The Watch is growing on me

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Sveinb

New Member
Feb 12, 2021
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#21
I'm thinking of a series that starts with Granny Weatherwax. Make her the Ned Stark, so to speak, without the dramatic bit at the end. And then kind of wheel about. Game of Thrones style. Since the worlds of the wizards and the witches meet up at some point, you may want to run those stories concurrently, and at some point start up with the watch too.
Mostly cast actors in their 30s-50s, that could possibly portray the same timeframe for 15 years.
You'd have to do some stitching, of course, and some things may need updating.
If the main characters maintain their essance, and if things that can't be portrayed are omitted or just mentioned in passing rather than remixed weirdly, I think people would be happy.
I'd have a narrator. I'd absolutely have one. Maybe you'd need to make something up around the narrator, place him up with the gods or somewhere in the university. Maybe the narrator is the Librarian? Present him pre-transformation, so you become familiar with the voice, and then when you need to inject Pratchett's voice there, you can just frame the ape going about his business in the library, and the narrative voice are his thougts, anything that'd need illustrating would be in one of his books. Maybe placing the narrative voice inside a new character up with the gods would explain how the narrator sees everything, follows everything, but describes the goings on dejectedly.
It'd need some spectacular CGI, but not a lot of it. Most of the story is just people doing stuff inside rooms or out and about. Solving the different creatures in a cost-effective yet interesting way would be a big part of the creative solution to make this happen.
Some things are easy, like Gargoyles, some things need clever CGI, like Detritus' face. Detritus' body should be fairly easy by now.
It'd need to be clever, philosophical, filled with these little morality tales where common sense wins out and everyone is brusque but nice underneath, like the characters are. Engage with the complexities of life, be role-models for independent, genuine types, rather than the touchy, edgy characters of The Watch.
It should be at least as popular as Dr. Who, probably quite a bit more, since the characters are better, the visual oppurtunities are much richer, the story lines are more engaging, and so on. As with Game of Thrones, there is a wide variety of character types, so people of different ages and groups could relate to different characters.
The characters of The Watch seemed to be drawn up to make sense to 18 year olds of today. That's leaving a lot of viewers on the table, so to speak.
We're going to make millions here! Can't fail!
 

Sveinb

New Member
Feb 12, 2021
10
100
44
#22
And as far as the "metoo bandwagon" goes, Pratchett was all about that. He was really socially progressive, most of his stories seem like morality tales around class and race and sex and such things.
But The Watch was a bit too post-Metoo, while the compassionate eye of Pratchett, maybe updated somewhat, would probably teach more and rile up people less.
There are quite a few bits I know wouldn't fly, like Maskerade's obsession with Agnes Nitt's weight, and the gleeful banter about rape that happens around the barbarians, things that were normal then and are viewed differently now.
But the basic structure is compassionate and progressive, so just by telling those tales you are presenting independent women, the struggles of minorities, the effects of power structure, and so on.
Pratchett just doesn't portray any type of person as villainous, which is something I quite like. I think the Discworld perfect for our times. The compassionate eye sorely neded on the thorny issues.
 

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