The US debut of The Colour of Magic, a four-hour original production will be making its television premiere on ION Television on Sunday, November 23 at 7:00 p.m. ET. The mini-series will be broadcast in its entirety in one evening.
Although titled The Colour of Magic the mini-series is in fact based on the first two books in best-selling author Terry Pratchett’s hugely popular Discworld series, The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic. The Colour of Magoc stars Oscar nominee Sean Astin (The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Toy Soldiers, Rudy), Emmy nominee Tim Curry and Sir David Jason. Emmy Award-winning actor Brian Cox narrates and Christopher Lee takes on the vocal role of Death.
Discworld, a magical realm, has got its first tourist! Rincewind, an incompetent and cynical wizardry student, has recently been expelled from Unseen University and been given the task of guiding Twoflower through the city state of Ankh Morpork. The two are forced to flee the city after a terrible fire and are sent on a fantastical journey across the Disc, which is unknowingly being controlled by a board game played by the Gods. Along the way Rincewind encounters a few problems: firstly, as an expert coward, he doesn’t feel he’s the best person to guard a naive - and extremely rich, by local standards - tourist through one of the roughest cities in the multiverse. Then, of course, Rincewind experiences a vicious and bloody struggle with his arch-enemy, the power-hungry maniac Trymon (Tim Curry). Oh, and the world is coming to an end. Can Rincewind defeat his nemesis and save Discworld from ultimate destruction?
Attracting over a million viewers, The Colour of Magic first broadcast on Sky One, a UK entertainment TV channel, in March of 2008. The two-part television adaptation was well received by fans, garnering Sky One’s highest performing program to date and scoring the largest audiences for the network since Hogfather aired in December of 2006.
The Colour of Magic was filmed at London’s legendary Pinewood Studios. The film was produced by Ian Sharples and Rod Brown and directed by Vadim Jean, who also directed RHI’s Hogfather. RHI’s Robert Halmi Sr. and Robert Halmi Jr. serve as executive producers on the project.