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Author Topic: CSI:Ankh-Morpork  (Read 12839 times)

Max White

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Re: CSI:Ankh-Morpork
« Reply #60 on: January 30, 2013, 09:27:50 pm »

With so many ways this could go wrong and end up horribly, all I have to say is... Fuck yea.

mcclay

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Re: CSI:Ankh-Morpork
« Reply #61 on: January 30, 2013, 10:06:28 pm »

If they can fit Death and the Witches somewhere, even in a guest appearance, I will be happy forever.
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Nilik

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Re: CSI:Ankh-Morpork
« Reply #62 on: January 30, 2013, 10:58:55 pm »

oooo, i want rowan atkinson for vetinari

Yes. Yesyesyesyesyes. Yes. I've always pictured Vetinari as Rowan Atkinson in my head ever since I first saw him illustrated. I really think he could do the voice justice, too.

And now I must nerd out. The picture in the OP bothers me on several levels:

1. Carrot is clearly drunk. As far as I'm aware, Carrot doesn't drink and certainly not to excess if he does. He's pretty damn straight-edge.

2. Carrot has a black eye, the implication being that he's been in a drunken brawl.
2a. Who would pick a fight with Carrot?
2b. Who would be both stupid enough to pick said fight and skilled/strong enough to land the requisite blow to cause a black eye? (possibly a troll)

3. I've never understood why some Discworld illustrations show the watchmen wearing those stupid sandals. Its completely impractical footwear for an officer of the law (just stomp on their toes and run!), and Vimes is specifically noted to wear boots. With the bottoms almost worn through so that he can navigate by the feel of the cobblestones.


Also, have a thing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=OKtfgf1TVQg#!
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Sergius

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Re: CSI:Ankh-Morpork
« Reply #63 on: January 30, 2013, 11:45:34 pm »

1. Carrot is clearly drunk. As far as I'm aware, Carrot doesn't drink and certainly not to excess if he does. He's pretty damn straight-edge.

2. Carrot has a black eye, the implication being that he's been in a drunken brawl.
2a. Who would pick a fight with Carrot?
2b. Who would be both stupid enough to pick said fight and skilled/strong enough to land the requisite blow to cause a black eye? (possibly a troll)

3. I've never understood why some Discworld illustrations show the watchmen wearing those stupid sandals. Its completely impractical footwear for an officer of the law (just stomp on their toes and run!), and Vimes is specifically noted to wear boots. With the bottoms almost worn through so that he can navigate by the feel of the cobblestones.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
« Last Edit: January 30, 2013, 11:57:21 pm by Sergius »
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Scoops Novel

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Re: CSI:Ankh-Morpork
« Reply #64 on: January 31, 2013, 06:44:25 am »

You know, I'm leaning towards a cast of unknowns, at least for the main characters. House should not be Vimes. Simply doesn't have the right feel. Not enough cigerettes, street fights and failed revoloutions.
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Scoops Novel

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Re: CSI:Ankh-Morpork
« Reply #65 on: January 31, 2013, 06:51:20 am »

Guys, I wouldn't get too excited about getting an All-Star Ensemble Cast for this show. Probably we'll get a bunch of lesser known actors (even to those living in UK) and if we're lucky, one or two Big Names in secondary or guest roles.

I don't see how this could possibly work...

"Well, seems the vic died of natural causes."
"...There's thirty-seven stab wounds in his back."
"Like I said, natural causes."¹

¹After all, death would quite naturally follow from being stabbed so many times.

Just include it in the dialogue somehow. No need to go all Hitchhiker's Guide/Narrator style with in-movie footnotes.

I hope that they share characters thoughts. Some of the best writing is there, and going postal suffered from it's absence.
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Starver

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Re: CSI:Ankh-Morpork
« Reply #66 on: January 31, 2013, 09:02:35 am »

While I have heard nothing new since last August, myself, I can repeat what I heard then, which is there'll be plenty of room for cameos, for FanService at the very least, and of course Vimes could easily be the "seen once or twice every episode" type of character.  (It's a pity Pete Postlethwaite isn't available, being Author's Choice.)  Going along the Casts Of Unknowns route might be best, though.  (Saves the arguments over whether Stephen Briggs or Charles Dance or Jeremy Irons gets to play Vetinari...  Or, indeed, Rob Brydon, as his voice only, once more. ;))

Avoid David Jason.  (The joke, prior to Going Postal's release, was that he was going to play Moist in that, as well as Rincewind in the TCOM/TLF mash-up and Albert in Hogfather.  I don't doubt his talent, and I like his stuff in general, but... no more, please, except for maybe any direct sequels/prequels of his other works for continuity's sake.)

