The Seeker

[girlyswot]

I just watched the trailer for the new film loosely based on Susan Cooper's wonderful, wonderful 'The Dark Is Rising.'  I feel physically sick. 

Will is American.  He's trying to ask a girl out.  He hangs out at the mall.  His brothers are mean to him.  Does any of this remind you of Will Stanton?  No, me either.  What else?  Ian McShane is pitiful as Merriman.  I mean, honestly, Lovejoy was his niche.  The Lady didn't do much for me either.

The soundtrack and the visuals made this look like any other genre fantasy.  But 'The Dark Is Rising' isn't like that.  There aren't big action sequences (there's the Hunt, of course, but that's the only one I can think of) or many weird and wonderful visuals.  Lots of times, the weirdness is in the normality.  Especially Will, who is the most normal, ordinary, well-adjusted 11 year-old boy whose family love him.  Oh, and they all happen to be English and, conveniently, live in the English village where the book and, bizarrely, the film are set.  I can't begin to imagine how they work that one out.

I shudder to think what Hollywood will do to 'Over Sea Under Stone'.

The only redeeming feature is that they seem to have retitled the film, 'The Seeker', so hopefully no one will be put off reading the books by this rubbish!

Comments

[rhetoretician.livejournal.com]

I've not read the books, but I gather from an interview with the screenwriter that they were afraid that the movie would look like it was trying to clone Harry Potter if it was about an 11-year-old English boy who learns about magic. (The great majority of the audience would very likely be people who had not read the books.) So, weirdly, their goal was to avoid looking like another typical genre film.

John Irving once said that there's no way of comparing a novel to a film based on it -- the constraints and needs of each medium make the two fundamentally incompatible. It's better to look at the film and ask whether it's a good film qua film, using the book as a prompt or starting place.

The thing that bothered a lot of people about the film of Sorcerer's Stone is that it attempted so much loyalty to the underlying novel that some of its potency as a piece of cinema was lost. By contrast, the films of LotR make some very interesting choices that deliberately deviate from the novels (e.g., making Aragorn a man filled with self-doubt, who does not want to accept the mantle of kingship; giving Arwen a role that is much more compelling than what she's allowed to do in the books; inventing a scene in which the Denethor-Boramir-Faramir triad is explicated with much more psychological realism than Tolkien envisioned) and almost cetainly make them better as cinema.

This is cold comfort if one of your favorite texts looks like it's being cheapened or torn to shreds. But I offer it for what it's worth.

[girlyswot.livejournal.com]

Well, I've only seen the trailer, but to me it looks exactly like an HP-rip off, so if that's what they were trying to avoid, they failed! Plus, the book is nothing like HP and it seems like some of the changes they've made (turning the loving, sympathetic family into one that's harsh and unfriendly, for example) clearly make it more HPish, not less! The story arc through the series is quite, quite different and Will as a character could not be less like Harry.

However, if what they were trying to ensure was that the great majority of the audience haven't read the books, they've certainly gone about that the right way!

I don't object in principle to things being changed for a different medium. I even quite enjoyed the Keira Knightley 'Pride and Prejudice' which all the real Austen-ites loathed. I just don't think this looks like it's even going to be a good film.

*sigh* Never mind. I'll just imagine it in my head. That's worked pretty well so far.

Oh, and I think you might enjoy reading these if you ever come across them. The first in the series is actually 'Over Sea Under Stone' but the first two (the second is 'The Dark Is Rising') can be read in either order I think.

[rhetoretician.livejournal.com]

Never trust a trailer or a dust jacket. I don't think that's supposed to be his real family, if I remember the interview correctly.

You can read the text of the article I mentioned here, but here's a relevant snippet:

Early indications are that the film will be very different from the dreamy and timeless novel.

In the film, Will Stanton is 13, not 11, and he is American, not British. Screenwriter John Hodge first looked at The Dark Is Rising many years ago. At that time, it just didn't seem like the right project for the man who wrote the screenplay for Trainspotting, a gritty film about heroin addiction. Hodge didn't like fantasy anyway.

And even when he approached the book 10 years later, Hodge found many problems. First of all, he thought, even though the book was written more than 30 years ago, the premise of an 11-year-old English boy who finds out he can do magic seemed too familiar.

