A good omen

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A good omen. The kind and accurate prophecies of the witch Agnes Spinner (Original title: Good Omens. The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch ) is a 1990 published novel by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman (translation: Andreas Brandhorst ). He describes in a humorous way the struggle between good and evil, between God and the devil, represented by an angel and a demon on earth.

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The story takes place at the end of the 20th century and the apocalypse is imminent. The angel Erziraphael and the demon Crowley therefore have a lot to do. Like many agents, these two long-standing adversaries share more in common than the sides they stand for. Their hunt revolves around the Antichrist , who, as a result of some stupid coincidences, was exchanged at his birth, but is absolutely necessary for the final battle.

The four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are described very vividly and appear on the map one after the other, as provided in the Bible. Only death as the grim reaper of the Middle Ages has survived. War appears as the red-haired femme fatale , and hunger was easy in the age of power diets. Only plague became superfluous with the invention of penicillin and is being replaced by "environmental pollution".

In their satire, Pratchett and Gaiman intertwine the biblical prophecies with those of Nostradamus . Its role is taken over by the witch Agnes Spinner, whose descendants try to decipher the disordered and cryptic predictions regarding their family planning and world politics.

Adaptations

Planned films

For several years there has been a script version of the novel, which Terry Gilliam was supposed to implement in 2002 . According to Gilliam, Johnny Depp and Robin Williams had agreed to participate, but the necessary additional 15 million US dollars could still not be raised, for which the press reported the disastrous result of the last collaboration between Gilliam and Depp, the Don- Quixote film adaptation, is held responsible (see also Lost in La Mancha ). In 2011 there was talk of a TV adaptation for which Terry Jones and Gavin Scott were to be responsible for the first time . This project also came to nothing.

Miniseries 2019

In January 2017 Amazon Studios announced a. to produce a 6-part mini-series together with the BBC (six contiguous parts, each one hour long, are a very common format on British television, for German television such mini-series are often cut into four-part pieces of 90 minutes each). Neil Gaiman wrote the script for his novel himself, he is also the showrunner and executive producer of the project. Gaiman agreed to the adaptation only after receiving a posthumous letter from his friend Pratchett expressing his blessing on the matter. He repeatedly criticized the press for headlines like "Neil Gaiman's Good Omens" ( Variety ), recalling that it was not just his novel. Variety then changed the opening sentence of the online version accordingly. In the summer of 2017 it was announced that Michael Sheen will play the angel Erziraphael and David Tennant the demon Crowley. Pratchett's spokesman and friend Rob Wilkins commented, “ I know Terry would be over the moon. When we talked years ago about our dream cast of the two leading roles, David Tennant was there. “The entire series was released on Amazon Prime on May 31, 2019, and the TV premiere on BBC Two from January 2020.

literature

  • Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett; Andreas Brandhorst (ex.): A good omen: the friendly and accurate prophecies of the witch Agnes Spinner . Rogner and Bernhard at Zweiausendeins, Hamburg 1991, ISBN 3-8077-0247-4 .
  • Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett: Good omens: the nice and accurate prophecies of Agnes Nutter, witch . Workman Pub., New York 1990, ISBN 0-89480-853-2 (English)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Sian Cain: Good Omens: Neil Gaiman to adapt Terry Pratchett collaboration for TV In: The Guardian, April 15, 2016. Retrieved January 26, 2018.
  2. ^ Morgan Jeffery: 'Good Omens' TV series in development? . Digital spy . February 8, 2011. Archived from the original on June 29, 2011. Retrieved on March 7, 2011.
  3. ↑ Neil Gaiman adapted Good Omens for Amazon Studios and the BBC. In: screenread.de. January 3, 2017, accessed January 28, 2017 .
  4. ↑ Neil Gaiman: @Variety: Psst. Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett's Good Omens. Article comment, posted to Twitter August 14, 2017. Retrieved January 26, 2018.
Books by Terry Pratchett