As already mentioned, the picture in the OP (established Kidby 'canon' picture, that one[3]) is basically of Carrot's... umm. second night?  First day of full duty.  Unware that you don't go into the Mended Drum and enquire as to whether they're abiding to the "Control Of Liquor And Wines Act, 1221, paragraph 3, subsection 5" (or whatever it was) he found himself in the same sort of situation as Vincent the Invulnerable did when he went in there and announced that he was called "Vincent The Invulnerable" (verdict: suicide).  Except, of course, that this was Carrot.  The six-foot dwarf who could (and often does) knock trolls out with a single punch.  But (at this point) nobody knows what Carrot is capable of!  (And Carrot, being carrot, actually arrests the head of the Thieves' Guild for being a thief...  How silly is that, eh?

Read "Guards! Guards!" for details.  If you haven't, it's a good place to start anyway, in the Discworld canon (but I doubt anyone reading this thread hasn't at some point been involved in the Discworld canon, so that might not actually apply to anyone here...  but read it/get the audio book (unabridged[1] ones, preferably) anyway, if you haven't already.

Somewhere along the line, Carrot has wised-up significantly (he probably has a latent gene for diplomacy, maybe even diplomatic subterfuge, in amongst his other ingrained and dwarf-nurtured leadership qualities...  I'm never really sure whether or not the "Throw the book at him!" incident in G!G! was him being innocent or... expedient), but then with Carrot helping bring Vimes and the (Night)Watch back from obscurity, so the Watch and the City also comes to appreciate that Constable (later to be Captain) Carrot is not a victim, with many an unspoken compromise much along the lines of the Patrician and the UU regarding the payment of taxes.


The sandals point, I'll agree with.  Although in my own Watch costume (never worn in any Masquerade, because I'm too basically too shy to go on stage[2]) I've made 'sandals' based on those and similar pictures.  I found some actual sandals with a "newsprint" pattern on the upper part of the sole-piece (this part, at least, matching the written concept of worn boots with paper/cardboard lining), took off the "thong" elements and then used some dye-darkened chamois-leather to construct the upper.  Indeed, not very practical if I were in danger of having boots or heavy/sharp/pointy weapons aimed at my feet.  Of course, one of the main thing about the Watch, pre-Carrot, is that you don't get involved, and being light on your feet is often better than having heavy boots. 

(Carrot's immediate predecessor, mayherestinpeace, forgot this.  Carrot has gotten away with this when he tried the same thing.  The worst threat along those lines in G!G! was soon after the point that picture in the original post was depicting (although they hadn't run into trouble, so much as stumbled and swayed), and they might well have managed to deal with their attackers as they became insta-sober from shock, but that point becomes moot for the very reason that Vetinari at first wanted the wall involved to be whitewashed.  Until he was reminded that it would attract far less attention to just demolish it.)


[1] Not that I dislike Tony Robinson's readings of the books, but the Nigel Planer/Cecilia Imrie/Stephen Briggs audio books (ISIS Audio) are the full monty.

[2] As an off-topic example, when I was at secondary school I auditioned to be the gorilla (!) in a pantomime.  Forget which pantomime, now but it wasn't a traditional part of the pantomime (might have been Jack And The Beanstalk), so that detail doesn't really matter.  I thought I'd try that because I would be totally encased in costume, there'd be very little in the way of line-learning to be had, and I thought I had the movements down pat.  I failed the audition (I may have been more chimpanzee than gorilla, in hindsight) and the girl who actually got the part seemed to do a lot better than I think I would ever have done.  But (not in any school production, but elsewhere) I've been involved in behind-the-scenes AV setups, and done a fairly decent amateur job of it, if I say so myself.  Have often been tempted to go into some Stage Crew position, except that my big thing is of course all-things-IT...

