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David Tennant and Michael Sheen to star in Neil Gaiman's "Good Omens" TV show.

mclem

Member
From NG's tumblr:

PNm9Jom.png
 

Sinatar

Official GAF Bottom Feeder
Fantastic casting.

Didn't know they were making a show out of Good Omens, it's a great book.
 
Woah there, Pickle! Wasn't disputing that he'd done a lot of great stuff, just thought it was funny that he could have listed the same program for both of them. As I said, Brian is definitely one of his most memorable roles.

Well then I seem to have entirely misrepresented you. Lets celebrate with some fucking Jaffa cakes.
 

deleted

Member
Apparently the BBC Worldwide Fan Panel (an international focus group thingy) has mentioned it quite recently, it looks like it's in some form of planning stage.

Well, at least it's not dead. It'll never be the stop motion awesomeness I imagine though :p
 
In wishful thinking conspiracy theory land I hope that Gaiman's potential success as a showrunner here leads to him doing Sandman the way he wants.
 

Blue Lou

Member
http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2017/good-omens-casting-2

Jack Whitehall (Fresh Meat, Bad Education), Michael McKean (Better Call Saul, This is Spinal Tap) and Miranda Richardson (Harry Potter, Churchill) have been confirmed in the cast for Good Omens - the forthcoming six-part television adaptation for BBC Two and Amazon of the acclaimed novel by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman.
Equal parts humour and horror, fantasy and drama, the series is written by Neil Gaiman (American Gods), who will also serve as Showrunner.

Whitehall will be playing Newton Pulsifer aka Newt - an unfulfilled wages clerk turned witch-hunter - and McKean will take on the role of Sergeant Shadwell, the leader of the witch-finder army who sends him on his mission. Miranda Richardson will play Madame Tracy, the psychic medium and part-time courtesan who provides a helping hand to the pair as they try to save the world from Armageddon.

Commenting on his casting as Newt, Whitehall says: "I feel extraordinarily privileged to have been asked to play this part and cannot wait to get started."

Michael McKean adds: "I’m thrilled to join this amazing cast and creative team. I can’t think of anyone I’d rather enjoy Armageddon with than Gaiman, Pratchett, Mackinnon and company”

As previously announced, Michael Sheen will star as the somewhat fussy angel and rare-book dealer Aziraphale, and David Tennant will play his opposite number, the fast living demon Crowley.

Good Omens was commissioned for Amazon Prime Video by Amazon Studios and for BBC Two by Patrick Holland, Controller, BBC Two; Shane Allen, Controller, BBC Comedy Commissioning and BBC commissioning editor Gregor Sharp. It is being produced by the comedy team at BBC Studios, the BBC’s commercial production arm, Narrativia and The Blank Corporation, in association with BBC Worldwide. The series will be brought to the screen by the highly acclaimed director Douglas Mackinnon, whose credits include Doctor Who, Outlander and the standalone Victorian episode of Sherlock: The Abominable Bride, winner of the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Television Movie last year.

Good Omens will launch globally on Prime Video in over 200 countries and territories in 2019 including in the UK, where it will also air on BBC Two at a later date. BBC Worldwide distributes rights for Good Omens internationally, after the series premiere on Prime Video.

I'm disappointed to find that Jack Whitehall is involved. Michael McKean is a bit of a coup though.
 

Boem

Member
http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2017/good-omens-casting-2



I'm disappointed to find that Jack Whitehall is involved. Michael McKean is a bit of a coup though.

I'm not really a fan of Whitehall either, but I can actually see him in the role. As long as he doesn't get a chance to revert to his 'posh party boy' routine he should be fine actually. Not necessarily how I envisioned the character when reading the book, but an interesting fit nonetheless.

Edit: Also, in case anyone missed it, here's a video of Neil Gaiman and Rob Wilkins (Terry Pratchett's assistant and, along with Terry's daughter, current guardian of his works) talking about the Good Omens adaption for half an hour. They recorded it for the North American Discworld Convention and released it online a while back. Some really good stuff in there.

https://vimeo.com/232085561

Interesting to hear about the often rumoured sequel book Terry and Neil might have written one day. I always assumed that was just an internet hoax thing. Turns out Neil added some scenes that aren't in the book, but are based on conversations with Terry for a possible sequel (that never got very far) and the many previous movie attempts, which even leave the door open to possibly do a sequel series at some point. The fact that we're going to see previously unseen Pratchett ideas is making me pretty happy, and this entire video got me very excited.
 

Blue Lou

Member
DJ_mL4DWsAExChI.jpg


First look of Michael Sheen as Aziraphale and David Tennant as Crowley revealed as principal photography commences in London.
Filming has begun on BBC Two and Amazon Prime Video’s upcoming six-part series, Good Omens as revealed by Showrunner Neil Gaiman on Twitter with a photo of multi-award-winning actors Michael Sheen (Masters Of Sex, Passengers) and David Tennant (Broadchurch, Doctor Who) on set as lead characters Aziraphale and Crowley.

Good Omens was commissioned for Amazon Prime Video by Amazon Studios and for BBC Two by Patrick Holland, Controller, BBC Two; Shane Allen, Controller, BBC Comedy Commissioning and BBC commissioning editor Gregor Sharp. It is being produced by the comedy team at BBC Studios, the BBC’s commercial production arm, Narrativia and The Blank Corporation, in association with BBC Worldwide.