The colors of magic (1983, German 1985) • The light of fantasy (1986, German 1989) • The legacy of the magician (1987, German 1989) • Grim Reaper (1987, German 1990) • The Magic Hat (1988 , Ger. 1990) • MacBest (1988, Ger. 1992) • Pyramiden (1989, Ger. 1991) • Wachen! Guards! (1989, German 1991) • Faust Eric (1990, German 1992) • Full in the picture (1990, German 1993) • Alles Sense (1991, German 1994) • Totally bewitched (1991, German 1994) • Simple divine (1992, German 1995) • Lords and Ladies (1992, German 1995) • Helle Barden (1993, German 1996) • Rolling Stones (1994, German 1996) • Really magical (1994, German 1996) • Mummenschanz (1994, German 1997) • Hollow heads (1996, German 1998) • Schweinsgalopp (1996, German 1998) • Flying scraps (1997, German 1999) • Hot hops (1998, German 1999) • Calm blood (1998, German 2000) • The Fifth Elephant (1999, German 2000) • The Full Truth (2000, German 2001) • The Time Thief (2001, German 2002) • Wahre Helden (2001, German 2001) • Maurice, der Kater (2001, German 2004) • The Night Watchmen (2002, German 2003) • Little Free Men (2003, German 2005) • Women's Regiment (2003, German 2004) • A hat full of stars (2004, German2005). 2006) • Off the Post (2004, German 2005) • Klonk! (2005, German 2006) • The winter smith (2006, German 2007) • Schöne Scheine (2007, German 2007) • The Club of Invisible Scholars (2009, German 2009) • The Midnight Dress (2010, German 2011) • Stiff pinch (2011, German 2012) • Great steam ahead (2013, German 2014) • Die Krone des Schäfers (2015, German 2015)

Scholarly Fiction
(with Ian Stewart & Jack Cohen )

The Scholars of the Disc World (1999, German 2004) • The Philosophers of the Round World. More from the scholars of the Discworld (2002, German 2004) • Darwin and the Gods of the Discworld (2005, German 2006) • The Last Judgment. The Science of Discworld 4 (2013, German 2013)

Other books

The Disc World from A – Z (with Stephen Briggs ; 1994, German 1996) • The Disc World Album (1996, German 2001) • GURPS Disc World (with Phil Masters ; 1998, German 1999) • Nanny Oggs Cookbook (1999, German 2001) . 2001) • GURPS Discworld Also (with Phil Masters ; 2001) • The Art of Discworld (2004, German 2006) • Where's my Cow (2005) • Wit and Wisdom of Discworld (2007, German 2010) • Myths and legends the Discworld (with Jacqueline Simpson ; 2008, German 2009) • The World of Poo (2012) • Fools, Thieves and Vampires - The best of ten years of Discworld calendars (with Stephen Briggs ; 2012, German 2012)

Discworld maps

The Streets of Ankh-Morpork - A Discworld Map (1993; Ger. 1996) • The Discworld Mapp (1995) • A Tourist Guide to Lancre - A Discworld Mapp (1998) • Death's Domain - A Discworld Mapp (1999) • More complete and indispensable Ankh-Morpork city guide (2012, German 2013) • Mrs. Bradshaw's most useful handbook for all routes of the Hygienic Railway Ankh-Morpork and Sto Plain (2014, German 2015)

Trucker (1989, German 1992) • Wühler (1990, German 1992) • Wing (1990, German 1992)

The Johnny Maxwell trilogy

Only you can save humanity (1992, German 1994) • Only you can understand it (1993, German 1995) • Only you have the key (1996, German 1997)

Long Earth
(with Stephen Baxter )

The Long Earth (2012, German 2013) • The Long War (2013, German 2015) • The Long Mars (2014, German 2015) • The Long Utopia (2015, German 2016) • The Long Cosmos (2016, German 2017)

Standalone novels

The Carpet Peoples (1971, German 1972) • The dark side of the sun (1976, German 1977) • Strata (1981, German 1992) • The common house cat (1989, German 1991) • A good omen. The friendly and accurate prophecies of the witch Agnes Spinner (with Neil Gaiman ; 1990, German 1991) • An Island (2008, German 2009) • Dark Scoundrels (2012, German 2013) • Jack Dodger's London Guide (2013; German 2009) 2014)

Short story collections

The whole madness (2004, German 2007) • Big words (2012, German 2018) • Twisted dragon (2014, German 2015) • The vacuum-sucking fright screw (2016, German 2018)