[3] He tended to make Vimes either Clint Eastwood or Pete Postlethwaite, whenever he resembled anyone Roundworld that I could recognise.  Probably the latter after PTerry had expressed his own ideas about the character, but the Author has always been happy with artistic licence, so I don't think there was any compulsion there.  He's generally gravitated towards the look most recently seen on the cover of Snuff, which still has some Dirty Harry to it, but not entirely so.
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Sergius

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Re: CSI:Ankh-Morpork
« Reply #67 on: January 31, 2013, 10:47:56 am »

While PTerry has said that he imagines Vimes looking like Postlethwaite, he's often made him do the Dirty Harry shtick, even to an almost word-for-word satire in one of the books ("pvnk!"). Plus, a lot of the designs were later influenced by Paul Kidby, who at least seemed to have familiarity with the subject matter (and who notably, didn't draw Twoflower with 4 literal eyes, unlike the other Kidby Kirby :P)


« Last Edit: January 31, 2013, 11:02:53 am by Sergius »
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Starver

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Re: CSI:Ankh-Morpork
« Reply #68 on: January 31, 2013, 12:11:39 pm »

Well, Josh had a little bit of a fanciful imagination, when it came to illustrations, largely unfettered by the actual storylines.  Someone... Conina? Herrena? ...was supposed to have far more practical attire than typical Sword'N'Sorcery sword-maidens generally had, but was depicted on the cover in exactly (in the Kirby style, at least) the kind of gear she was explicitly not supposed to be wearing. ;)

Still, I miss Josh.  And my very first Pratchett book that I bought (Strata) was of course illustrated by him (Kin Arad is a little under-dressed for a space-woman, as well).  As were all the later Discworld novels (and DSOTS) that I borrowed from the library about as soon as I knew they had found their way in there.  Give me the Kirby illustrations, any time, on the books (although I know they re-covered them for recent issues, thinking they weren't attracting the target audience, or extending their attraction to 'the right kind of reader'[1]) that were made with them.

I also own a number of limited edition prints of his stuff (plus Garden Of Unearthly Delights, and his version of the Pratchett Portfolio, of course), and an original illustrated version of Eric.   But I'll acknowledge that (probably done best of all in Nightwatch) his near-namesake successor in illustration is the more... accurate[3]?  I have enough prints/books full of his stuff as well.


And, yeah, PTerry does reference Dirty Harry an awful lot (Errol being used in the "Do you feel lucky?" speech), but then Discworld is a 'world and a mirror of worlds', and tropes (and inverted tropes, and averted tropes) from our universe arrive from all kinds of places, and there's more than a few Colombo/etc references if you're looking for them, as well (though less pronounced, admittedly), and "The city is a woman" and its kin are some old pulp cliches[2] from long before Dirty Harry.



[1] They attracted me, so...  ummm, maybe a good point. ;)

[2] A lot more of these are used for Lewton's dialogue in Discworld Noir, of course.

[3] Although the 'porthole' nature of the Snuff cover (may be UK version only, I haven't checked), somewhat repeated in Dodger, isn't actually at the top of his game, IMO.  Too commercial.  The non-cover stuff in the art OF Discworld-types of publications, diaries, etc (and, as mentioned Night Watch, which is obviously meant to mirror the original Rembrandt piece) work better for me.  But as I'm not artist myself, I suppose I really can't complain in any way. ;)
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Zrk2

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Re: CSI:Ankh-Morpork
« Reply #69 on: January 31, 2013, 09:22:35 pm »

oooo, i want rowan atkinson for vetinari

I've never even read Discworld, but my day was just made.
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Putnam

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Re: CSI:Ankh-Morpork
« Reply #70 on: February 01, 2013, 01:15:01 am »

I've only read about half of one book

I am hoping for this

lordcooper

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Re: CSI:Ankh-Morpork
« Reply #71 on: February 01, 2013, 08:16:13 am »

oooo, i want rowan atkinson for vetinari

I've never even read Discworld, but my day was just made.

Rectify this.
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