Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman at NADWCON 2011 (North American Discworld Convention) ❤
Neil: The single worst experience that we went through was, I think, the film. The first go round on the film, where it was bought by very nice people who convinced us they were very nice because we were absolute innocent. And I just remember going up for the first meeting with them.
And we were going up for the meeting, and Terry says, 'Here, come over here.'
I said, 'Okay.'
He said, 'Um, look, I'm not sure about these people, and you're not sure about these people. If this is our first meeting, if they're just completely barking, we should have a code word. And whoever says the code word, we both get up in unison and we leave'.
I said, 'Okay, so we need a code word that neither of us could conceivably say in normal conversation.'
And Terry says, 'Yes.'
I said, 'Okay, what about Biggles?' Now, Biggles, for those of you who don't know, was a famous...
Terry, joking: A famous Cardinal. [Cardinal Biggles in Monthy Python].
Neil: He was. Of course.
Terry: They're young, that's the only one they know.
Neil: Captain W. E. Johns wrote books about Biggles, who was a World War I flying ace who, with his pals Ginger and Algy used to go out and shoot out the evil Germans. So, if any Germans are here, you're not evil, it was just in this book. So. So, I say, 'What about Biggles?'
And Terry is, 'Okay. Biggles it is.'
So we head up for the meeting, and we're sitting there around the table talking to what seemed to be terribly nice, sensible people. And then the executive walks in. And the executive in this case was a woman who looked like she had mugged somebody 20 years younger than her and stolen her hair. And she walked in and she didn't... She said like, 'Hi, Neil. Hi, Terry. It's lovely to meet you both. Now, I'm sure that the guys have been talking to you about your book, Good Omens, and what we're thinking about now. Okay, let me just run some stuff past you. We figure the dynamics of this are the kid, Adam, whatever his name is, Newt, the witchfinder. We see him as, like, maybe being Tom Cruise, young, goodlooking, hunky, but he's looking for the witches. And the witch, Athaneema, I think her name was. Okay, so there's Newt and there's Athaneema'.
And I look at Terry, and I need to actually mime this - I think we should do this together.
.
Fun fact: Neil wrote the 'Athaneema' into the Good Omens series :).
