The Wee Free Men

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Jinx

Lance-Corporal
Jul 27, 2008
226
2,325
39
Glasgow, UK
#1
I remember hearing some time ago, that Sam Raimi was going to direct a live action adaptation of The Wee Free Men. I haven't heard anything from this since and IMDb seems static on it now. All that appears on it's IMDb page is the title and 2010.

Has anyone heard any updates?
 

Jinx

Lance-Corporal
Jul 27, 2008
226
2,325
39
Glasgow, UK
#3
Oh well. At least they gave him the choice, unlike the makers of Lawnmower Man (AKA Stephen King's Lawnmower Man) - lol.
 

mroobalooba

Lance-Constable
Oct 2, 2009
17
2,150
Cornwall
twitter.com
#4
i actually started a discussion about making this fantastic book into a film back in 2004 a good few months before any news that it may well become a film was announced!
here's the original link to terrypratchettbooks forum:

http://www.terrypratchettbooks.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=5;t=000026

i had wanted to see it made into a film to see if i could get the opportunity to work on it.
meanwhile i've been playing around with my own script of the wee free men and storyboarded the intro sequence how i saw it.

Out of all the books i believe this would be one that could make for a fantastic film if done correctly because it contains enough content to appeal to a very wide audience and i don't think the book to screen adaption would need much changing at all...the biggest hurdle is how to incorporate Granny Aching into the story without constantly dragging an audience away from any action that might be taking place!

i would love to see Paul Kidby's version of the Feegles on the screen and enjoy his 'not quite realistic' approach to the characters.
 
#5
Jason said:
From what I can remember the last I heard about this was that Terry had been sent a script which he rejected because it appeared to be his book in name only.
Tis why if ever I get published I shall have in my contract I do the first draft of the script and - so that at least some semblance of my story is out there! I really hate the way Hollywood messes around with stories. Why can't they just adapt FROM THE BOOK... (Bram Stoker's Dracula comes to mind ... :devil: )

I too think the Wee Free Men would make a brilliant Christmas or Easter BBC1 two-parter.
 

Catch-up

Sergeant-at-Arms
Jul 26, 2008
7,734
2,850
Michigan, U.S.A.
#9
As a general rule, I avoid watching movies made from books that I love. One exception that stands out in my mind is the Harry Potter series, especially the first one. It was the first time I sat in a movie theater dreading what was proven so wrong! I just remember thinking that everything looked exactly like I pictured it. The other exception was the LOTR movies. The story came across to me so much more vividly than it did reading the books - another exception!
 

Dotsie

Sergeant-at-Arms
Jul 28, 2008
9,068
2,850
#11
I've a feeling that the book was written after the film though, which makes it easy to follow it exactly!
 
Apr 29, 2009
11,929
2,525
London
#12
I've not read any of the HP books, but have seen a few of the movies, albeit on TV.

I was pleasantly surprised at the movies, and impressed at JK's imagination.

Mind you, I'm always super-impressed at any anyone who can write a book.
 
#13
Snape is WAAAAY better in the books than in the films though Alan does well with what he's got to work with. And Luscious ... I mean Lucius ... Malfoy - is uber evil - would make a great Ankh Morpork Guild Assassin!

There is not many book to movie I am absolutely wild about, but Tim Burton's Charlie film was par excellence (better than his crap James and the Giant Peach!)

I prefer televised adaptations where they can have more room to explore.
 

kakaze

Lance-Corporal
Jun 3, 2009
488
1,775
#15
Dotsie said:
I've a feeling that the book was written after the film though, which makes it easy to follow it exactly!
The film came out four years after the book. I remember people complaining that the movie was a little boring because it was too much like the book; there was nothing new.

I really don't like a lot of the stuff they did in the later films, adding or extending certain scenes to make it more "exciting" to watch.

I also didn't like several changes they made in the LOTR, particularly in regards to Aragorn and Samwise Gamgee.

And (I shudder to buck the thread) I didn't like Wee Free Men very much either. I liked the characters, but I didn't like Fairyland, for the same reason that I didn't like The Last Continent; there's no causality. When a plot relies so much on magic or dreams, then it's boring (in my opinion) to read because anything can happen without making any sense in regards to what's happened earlier. I've read A Hat Full of Sky, which I thought was much better, and I'm halfway through Wintersmith, which is Ok so far. I also dislike how Tiffany triumphs without really knowing how or why she did, particulary in Wee Free Men. She just wins because she's Granny Aching's granddaughter. It just seems like a lazy way to end the story to me.

However, like I said, I liked the characters (particularly Bigger-Than-Wee-Joon-But-Smaller-Than-Big-Joon, what a funny paragraph!)
 

mroobalooba

Lance-Constable
Oct 2, 2009
17
2,150
Cornwall
twitter.com
#16
well i've been doing some research into 'the wee free men' movie and to my dismay (only because i want to work on it) it is apparently still in development for next year...and Sam Raimi is still meant to be attached as director while Pamela Pettler is attached as screenplay writer...for those that don't know she wrote the screenplay for '9', 'Monster House' and 'the corpse bride'...i have no idea if they'l just be lazy and film it in the states...and if it's American actors it may well destroy the book...but as of yet theres no one attached to act!
So if you know anyone at Buckaroo Entertainment give me a bell because i want to work on this film :laugh:
 
#17
I love Monster House and Corpse Bride. And CB has plenty of British actors as Tim Burton lives in England...
Personally I'd feel much better if someone like TB was behind the project. Mind you he might try to cast Helena Bonham Carter as Tiffany :laugh: !
Seriously - I think scripts go through several drafts - maybe Terry and Sam Raimi may have reached an agreed script with a few compromises on both sides ... they are adults after all!
 

Jason

Special Constable
Jul 10, 2008
727
2,650
52
Pontarddulais - Wales
discworldmonthly.co.uk
#18
Please don't let Tim Burton near it - please.

I really don't understand what people see in Tim Burton - for me its all visuals over substance. The only film of his that I liked was Edward Scissorhands (and that's probably because it had Wynona Ryder in it!).
 

kakaze

Lance-Corporal
Jun 3, 2009
488
1,775
#20
Jason said:
kakaze said:
However, like I said, I liked the characters (particularly Bigger-Than-Wee-Joon-But-Smaller-Than-Big-Joon, what a funny paragraph!)
Surely it was: Not-as-big-as-Medium-Sized-Jock-but-bigger-than-Wee-Jock-Jock
Yep!

That's the... thingie!
 

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