselves from the show since it was transferred to BBC America.
After being in development hell for several years, BBC Studios has greenlit a fresh Discworld TV series. Entitled The Watch, it will focus on the Ankh-Morpork City Watch under the command of Sam Vimes. A six-episode first season has been given the go-ahead.
The Watch has been in development at the production company Pratchett founded before his passing, Narrativia. It was previously believed that the show would start off by adapting the novel Guards! Guards!, which introduces Vimes and the Watch, before mixing up original, new adventures and adaptations of the other novels featuring the same cast of characters: Men at Arms, Feet of Clay, Jingo, Jingo, The Fifth Elephant, Night Watch, Thud!, and Snuff.
Rhianna Pratchett, Terry's daughter and a respected writer in her own right (including her recent work on the Tomb Raider relaunch), will work on the show as a producer and possible writer. Simon Allen (The Musketeers) will also be involved as a writer.
BBC Studios is a division of BBC Enterprises which can develop projects both by the BBC itself and outside broadcasters. The deal comes about after a very successful collaboration between Narrativia and the BBC on the Good Omens TV series, written by Neil Gaiman and based on his and Pratchett's novel, which recently wrapped shooting and will air in early 2019.
Sky Television previously produced live-action adaptations of four Discworld novels: Hogfather (2006), The Colour of Magic (2008), The Light Fantastic (2008) and Going Postal (2010). Prior to that, Cosgrove Hall produced animated adaptations of two other books: Wyrd Sisters (1998) and Soul Music (1997).
Narrativia, the production company set up to bring Terry Pratchett's works to the screen, has announced that it is partnering with the Jim Henson Company on a movie version of The Wee Free Men, the first of Pratchett's Tiffany Aching series of novels set in his popular Discworld setting.
Rhianna Pratchett, daughter of Terry and a critically-acclaimed writer in her own right, will be penning the adaptation. Brian Henson is on board to produce. At the moment it's unclear if this means the Jim Henson Company's formidable expertise in puppets and animatronics will be brought to bear, or if it will be relying more on their digital technology. No director has yet been named.
This is not the first time the project has been optioned. Sam Raimi previously optioned the novel with an air to direct a film himself, but it fell into development hell whilst Raimi was working on the Spider-Man movies and later his aborted attempt to bring WarCraft to the screen. Narrativia is also developing a City Watch television series (previously with the BBC but now believed to be with another company after the Beeb's cutbacks) and an adaptation of Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman's novel Good Omens, with Gaiman himself penning the script.
Terry Pratchett reports that he is hard at work on the next Discworld novel, which will feature a new character and will not be part of any existing sub-series. It's been confirmed not to be Raising Taxes, the long-awaited third and final book in the 'Moist von Lipwig' sub-trilogy.
Meanwhile, pre-production is continuing on the City Watch TV series. Terry and Rhianna Pratchett have also clarified previous comments suggesting that Rhianna would be taking over the Discworld books once her father (who is suffering from early-onset Alzheimer's) retired from writing the series. Apparently Rhianna Pratchett has now ruled out this possibility, feeling it would not be appropriate to continue the main series without her father's involvement. However, she will be involved in possible spin-offs and future adaptations of the series to other mediums.
In an interview with The New Statesman, Terry Pratchett has confirmed that his daughter Rhianna has received his blessing to work on additional Discworld projects after he passes away or is no longer capable (he is suffering from early-onset Alzheimer's). He has already made her a producer and writer on The Watch, a new TV series based on his City Watch Discworld novels, and has give her permission to write new Discworld books once he has hung up his pen.
Rhianna Pratchett already has writing form. She has worked in the computer game industry for many years, originally as a writer for PC Zone magazine and The Guardian's computer games section before penning the storyline for the Overlord series and Mirror's Edge. Most recently she has worked on the new Tomb Raider game. This is appropriate as Terry Pratchett is a noted fan of the original games, once even considering writing a game called Tomb Stocker which would centre on the hapless minions who stock those tombs fall of traps and puzzles.
When this transfer would take place is not certain, with Pratchett noting that when he has to stop writing he'll be "incredibly angry." Pratchett also revealed that he suffered from a cardiac emergency whilst in New York on a signing tour last month, requiring CPR from his assistant to survive. He brushes off the incident, noting that, "I once heard it mentioned that signing tours can kill you quicker than drugs, booze and fast women. Some of which I haven’t tried."
The interview also hints at major news on The Watch to be revealed soon, as casting is now underway for the series.
