SFX attended the premiere of The Colour of Magic last night, the first airing of Sky One’s Easter adaptation of Pratchett’s first novel. Last night in London we sat in the company of Sir David Jason, Sean Astin, Terry Pratchett and other members of the cast and crew to watch the first instalment. You can read our feature about it in SFX magazine 168, on sale next week, and our review of it in SFX magazine 169, on sale Wednesday 9 April. However we thought you’d like to know some of what transpired in the question and answer session that followed.
For a start, director Vadim Jean revealed that the next Pratchett adaptation they’ll work on will be Going Postal, and it will not feature Sir David Jason, who will be sitting that one out in order to work on other projects. He will return – as Rincewind – in a future production, though. “No one else can play the role of Rincewind,” claimed Jean, “so we’ll wait to get him back."
Going down on one knee in front of Sir David at one point ("Sorry, you're a knight, I'm only an OBE") Pratchett praised Vadim Jean for making good use of very little budget in this year’s Colour of Magic adaptation – very efficient use indeed, if some of the sumptuous effects we saw are anything to go by. Sir David described the Luggage as “one of the finest props I’ve ever seen”. Jeremy Irons was Pratchett’s idea of the perfect Patrician, “although he wears glasses in this, which he shouldn’t do if you read ahead in the books,” no doubt speaking for some of fandom’s nitpickers as he said that. Sean Astin – a self-confessed Pratchett fan himself - claimed he felt privileged to play a role in the production: “I had a sinking feeling originally that they’d never let that bad-English-accent-speaking Hobbit play Twoflower.”
Look out for both parts of his adaptation over the Easter weekend on Sky One.
