(no subject)

[smg01]

All Things Considered had a very nice interview with Susan Cooper today. It turns out that The Dark is Rising is being released as a movie this weekend.

They played part of the trailer for the movie and I realized that I had seen the ads on tv without recognizing what it was for. Because the movie seems to have been put together by people who have no recognition of what the book is supposed to be about, or, uh, the story. (The title of the movie is now The Seeker. The Dark is Rising has been excised completely from the title.) Will Stanton is now a 13 year old American boy instead of an 11 year old English boy. There appears to be relationship angst. And from what I can tell the entire guts and heart has been ripped from the story. I'm not happy.

When the subject of the movie came up, Susan Cooper sounded philosophical, resigned, and disappointed with what she's seen about it. She had no input or influence in the project.

Interview is here.

Comments

[rainbow.livejournal.com]

:(

i love those books SO MUCH. i hate that they are changing so much :(

[suzannemarie.livejournal.com]

I know! I'm so disappointed. It's an excellent series, and the director clearly doesn't have a clue what the book is about.

All of the sudden, I'm remembering an episode of the series The Famous Teddy Z. (I think I'm the only person that watched it. It starred Jon Cryer as a regular guy who wound up accidentally becoming an agent for a really famous actor.) Anyway, there's an episode where a writer ran an experiment where he tried to get agencies all over town to back his script which was really Mr Smith Goes to Washington. Nobody recognized what the story really was. Teddy Z was the only one that liked it. And Teddy's boss told the writer he needed to add a car chase scene that went through the White House Rose Garden to spice things up.

I feel like these people have taken a classic story and added the equivilent of a chace scene through the Rose Garden to it.

Sorry. That was a long digression. I guess I'm really worked up about this one.

[datawhorevoyeur.livejournal.com]

I heard the beginning of the trailer on during the NPR show, and I just had to turn off the radio in disgust.

Just. No.

[suzannemarie.livejournal.com]

And apparently the director has no background, interest, or (from what I can tell) understanding of the genre. So since Harry Potter was aso an eleven year old English boy, Wil would be too repetitive as is.

Never mind the fans who love the books and will scream bloody murder at the changes.

Methinks he has no idea how dogged genre fans could be.

At least, that's my hope.

[uufarmgirl.livejournal.com]

I absolutely loved these books when I was a kid... When I saw the poster (more in the spirit of the books) I was intrigued, but the trailer promises something completely different. What was all complex and atmospheric and bittersweet is suddenly geewhiz!shiny!spykids. I think I'll pass.