The perferct actors for the parts of The Witches

[Pearwood]

My choices:

Granny - Sian Phillips

Nanny - Miriam Margoyles

Magrat - Catherine Tate

 

[michelanCello]

Totally agree, exept for Magrat - I always imagined her a bit younger... Welcome to the forum, by the way...

 

[Tonyblack]

Welcome from me too, Pearwood.

I was watching Have I Got New For You recently and thought that Jo Brand could make a good Nanny too.

 

[chris.ph]

john thaws wife as granny cant remember her name

 

[Tonyblack]

john thaws wife as granny cant remember her name

Shiela Hancock.

 

[chuckie]

Sheila Hancock.

 

[MongoGutman]

Joyce Grenfell - in her day - would have made a great Magrat

 

[Pearwood]

Totally agree, exept for Magrat - I always imagined her a bit younger... Welcome to the forum, by the way...

Thanks for the welcome

I always thought Magrat was the "young one" only compared to the other two. I think there's a few references that suggest she's not quite as young as she acts or is treated. I picture her kinda mid 30s in Wyrd Sisters to early 40s in Carpe Jugulum. Tate's 42 and looks a bit younger so I think she's about right.

Sheila Hancock's another good choice for Granny. Helen Mirren could be good too. Just a pity Sky seems to have no interest in doing a Witches adaption.

 

[Tonyblack]

I think it's a case of commitment. The casting choices for the witchjes and the Watch are going to be crucial because there are so many books in these series. If you get a well known actress to play Granny, you pretty much have to be sure you can get her again for future films.

Maybe they'll go for relatively unknown actresses because of this.

 

[Pearwood]

Not sure that's what's holding them back. They seemed content enough to cast David Jason as Rincewind and Rincewind could probably match Granny when it comes to how many books he appears in.

Although to be honest, it might be better for someone other than Sky to have a crack at doing a Witches book. The Sky adaptions have hardly blown me away so far.

 

[pip]

Not sure that's what's holding them back. They seemed content enough to cast David Jason as Rincewind and Rincewind could probably match Granny when it comes to how many books he appears in.

Although to be honest, it might be better for someone other than Sky to have a crack at doing a Witches book. The Sky adaptions have hardly blown me away so far.

David Jason was quite possibly one of the worst casting choices in history.
Didn't fit Rincewind at all.
Wasn't impressed with first two adaptions at all but the Going Poastal one was reasonable.

 

[Pearwood]

I actually don't think Jason was that bad a choice, but he played Rincewind as a moron. Rincewind is many things, but he's not stupid. There was also way too much slapstick humour. Sean Astin was an even stranger choice.

I thought Hogfather and Going Postal were watchable, but that's it really (I had to fight to stay awake through Colour of Magic). The main problem is that a straight adaption just don't work. A lot of Terry's humour is designed to be read, not to be heard (think how the Colour of Magic adaption killed the In Sewer Ants joke). They should dig out the guy who wrote the scripts for the Discworld games - that guy got how to do his own thing but still keep it feeling Pratchett-esque.

 

[pip]

I actually don't think Jason was that bad a choice, but he played Rincewind as a moron. Rincewind is many things, but he's not stupid. There was also way too much slapstick humour. Sean Astin was an even stranger choice.

I thought Hogfather and Going Postal were watchable, but that's it really (I had to fight to stay awake through Colour of Magic). The main problem is that a straight adaption just don't work. A lot of Terry's humour is designed to be read, not to be heard (think how the Colour of Magic adaption killed the In Sewer Ants joke). They should dig out the guy who wrote the scripts for the Discworld games - that guy got how to do his own thing but still keep it feeling Pratchett-esque.

They got a pensioner to play a youngish wizard though. Surely thats not a good choice. I agree Sean Astin was very odd a casting as well as being rubbish. Having seen a few of the plays these worked so use Stephen Briggs for the adaptions

 

[DaveC]

I actually don't think Jason was that bad a choice, but he played Rincewind as a moron. Rincewind is many things, but he's not stupid. There was also way too much slapstick humour. Sean Astin was an even stranger choice.

I thought Hogfather and Going Postal were watchable, but that's it really (I had to fight to stay awake through Colour of Magic). The main problem is that a straight adaption just don't work. A lot of Terry's humour is designed to be read, not to be heard (think how the Colour of Magic adaption killed the In Sewer Ants joke). They should dig out the guy who wrote the scripts for the Discworld games - that guy got how to do his own thing but still keep it feeling Pratchett-esque.

They got a pensioner to play a youngish wizard though. Surely thats not a good choice. I agree Sean Astin was very odd a casting as well as being rubbish. Having seen a few of the plays these worked so use Stephen Briggs for the adaptions

i think it's just because they saw Josh Kirby's covers and assumed he was old, like I did unitl I read it properly and saw Kidby's illustrations.

 

[Pearwood]

As far as I recall Rincewind's age is never stated, is it? Although considering the length of time there must be between Colour of Magic and Unseen Academicals, he must have been young in CoM and old by UA.

 

[Tonyblack]

As far as I recall Rincewind's age is never stated, is it? Although considering the length of time there must be between Colour of Magic and Unseen Academicals, he must have been young in CoM and old by UA.

In Colour of Magic, when Rincewind briefly becomes Dr Rjinswand, his age is stated as 33.

 

[pip]

As far as I recall Rincewind's age is never stated, is it? Although considering the length of time there must be between Colour of Magic and Unseen Academicals, he must have been young in CoM and old by UA.

In Colour of Magic, when Rincewind briefly becomes Dr Rjinswand, his age is stated as 33.

He wouldn't have aged as much as others either as he had his stint in the other dimensions.

 

[deldaisy]

Not sure that's what's holding them back. They seemed content enough to cast David Jason as Rincewind and Rincewind could probably match Granny when it comes to how many books he appears in.

Although to be honest, it might be better for someone other than Sky to have a crack at doing a Witches book. The Sky adaptions have hardly blown me away so far.

David Jason was quite possibly one of the worst casting choices in history.
Didn't fit Rincewind at all.
Wasn't impressed with first two adaptions at all but the Going Poastal one was reasonable.

[]Pratchett, who has a cameo in the film's opening scene, is delighted with the casting of Jason, despite many fans expecting a younger, slimmer actor. “It was mainly the book cover illustrations that did that,” he insists. “I'm very good at not describing characters. David Jason has got three amazingly good attributes. Firstly, he is an excellent actor. Secondly, he's Sir David Jason, and that name counts for something. And thirdly he's a Discworld fan and about 15 years ago he declared that he wanted to play Rincewind. I thought, ‘Wonderful!'”

 

[pip]

An author has to say that to promote the adaption.
He's hardly going to publicly disagree when the thing is coming out.

 

[The Mad Collector]

Pratchett, who has a cameo in the film's opening scene, is delighted with the casting of Jason, despite many fans expecting a younger, slimmer actor. “It was mainly the book cover illustrations that did that,” he insists. “I'm very good at not describing characters. David Jason has got three amazingly good attributes. Firstly, he is an excellent actor. Secondly, he's Sir David Jason, and that name counts for something. And thirdly he's a Discworld fan and about 15 years ago he declared that he wanted to play Rincewind. I thought, ‘Wonderful!'”

and 4th, and most importantly, he put up a large chunk of the money it cost to make which is why he is credited as Executive Producer. Call me a cynic if you like but that may have swung the casting decisions