Good Omens will launch globally on Prime Video in over 200 countries and territories in 2019 including in the UK, where it will also air on BBC Two at a later date. BBC Worldwide distributes rights for Good Omens internationally, after the series premiere on Prime Video. The series will be brought to the screen by the highly acclaimed director/executive producer Douglas Mackinnon, whose credits include Knightfall, Dirk Gently, Doctor Who, Outlander and the standalone Victorian episode of Sherlock: The Abominable Bride, winner of the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Television Movie last year.
 

Protome

Member
Tennant looks like he's reprising the role he played in Catherine Tate's christmas special only after a really hard life of partying.

Nan-and-Ghost-of-Christmas-Present.jpg


Kinda love it, not how I pictured Crowley though. Aziraphale is pretty much on point though.
 

Blue Lou

Member
For context, that photograph above was taken during filming for a scene set over a decade ago.

Not that that excuses it.
 

Stinkles

Clothed, sober, cooperative
Tennant is straight up Bad Cooper in the newest season of Twin Peaks in that pic:
Spoilery pic


As a person who hasn't watched the new Twin Peaks yet, while I am not mad at the massive spoiler personally, my mind is utterly blown.
 

Temp_User

Member
That is great casting . . . . but for some reason i want the actor roles switched. I see Sheen as more Crowley (first Underworld look) while i always thought a blonde Tennant in his Dr.Who garb would look like a modern angel.

Cant wait to know who they cast for Adam, Agnes and Anathema.
 

Boem

Member
As a person who hasn't watched the new Twin Peaks yet, while I am not mad at the massive spoiler personally, my mind is utterly blown.

Sorry, didn't realize it could be a spoiler for some people (although to be fair, that character is on the bluray cover and a lot of the promo material). I'll edit my post though.
 

Number_6

Member
Sounds interesting, although I didn't like the book much. It really just sort of dragged on and on.

I think it's possible for a comedy to overstay its welcome, which is what I believe happend with the book, for me. I love reading, but as a comedy--too long.
 

Platy

Member
Now I want David Tennand on a biopic of the band Rush

That is great casting . . . . but for some reason i want the actor roles switched. I see Sheen as more Crowley (first Underworld look) while i always thought a blonde Tennant in his Dr.Who garb would look like a modern angel.

Cant wait to know who they cast for Adam, Agnes and Anathema.

I think that playing with their typecasting is kinda the point here
 

LogicAirForce

Neo Member
I can't believe I'm just hearing about this now omg. Good Omens is one of my favorite books ever! Tennant does look goofy as hell though lmao
 

Seiryoden

Member
Aziraphale is spot on, I'll have to get used to Crowley. I read the book on release and the description of Crowley's apartment has left me with an image of him as a slick City boy, one of the wealthy, sharp-suited crew who seemed to be everywhere in London at the end of the 80s.
 

Boem

Member
That is great casting . . . . but for some reason i want the actor roles switched. I see Sheen as more Crowley (first Underworld look) while i always thought a blonde Tennant in his Dr.Who garb would look like a modern angel.

I think that playing with their typecasting is kinda the point here

It is intentional, Gaiman talks about it in that video I posted above. It was recorded before they even announced the casting publicly, so he's not even reacting to people talking about it online.

https://vimeo.com/232085561

The fact that you could easily switch their parts is part of the point - if you've read the book/listened to the radio play you can kind of see where they're going with that. Also, as Gaiman mentioned, imagine Good Omens as a stage play that those guys would put on every night, with them switching parts every other night. It would work, and it's intentional that it would work.

(That video is worth watching for many other reasons, like Neil and Rob remembering Terry, talking about what the show is going to be (it sounds great!), them actually literally lighting the car on fire instead of doing it with CG, updating the show for modern technology, and a possible sequel series based on old, abandoned sequel book ideas from Neil and Terry, and movie ideas they've had over the years).

This could be something very special if they pull it off.
 
It's kind of a shame that the last episodes of all of these shows need to suck by necessity, lest they break from the source material.




Sorry Gaiman hot take
 

berzeli

Banned
‘Good Omens’: Jon Hamm To Play Archangel Gabriel In Amazon Series
Mad Men alum Jon Hamm has joined the cast of Amazon Studios and BBC Two’s Good Omens as the archangel Gabriel, the primary messenger of God.
...
The character of Gabriel has a fleeting role in the original novel but showrunner Gaiman explains why he is being developed in the screenplay:

“Once we had finished writing Good Omens, back in the dawn of prehistory, Terry Pratchett and I started plotting a sequel. There would have been a lot of angels in the sequel. When Good Omens was first published and was snapped up for the first time by Hollywood, Terry and I took joy in introducing our angels into the plot of a movie that was never made. So when, almost thirty years later, I started writing Good Omens for TV, one thing I knew was that our angels would have to be in there.

The leader of these angels is Gabriel. He is everything that Aziraphale isn’t: he’s tall, good-looking, charismatic and impeccably dressed. We were fortunate that Jon Hamm was available, given that he is already all of these things without even having to act. We were even more fortunate that he’s a fan of the books and a remarkable actor.”

“I read Good Omens almost twenty years ago,” said Hamm. “I thought it was one of the funniest, coolest books I’d ever read. It was also, obviously, unfilmable. Two months ago Neil sent me the scripts, and I knew I had to be in it.”

This is damn good.
 
Didn't realise the Beeb picked up UK rights for this, I thought Amazon was going to keep this to themselves. Good stuff.
 
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