The Wintersmith

[tealin]

The Wintersmith! I finally got around to reading the book* and this was one of my favourite images. It started out as a speed painting but was kind of blah so I bounced it off a friend of mine and his suggestions got it to where it is now. Tadaa! I'm also mulling over some sketches of other characters but I don't know when those will be along.

*how bad a fan does that make me?

Comments

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, he's got the rights to that, doesn't he? ... hoboy.

[thefordmustang.livejournal.com]

Sorry, I logged in as Anonymous.

Yup, Sam Raimi is the one who has the rights.

Actually I am pretty happy about it. He has been very faithful to the Spider-Man comics canon and has a very good sense of humor and drama. He seems to want Terry Pratchett to be involved with the project, and he often gets the authors into cameo roles. I know he is not easy to get along with, but he was able to keep his cast and crew together throuh three movies. If he and Terry get along they could do something good. I think Sam Raimi was against putting all those villains in the movie, but got over-ruled by producers, and he has not committed to other Spider-Man movies, maybe because he is worried about losing quality.

BTW, I just thought about it but Topher Grace (the guy who played Venom) kind of seems like someone who could play Moist von Lipwig. I would have to see him in other movies to be really sure but he seemed to have good potential. He was able to play very likeable and sincere while being selfishly arrogant all at once, and his looks are rather ordinary and he is the right age - just could he dub a mixture of British/German accent? He is a comedy actor, but in Spider-Man he had a more dramatic role as a cocky newspaper photographer who actually does not have much self confidence and winds up becoming Venom.

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

NO. NO. No Topher Grace as Moist. No. That ... just ... wrong. I don't know why so many people think Moist has to have a slightly German (Uberwaldean) accent; he's made his living by being imperceptible and would certainly have trained out any trace of accent that would make make Albert Spangler etc at all recognizable. And why would he retain a bit of the accent when 'being himself' if he'd learned how not to speak with it? Besides, if he was sent off to school (the one after Frau Shambers', which Gryle mentions, and which may not be in Uberwald) at an early enough age, it would have been very easy to pick up the local vernacular, and if he ran away from school at fourteen or whatever, that's plenty young to pick up Morporkian (an essential language for business) without a trace of accent.

Accent on Accents

[thefordmustang.livejournal.com]

I always like reading your opinions. Ultimately, I think if they made a movie of "Going Postal" I would prefer someone unknown and European if I were the ruler of the world.

Wow, I am not the only one who thinks that about Moist has a slight accent? I thought I was the only crazy person on the planet. I am probably affected by my experiences growing up foreign in the USA and now being surrounded at work by people who are either from outside the USA or grew up foreign in the USA. I certainly agree with your statement about schooling and that people can learn to hide accents, but depending on the age of learning another language will always have a basic accent that comes out from time to time. I am not a linguist, but I have read that the best time to learn a language without an accent is up to about 5 years old, but after that people will always have an accent. It gets less noticeable over time, but it is always therein the background. People do learn how to hide it with concentration, but they will drop back into it as their natural way of speaking when not concentrating. I like to think Moist is a natural mimic and probably quite good at picking up languages- it would be fun to hear him be able to switch accents and speech mannerisms with his different personas, but he still has this "self" accent that he finds himself falling into, especially when he is forced to be himself (to me so much fun of the book is him learning how to be himself- the accent would be a symbolic way of doing that). So, yes, he could pass himself off as one of the locals, like as Mr. Spangler he would seem at first to be from Ankh Morpork, but when he is caught off guard by Vetinari he would slide into his native accent because the situation would have shocked him out of concentration. But then when he's on the run he's right back into using a fake persona. But eventually he would start being more and more himself. Even so, I don't want to give the impression he would stand out, especially in a multicultural city like Ankh Morpork. He has lived there for a long time. I rather picture him speaking more like someone who has been living abroad and not using his native language for a long time. It's like what I hear from the people at work. Many of the Swedish and Norwegians here at work speak with British or American accents, but then you start hearing an odd, very charming turn of the phrase or a lilt in a word that makes them sound slightly exotic. That is how I would imagine Moist as speaking when he is being himself. It comes off as being charming rather than strange.