"One of the things I didn't want it to be confused with was Harry Potter, because I just think the world doesn't need another English boy involved with fantasy adventures," he says.

Hodge felt that Will would be more understandable if he was experiencing things as an outsider, as an American living in Britain.

As for Cooper's story, Hodge says that "a lot of it would have to go because it was written in this quite lyrical, poetic, kaleidoscopic fashion." He also says the novel, as written, proved difficult in other respects: The action doesn't take place in fixed locations and, he says, Will "doesn't really do very much."

But further on in the article it's implied that Cooper's own feelings may be similar to yours.

[girlyswot.livejournal.com]

That's an interesting article, Ken, thanks for the link. I don't think it's a terribly good sign if Susan Cooper herself doesn't like the changes that have been made.

One of the big themes in the book is the familiar suddenly becoming unfamiliar: people, places, names that Will thought he knew are seen in a different light with a new significance. It's clear from that interview that for Cooper this is linked with Will's 11th birthday (around which the action of the book takes place) as a symbol of trying to find out who he himself is.

I guess that's not going to come across if he's an outsider. And if he's preoccupied with girls, that's going to be a big shift too.

Kaleidoscopic is a good word for the books, and I do see that you would have to pin a lot of things down to make a film, but still...

I know you're right about not judging from the trailer. I just don't know if I can bring myself to even give this a go.

[tdu000.livejournal.com]

I wasn't going to comment because i haven't read the book or seen the film (though it's on my emergency school holiday entertainment list - moved several places down after reading your post!). I would also have said I had never heard of Susan Cooper but that isn't true. I'm actually reading a book by her at the moment although, I'm ashamed to say, I didn't know she had written it. I'm reading Little Tyke's set book for next term about a boy who is transported back in time to act in A Midsummer's Night Dream ast the "new" Globe theatre (The King of Shadows). I've only just started it but it's pretty good. I was talking to Dad on the phone and noticed the book on the coffee table. I nearly squeaked! If Little Tyke enjoys it (she hasn't read it yet), I'll put her onto thse books. She likes fantasy so I think it might appeal.

[girlyswot.livejournal.com]

I read that one a couple of years ago. I did enjoy it, though I found it odd since I have another favourite book that also deals with one of the boy actors in Shakespeare's company - though without the time travel - so I kept wanting to say, 'But Will wasn't like that!'. Which of course is nonsense, Cooper's version of Will is just as valid as Antonia Forest's.

I'd say your daughter's just about the right age to enjoy the Dark is Rising. There are five in the series. Over Sea and Under Stone is first, though the second, The Dark Is Rising can be read independently of it. After that you need to go in order.

[dogstar101.livejournal.com]

I haven't read The Dark is Rising for years although I found a copy recently. The film coming out will probably prod me into re-reading but I won't be going to see the film - I'm always very wary of adaptations of favourite books.

Ignore it and try not to think about it, is my advice - although perhaps that's easier said than done. On the positive side, it's an old book - if anything it'll bring the series a new audience and at least some of today's children will end up preferring the book or even loving it.

[girlyswot.livejournal.com]

Yes, ignoring seems to be the best thing to aim for. The interview that Ken sent the link for was really sad, I thought. They seem to have completely ignored Susan Cooper altogether in the process.

And it would be lovely if people started reading the books. I'll hope for that.

[petitecrivan.livejournal.com]

Ugh, that's awful. I absolutely loved that series. One of my favorite parts was all the Welsh stuff, learning how to pronounce names, words, etc, and just the world that it was set in. It doesn't work in the US. You need that magical sort of setting.

Definitely will not be seeing that movie.

[girlyswot.livejournal.com]

Well, what's odd is that although Will's American, the film still seems to be set in England (though shot in Romania for cost reasons). But I agree, I loved it too. We had a family holiday in Aberdovey one year which I thought was just so exciting! I kept wanting to go up Cader Idris and find the Bearded Lake, and my family thought I was barmy!

[petitecrivan.livejournal.com]

I'm going to North Wales next semester and I'm really excited! I've read a few books set there and really can't wait to actually go there and see it.

[girlyswot.livejournal.com]

Oh, it's beautiful. You'll love it.