Good Omens Miniseries (2019)

[factotum]

Considering that angels and demons might manifest their wings as needed (otherwise it would be very difficult to hide them) they might even be able to choose the colour.

Slightly off topic, but I always liked the way the Archangel Tyrael's wings were represented in the original cutscenes for Diablo 2--as individual strands of bright white energy, rather than feathered anything. They "upgraded" them in the Lord of Destruction cutscenes to a sort of see-through feathery thing which I thought actually made them worse.

[tiornys]

Seems to me entirely possible that both quotes exist in the book. It was written by two people, after all, and a completely consistent vision isn't necessarily possible.

Absolutely. However, there aren't that many scenes where Crowley and Aziriphale interact under circumstances where they might be in their true forms, and I didn't find that quote during a quick scan of every such scene I could think of. And I just re-read the book last week after the trailer dropped, so my memory of it is fairly fresh.

I can absolutely believe that quote comes from a fan-fiction though.

Another quote that suggests that the angel and demon wings are similar is this somewhat more spoilery one:

Spoiler

Show

"In one sense there was just clear air overhead. In another, stretching off to infinity, were the hosts of Heaven and Hell, wingtip to wingtip. If you looked really closely, and had been specially trained, you could tell the difference."

Also, I agree that it's a potentially reasonable change for artistic licence. Adaptations do need to adapt things after all.

[Leewei]

I'm looking forward to it. I really enjoyed Vivaldi's "You're My Best Friend" being used on the soundtrack. Wait, that's Queen? Well, now it is.

[Fyraltari]

It just occurred to me they might answer the "is it a dalek or is it R2D2" question.

Probably not, but one can hope.

Grey Wolf

They will probably go with something like that:


I doubt they'd get the rights to either, anyway.

[Millstone85]

I... erm... I didn't like Good Omens.

It was nice seeing Discworld-style horsemen and witches on Earth, but the antichrist was the sourcerer all over again.

[hamishspence]

I... erm... I didn't like Good Omens.

It was nice seeing Discworld-style horsemen and witches on Earth, but the antichrist was the sourcerer all over again.

I found Adam's personality somewhat different from Coin's.

[Sinewmire]

It was nice seeing Discworld-style horsemen and witches on Earth, but the antichrist was the sourcerer all over again.

You can't help what you like ;)

I don't really remember any personality at all to Coin, except he was basically a nice kid.

Adam, on the other hand, is a love letter to Just William and Stig Of The Dump that any kid in the UK in the 80s will have grown up on. I feel he's a lot better developed too.

I do wonder how well a lot of the references will translate. Star Wars is still around, sure, but The Omen and other Hammer Horror era films are pretty obscure. Still, it worked for Hot Fuzz.

[Rodin]

You can't help what you like ;)

I don't really remember any personality at all to Coin, except he was basically a nice kid.

Adam, on the other hand, is a love letter to Just William and Stig Of The Dump that any kid in the UK in the 80s will have grown up on. I feel he's a lot better developed too.

I do wonder how well a lot of the references will translate. Star Wars is still around, sure, but The Omen and other Hammer Horror era films are pretty obscure. Still, it worked for Hot Fuzz.

There's two ways you can go with it. The first is simply to update the references. However, a lot of the story is restricted by the date of the film - nobody has cell phones, the kids spend all their time playing outside with no parental supervision, etc.

So, the other way to go is the Stranger Things method. Explicitly set it when the original movie was set, and go whole hog on the references. Your audience is mainly people who read the book, after all. You can go in for the full nostalgia route.

A lot of the jokes are pretty universal too, like the idea of digging a hole to China.

[Leewei]

David Tenant's Crowley is shown in a phone booth - a bit of a shout out to one of his well-known prior roles.

[Sinewmire]

There's two ways you can go with it. The first is simply to update the references. However, a lot of the story is restricted by the date of the film - nobody has cell phones, the kids spend all their time playing outside with no parental supervision, etc.

So, the other way to go is the Stranger Things method. Explicitly set it when the original movie was set, and go whole hog on the references. Your audience is mainly people who read the book, after all. You can go in for the full nostalgia route.

A lot of the jokes are pretty universal too, like the idea of digging a hole to China.

Good point - it might be set in the 90s or late eighties, which would explain crowley's outrageous fashion.

David Tenant's Crowley is shown in a phone booth - a bit of a shout out to one of his well-known prior roles.

Nice catch! I never pick up on stuff like that until it's pointed out.

[Kato]

David Tenant's Crowley is shown in a phone booth - a bit of a shout out to one of his well-known prior roles.

I didn't know purple man was famous for using phone booths I'm not sure if this is the idea behind it but it might be, I assume.
Or it could be a hint the story actually takes place in the 90s, not today.

On a somewhat related note... The Watch series is happening. I'm not sure how I feel about this.

[thorgrim29]

Oh boy.... I feel like there are a lot more ways for a Watch series to go poorly than well. Especially since Ankh-Morpork and it's watch go through about 200 years of IRL history in half a dozen books.

[farothel]

Well, I know Narrativia is involved in it, and both Rhianna Pratchett and Rob Wilkins are part of that. We also had a talk about this during the last Discworld Convention and from what I heard there, I don't feel too bad about this project. It will depend also on casting choices and things like that.

There will also be a series based on the Wee Free Men.

