After what seems like an age of waiting, I finally saw Sky's Colour of Magic/Light Fantastic adaptation in all its glory over the Easter holiday. My initial reaction was that I enjoyed it, despite my reservations. Some of the casting was inspired - David Bradley was spot-on as Cohen, and Jeremy Irons was great as the Patrician (though I'm not sure about his voice). I also really liked Sean Astin as Twoflower, even though he's American, it really worked for me. I worried he might be a bit OTT but he played it very well, without making Twoflower look stupid. I also thought Tim Curry as Trymon was very slimy and scary, and James Cosmo as Weatherwax was also brilliant - any scene with the wizards was great. I wasn't so sure about the Librarian, the guy playing him as a man was fine but when he was turned into an orangutan it was just too obvious that it was a guy in a suit - the proportions were all wrong and his face just looked scary. I have the same complaint with Death, who looks pretty effective when he's standing still, or looming over the camera in shadowy settings, but once he starts moving, or the scene where he rides Binky through the garden, it's too obvious that it's a guy in a suit. Though, I did like Christopher Lee as Death's voice, I always thought he'd do a great Death, he's got the right sort of monotone - Ian Richardson's voice sounded too lively when he voiced Death in Hogfather.
David Jason was ok as Rincewind, but he's too well-known as an actor, in my opinion. He was very funny and everything but I have such a distinct impression of Rincewind in my head and David Jason is nothing like him. If they could have got a younger, less well-known actor, I think it would have been easier to imagine him as Rincewind. Someone like Jason Flemyng perhaps, I can imagine him doing a good Rincewind - cowardly but street-smart. I enjoyed the comedy references to potatoes in COM though, and there were a couple of other jokes that had obviously been snuck in for the fans - talk of 'monkeying around' by the Librarian in the first half of the film, and other similar references.
I liked a lot of the sets: Ankh Morpork, Unseen University, the Broken Drum, Death's house, the troll's mouth and the Wyrmberg all looked great. Some of the CGI looked a little obvious, but I guess they can't afford the good stuff. That seems to be the main problem with these productions, although Sky have obviously poured a lot of money into this adaptation it just isn't enough. All of the Discworld books are full of detail and complexity and huge, well-known, settings, and they just haven't got the money to do justice to that. I wish someone would make a big-screen version of one of the books and do something akin to Peter Jackson's LOTR trilogy - he cut no corners with his movies and they looked fantastically believable despite having to build everything from scratch, be it models or CGI. The rumour is that Sam Raimi is adapting Wee Free Men for the screen, I live in hope.
The other problem is that COM and LF are the weakest books of the series in many ways, they're fun but they haven't got the substance and intellect of the later books. The first part of COM was very fragmented, and I enjoyed the Light Fantastic half much more. I think that The Mob are planning to adapt further books from the series and I look forward to what they plan to do next, with a little more money and one of the later books I think their next project could be even better.
I worry that he's a bit too... popular to play this role. The Patrician should be an unknown quantity really. But he has a very regal air and I can imagine him doing scary and controlled very effectively. Plus he is one of my favourite actors so mostly I'm incredibly impressed that Sky managed to nab him for this production, makes me wonder whether he's a fan of the books. This news has definitely added to my anticipation for this production though. I also saw a couple of exciting pictures in this month's 'Sky Magazine' including one of the Luggage and the Librarian, both of which look amazing. The Luggage is larger than I imagined but the little legs look very cool. 
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