The Dark is Rising: The Seeker
On a rare trip to the cinema today I noticed posters for The Dark is Rising: The Seeker
And I have to admit my first reaction was being rather gutted, you see The Dark is Rising is a series of books by Susan Cooper I grew up loving, I wrote about them here. I’ve always harboured an ambition that if I ever did make it as a screen writer I could perhaps adapt them, I had very distinct ideas about what I’d do, I’d keep the script in the same era the books were written (The Dark is Rising Sequence is getting on a bit now) as I thought it would add to the scripts charm. I’d stick to the same locations, filming them where they actually set as the sequence covers some phenomenal scenery throughout Britain such as North Wales and Cornwall and I’d use as far as possible British actors as this is most definitely a very British story. I’d have Patrick Stewart play the character Merriman.
Anyway since getting home from the cinema I’ve been on to check the film’s website (which is painfully slow) and from the trailer it is so not what I imagined an adaptation of the books would be. For a start they’ve made it American, sorry to my American friends but as far as stories about magic and mystery Britain versus US, who wins? They have hired two famous Brit actors but one of them is Ian McShane for goodness sake! I had the misfortune of being in the same room in the 1980s as my parents when they watched Ian McShane’s renowned vehicle, Lovejoy and I’m now scarred for life. He plays the character of Merriman which would of been oh so right for Patrick Stewart, although maybe not in this version. The other Brit is Christopher Eccleston, now I’ve always got a soft spot for Doctor Who actors past and present (except Colin Baker for some reason) so the film may be watchable for that. They’ve tampered with the storyline considerably as far as I can see from the trailer, even changing the tone of the whole story, referring to the Old Ones (I’m not even sure they are referred to as Old Ones in the movie) as warriors repeatedly and although there were fight sequences in the books, the Old Ones were more than just about that. The whole thing came across so much like a Harry Potter movie clone, whereas yes, both books these two movies are based on deal with magic as their main themes but The Dark is Rising isn’t really at all like Harry Potter, The Dark is Rising is more epic and Arthurian. One things for sure, anyone reading the books after seeing this movie may possibly be surprised and disappointed. And finally as for the filming locations, according to imdb it’s in Romania, I know a lot of those sort of movies are filmed there these days, great for the Romanian economy I’m sure but what’s wrong with British filming locations?
So all in all, I probably will rent this when it comes out on DVD, just so I can probably whinge some more about it, but overall it’s been a long time since even just a trailer could disappoint me so much.
Edited to add – I’ve just done a trawl on google, seems like it’s not just me that is gutted about what this film has done to this book, read The Dark Is Rising: Innocent children’s book brutally slaughtered by film-makers , another blog, for an excellent summary of the dissapointment that is out there. I am particularly amazed about some remarks from Ian McShane during an interview, which I’ll paste here (taken from the above linked blog).
Ian McShane: I don’t think they’ve been very faithful to the book. I don’t know how many of you’ve read the book. I know they sold a few copies, but I couldn’t read it very well. It’s really dense. It’s from the 70s, you know? [...]
Where [sic] you familiar with the books before signing on to this?
Ian McShane: No, I never heard of them. I did try to read the book, but they were a little…I think…I don’t know how…There’s four of them apparently. Or five. Oh, god. That means I might have to do a sequel.
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“I know they sold a few books“, to heck they did, this series actually won two awards!
Seems like he had trouble reading them to, they’re kids books!
Have you been to the IMDB boards yet? Or even the Walden Media boards. Fans there sometimes seem as if they’re about to take up arms.
And here’s a list of some of the changes they’ve made.
Hi Eve
I’m glad everyone is kicking up such a fuss, if the film is a flop maybe it leaves hope that someone else will adapt it in the future (even if it’s not me adapting it lol). I sooo wanted this series to be some lavish BBC weekend tea time pre-Christmas treat, that stuck pretty darn faithfully to the books!
J.
Added 20 December 2007
Now I know a lot of people are reading this post so I thought I’d add something now this apology of a movie has been out for a while. I still actually haven’t seen it, I know it will pain me to do so but I will watch it when it comes out on DVD, if only to rant and rave.
I’ve found an interesting selection of reviews here http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/seeker and it is all pretty damming, even ignoring the cut job they did on the books it still sounds like an appalling movie. Which I think can be the only good thing to come out of it, it must leave the door at least slightly open for the possibility of it being remade again by someone with slightly more talent this time, that luscious BBC/HBO (because they always seem to work together these days) teatime winter drama, Patrick Stewart as Merriman, me as the script writer (ok I’m really dreaming about that point) adaptation.
I would be interested to hear comments from people who’ve actually seen the film, is it really truely as bad as it sounds?
Lacer