[Fyraltari]

David Tenant's Crowley is shown in a phone booth - a bit of a shout out to one of his well-known prior roles.

Should have been a police box then.

Fingers crossed about the Watch serie. I want to believe in it but I fear the worse.
Just like this one.
Or the Foundation serie.
Or the Lord of the Rings one.

[factotum]

Should have been a police box then.

Two issues there:

1) Blue police boxes don't exist on the streets anymore--they were already largely obsolete in the 60s, when Dr. Who started. It would thus be extremely strange to see a character going into one.
2) Following on from (1), the BBC actually owns the rights to the blue police box image, having won a case against the Metropolitan Police in the early 2000s--the thing was so iconically identified with Dr Who, rather than its original usage, that the fictional depiction won out. Thus, to use it in this series Netflix would have to get permission from the BBC, which I suspect would not be forthcoming.

[Rodin]

Two issues there:
2) Following on from (1), the BBC actually owns the rights to the blue police box image, having won a case against the Metropolitan Police in the early 2000s--the thing was so iconically identified with Dr Who, rather than its original usage, that the fictional depiction won out. Thus, to use it in this series Netflix would have to get permission from the BBC, which I suspect would not be forthcoming.

That is just plain hilarious to me.

Fingers crossed about the Watch serie. I want to believe in it but I fear the worse.
Just like this one.
Or the Foundation serie.
Or the Lord of the Rings one.

Discworld adaptations have generally been pretty good, so I have faith that they can do right by it. The description indicating that it will be new stories is slightly worrying.

Overall though, I think I've yet to see a bad adaptation, be it the earlier animated works or the later TV movies that Sky did. I'm hopeful for both Good Omens and the Watch series.

[Kato]

new[/I] stories is slightly worrying.

Overall though, I think I've yet to see a bad adaptation, be it the earlier animated works or the later TV movies that Sky did. I'm hopeful for both Good Omens and the Watch series.

I'm rather more interested to see new stories than attempts to adapt the books. Pratchett's writing isn't easy to turn into a good moving picture. So writing something new is likely much better.

The old animated movies are fine but while the art style kind of suits the stories I would very much prefer a better looking one.

[Rodin]

I'm rather more interested to see new stories than attempts to adapt the books. Pratchett's writing isn't easy to turn into a good moving picture. So writing something new is likely much better.

The old animated movies are fine but while the art style kind of suits the stories I would very much prefer a better looking one.

The reason I'm more leery about new stories is that, well, Pratchett isn't writing them. We've seen that people can do a good job of taking his stories and translating them to the screen. Whether someone can take his characters and write plots that do them justice remains to be seen.

[Anymage]

Two issues there:2) Following on from (1), the BBC actually owns the rights to the blue police box image, having won a case against the Metropolitan Police in the early 2000s--the thing was so iconically identified with Dr Who, rather than its original usage, that the fictional depiction won out. Thus, to use it in this series Netflix would have to get permission from the BBC, which I suspect would not be forthcoming.

Nitpck: Good Omens is going on Amazon, which seems to have more BBC stuff and has Bezos money if they really wanted a Who box to make a cameo. Not that I expect a blue box to show up, mind.

Overall though, I think I've yet to see a bad adaptation, be it the earlier animated works or the later TV movies that Sky did. I'm hopeful for both Good Omens and the Watch series.

GO has the advantage that one of its authors is still very much alive and very much engaged in the production. I'll be guardedly optimistic about the other adaptations of Pratchett's work, but having Gaiman participating has me more generally optimistic about this one.

[Fyraltari]

Two issues there:

1) Blue police boxes don't exist on the streets anymore--they were already largely obsolete in the 60s, when Dr. Who started. It would thus be extremely strange to see a character going into one.
2) Following on from (1), the BBC actually owns the rights to the blue police box image, having won a case against the Metropolitan Police in the early 2000s--the thing was so iconically identified with Dr Who, rather than its original usage, that the fictional depiction won out. Thus, to use it in this series Netflix would have to get permission from the BBC, which I suspect would not be forthcoming.

I know, but if you can't do the joke right, then don't do it.

[Thufir]

Of course those red phone boxes are now about as obsolete as the police box.

https://twitter.com/neilhimself/stat...81303620771842

[Anonymouswizard]

Of course those red phone boxes are now about as obsolete as the police box.

https://twitter.com/neilhimself/stat...81303620771842

I remember phone boxes from my childhood. I saw like one red one, all the ones actually about were the clear BT-branded ones, which were finally removed from streets about four to six years ago. Although considering how up to date Crowley seems to be I'd fully expect him to be using a mobile phone if the implications of that tweet of the scene being ~2007 are true (my siblings and I finally got mobile phones in secondary school, so ~2004 for me, because it was the first time we'd be far enough away we might need to call and phone boxes were already disappearing). As said in the followup tweets they only exist in areas with bad mobile coverage (which would explain why Crowley might be using one).

[lunaticfringe]

I... erm... I didn't like Good Omens.

It was nice seeing Discworld-style horsemen and witches on Earth, but the antichrist was the sourcerer all over again.

Yeah, me too. I love a lot of Pratchett & Gaiman but Good Omens just didn't do it for me. I'm going to give the show a shot though because I did like some bits and am a fan of Tennant & Sheen.