It is a bit strange that this will be the first Discworld - Live action - project and it got me to thinking how would they establish the characters that already have their origins in other books.

I have started to re-read Hogfather in anticipation of this event and am racking my brains as to how you could introduce some of the characters as they pretty much, well, turn up in Hogfather and do what they are supposed to do.

So I thought I would check out Unseen University first and concentrate on the faculty. Since I was convinced that Ridcully did not have a beard and that I'm sure I saw it in Moving Pictures I began to read his introduction and then wonderered if it was possible to mix and match some introductions from other books. For instance the introduction of Ridcully in Moving Pictures is a perfect introduction to him in film. He is new, he is unorthodox and he learns about the ways of the University in just a few pages from the Bursar. Including why the Librarian is an ape and that the faculty are big on dinners and getting up late and well, not doing an awful lot. This would segue into Ridcully doing his exploring and finding his bathroom boarded up and hey presto we are back in Hogfather pages again. The Faculty could then sort of gradually introduce themselves and everything should be fairly smooth from then on. Only thing is that the Bursar would need to be the Bursar of Moving Pictures and not of Hogfather because by Hogfather he is "away with the fairies" although this could be a general decline throughout the 4 hour serial.

Susan on the other hand is fairly easy to introduce, as the bogeyman in the closet instance would prove she lives on a different plane to the normal world. However linking her to Death would be harder so I would propose taking a few pages from Soul Music to introduce Death, Albert, Death of Rats and Quoth the Raven. How I'm not sure but I'm sure this would be the best way and we need to establish why '"Binky"' for Death's Horse.

The other major characters would sort themselves out as the majority are new anyway. Teatime, Medium Dave's gang, Mr Sydeney etc...

Another thing that would need to be established are the dinezins of the Discworld - is not every day you meet a vampire, zombie, troll, dwarf, werewolf, wizard or witches all mingling with mundane folk and even more mundane folk so I would go with a voiceover at the beginning to establish things - probably leading to a new appointment of Archchancellor Ridcully at Unseen University.

It's fun to speculate and of course if the serial is a hit then we will probably see more and more Discworld adaptations on TV - what next? Personally I would start With The Watch and Guards! Guards!

Let the speculation begin.
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RA

The introduction of Redcully from Moving Pictures would strike a very odd note indeed for anyone who has read the books. Cutting out bits is one thing, applying a pick-and-mix approach is quite another.

And I doubt that a voice-over would be good. It [i:2037dd2e42]might[/i:2037dd2e42] work, but I just don't see it working. A good approach here, in my opinion, would be to simply reveal the general outline of the Discworld via the first few scenes, or just let it be revealed along the way. You don't have to give anyone a lecture before the film starts about what's going to be in it. If you do that, then you lose interest, and frankly take a bit of the... [i:2037dd2e42]feel[/i:2037dd2e42] of the film away.