'Discworld' by Terry Pratchett Is Finally Being Turned Into a TV Show
There's more good news for Sir Terry Pratchett fans: First Good Omens, and now Discworld looks set to get the small screen treatment.
Deadline reports that the BBC is developing a six-part drama based on the epic best-selling series of novels with a working title of The Watch.
That title suggests the show will be centered on the City Watch, a motley crew of characters, led by gruff commander Sam Vimes, who patrol the city of Ankh-Morpork. They feature in Discworld books like 1989's Guards! Guards!, with crime procedural-like plots that make them ripe for TV adaptation.
There have been rumors that such a show was in the works since 2011, long before Sir Terry's untimely death in 2015, but it now looks like it actually might happen.
The series will be written by Simon Allen, who's previously been responsible for shows like Strike Back and The Musketeers, and a forthcoming reboot of classic German submarine drama Das Boot.
According to Deadline, it will be a "returnable franchise," in other words the series will set up a world that can be revisited in multiple seasons, and even across multiple series. Most of that world-building work has already been done for them, of course: Sir Terry wrote more than 70 books in his lifetime, the vast majority of which were set on the fictional "Discworld," a flat, disc-shaped planet set on top of four elephants flying through space on the back of a giant turtle.
A few of his books have already been adapted for TV and film, including animated series Wyrd Sisters (1997), Soul Music (1997), the live action two-part series Hogfather (2006), The Color of Magic (2008) and Going Postal (2010).
There's no word yet on when The Watch might go into production, but in the meantime we can look forward to Good Omens, the upcoming adaptation of the novel Sir Terry co-authored with American Gods writer Neil Gaiman, starring David Tennant and Michael Sheen in the lead roles. It's not due to air until 2019, though we've had the odd peek at production while it films.
Are you excited to see Discworld brought to life?
