Terry Pratchett‘s Discworld series has but a few spinoffs: a series on science, and a smattering of young adult novels set in the same universe. Of the latter, only one character has inspired Pratchett to write more than a single book about their adventures, and that’s Tiffany Aching, junior witch, dairy maid, and friend of the Nac Mac Feegle, a tribe of “pictsies” best described as that really weird dream you had after falling asleep facing a Braveheart poster at the end of an evening of bawdy drinking and a Smurfs marathon.
It’s my duty to inform you that Ms. Aching may be coming to a theater near you.
Rhianna Pratchett announced on Friday:
Finally got the all clear to talk about this. I'm adapting Wee Free Men! Excitement! Terror! Feegles!
— Rhianna Pratchett (@rhipratchett) November 1, 2013
Crivens! Sorry, should've been clearer. I'm adapting Wee Free Men into a feature length movie.
— Rhianna Pratchett (@rhipratchett) November 1, 2013
The book is one she’s had her “eye on for years.”
It’s interesting to set the Tiffany Aching series up against Harry Potter, and even the books themselves make their own little jokes about it, even though (and because) they have little in common. Beyond both of them being largely concerned with the adventures of a young person learning the art of magic, they’re boarding school vs. independent study. For a brief moment in the first book Tiffany daydreams about magically traveling to a witch school with potion classes and broomstick riding lessons, only to find that witch “school” is simply what you learn from observing the world in a particular way. Your final exam usually begins almost immediately after you decide to become a witch (in Tiffany’s case she must rescue her brother from the realm of the elves (elves in Discworld are Not Nice) armed only with a good frying pan and the dubious help of the Feegles), and you spend the rest of your life figuring out whether you passed.
Pratchett movie adaptations are already not nearly numerous as they should be, and Tiffany Aching is a little known gem, so I very much hope this is one that gets out of script stages and into theaters.
