Sci-Fi Storm

Deadline reports that BBC Studios is working with Narrativia, the production company founded by late author Terry Pratchett and run by his daughter, to create a series based on Pratchett’s Discworld novels. Simon Allen (The Musketeers) is attached to write.

Six episodes have currently been commissioned, but no broadcasters have been named. BBC Studios is the production arm of the public broadcaster BBC, but two years ago was spun off as a for-profit venture and are now permitted to sell shows to other broadcasters. The aim is to make it an international co-production.

Plot details have not been given, but the working title of “The Watch” may indicate that it may have a similar focus to a previous plan led by Terry Jones (Monty Python) and Gavin Scott (The Mists Of Avalon) to create a procedural drama focusing on the City Watch police force of Discworld’s principal city of Ankh-Morpork.

I sadly found out just a few minutes ago that author Sir Terry Pratchett, best known for his Discworld series of fantasy novels, passed away today at the age of 66 after suffering from Alzheimers since 2007.

Pratchett’s [asin=038553826X]Discworld[/asin], in which many of his over 70 books are set, was a flat world which was sitting on the backs of four enormous elephants, who themselves stood on the back of a giant turtle traveling through space.

He received an OBE for his services to literature in 1998, and was knighted in 2009. In 2001 he was Britain’s second most read author, only behind J.K. Rowling.

He took his illness in stride, and kept writing with his last bpok, an [asin=0544466594]anthology of children’s stories[/asin], released last summer.

His death was announced on his own Twitter account with a sense of Pratchett’s humor and writing style. The first tweet was written in all upper case as he typically represented his character of Death in his books:

AT LAST, SIR TERRY, WE MUST WALK TOGETHER.

Terry took Death’s arm and followed him through the doors and on to the black desert under the endless night.

The End.

It sounds bizarre, but perhaps this would blend one of the most popular TV drama formats with a fantasy genre and come out on top…BleedingCool is reporting that Terry Pratchett’s Discworld setting is being adapted into a TV series, following the City Watch police force of Ankh-Morpork. Terry Jones (Monty Python) and Gavin Scott (The Mists Of Avalon) are working on scripts for Prime Focus Productions, the production company that is also working on a series based on the Pratchett and Neil Gaiman collaboration collaboration, Good Omens, and the previous Discworld TV productions.

Author Terry Pratchett, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease in late 2007, made a plea via the press to allow assisted suicide. “I live in hope I can jump before I am pushed,” he said. On Thursday, the House of Lords directed that the Director of Public Prosecutions draw up a policy regarding whether those who help others seek assisted suicide will be prosecuted or not.