Don’t panic, Discworld fans, to use the words of another British humorist. Terry Pratchett hasn’t given up the writing ghost yet, he’s just planning for the future. And those plans include his only child, Rhianna Pratchett, already a pretty accomplished writer in nerd spheres.

A television show based on the fertile setting of Terry Pratchett‘s Ankh-Morpork city guards has been a long time coming, despite its seeming obviousness, so you’ll have to forgive us if we have to keep reassuring ourselves that it’s actually happening. Sir Terry himself stopped by New York Comic Con yesterday, nominally to talk about his new novel Dodger, but of course folks were interested in Discworld events, on the page or otherwise.

It’s been known that a Discworld television show based in the fictional city of Ankh-Morpork and the cast of characters it is associated with has been in various stages of preproduction discussion for more than a year now. In fact, there’s even video evidence of Sir Terry Pratchett talking with writers about coppers starting up an inter-species band, the trickiness of humane prisoner treatment, and what it might be like to have the undead coming in to file reports on their own murders.

But last weekend the annual Discworld convention was held in Birmingham, England, and it promised a panel hosted by the team behind BBC Worldwide’s fabled Discworld project, and an announcement.

Whenever we hear about a movie being remade, or a book being turned into a movie that probably should just be left alone, or a TV show that has no business being made into a movie, the next thing we do, after swallow a small amount of bile, is wonder who will be cast in this abomination. Sometimes, you luck out (see: J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek). But sometimes, you cringe at the thought of who might be stepping into a role (see: M. Night Shyamalan’s Avatar: The Last Airbender), or what childhood memories would be crushed next (21 Jump Street).

Since we’re gluttons for punishment, and sometimes stay up all night worrying about these kinds of things, we’re going to share 10 Worst Case Scenario movie adaptations and reboots of how Hollywood could go totally wrong.

Terry Pratchett is one of our favorite fantasy authors, the Discworld series being a place that we’ve returned to time and time again… He has also been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s and since then has become a personally invested advocate of Alzehimer’s research and of the legalization of assisted death.

His documentary Choosing to Die was released in June, but we only became aware of it today. And when I heard him say “When I can no longer write my books, I’m not sure that will want to go on living,” it was hard to not listen to the reasoned case and research of a man whose written work has given me so much joy. Especially as someone who wants to write books myself.

(via I Heart Chaos.)

So the network says you have to have a Christmas special, even though your characters live in a science fiction universe where Christianity has never existed. Or they’re living in a year with A.D. in front of it. Or they’re rabbits.

What to do? Why, make up a completely Not-Christmas Yuletide holiday, and tell your viewers to say the Mantra.

This Power Grid originally ran last year on Geekosystem, and now it’s contributing to us having a happy holiday! Enjoy!

One of the coolest dads ever, Anthony Herrera, is at it again. You might recall that last we heard from him, Mr. Herrera had Photoshopped Ewoks into some family pictures taken at Sequoia National Park because his daughter is a huge Star Wars fan. It also happens that she is a fan of the Disney princesses. Well now, he’s combined the best of both of her worlds by having this cake created for her birthday by family friend Trisha Patterson. Thanks for the tip, Anthony! (via Anthony Herrera Designs)

According to Wikipedia, “stereotypes of librarians in popular culture are frequently negative: librarians are portrayed as puritanical, punitive, unattractive, and introverted if female, or timid, unattractive, and effeminate if male.”

But there are plenty of kick ass librarians in fiction! Like all the time… when they are allowed to be main characters… and aren’t one-scene jokes… um.

So, we made a Power Grid. Yes, this is usually how these things go.

He said: “The only thing stopping me [signing them] is that I have made this film and I have a bloody book to finish.”

But he stressed that he was as yet still undecided whether he would eventually take his own life.

He said he changed his mind “every two minutes” but added that if he did choose to die would prefer to do so in England and in the sunshine.

The Telegraph’s piece on Sir Terry Pratchett‘s continuing assisted suicide advocacy is misleadingly, if factually, titled “Sir Terry Pratchett begins process that could lead to assisted suicide.” BoingBoing takes the whole thing a step further with the headline “Terry Pratchett initiates assisted suicide process.” But Don’t Panic just yet, if I may be allowed to borrow a line from one of Sir Terry’s former contemporaries.

We’ve been in a vampir-ey mood lately. Perhaps its the success of Being Human on this side of the pond, the imminent end of the Twilight movie franchise, or maybe it’s Priest.

…naaaahhh, haha, it’s not Priest.

Here we have listed, for your eternal pleasure, some of the most common, most famous, most versatile vein bursting bloodletters in our contemporary culture. And believe us when we say… they all suck.