In October, I wrote a comparison of the movie The Seeker to the book upon which it was allegedly based, The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper. My opinion? The movie sucked rocks and hurled chunks. I love the books and this movie was something abhorrent.
Reading the comments on my earlier post made me wonder what I might find using a search engine. For example, what did Susan Cooper think of the film? What were other discussions saying about the movie?
Susan Cooper was interviewed on NPR on this earlier this year. If you listen to the interview done by Margot Adler, you can ear Ms. Cooper’s concern over the fate of her story as it has been adapted to the big screen. There is also a link where you can hear Susan Cooper read an excerpt from the book!
The site Cross Walk has an interesting discussion that mentions the exclusion of the pre-Christian and Arthurian mythological elements from the film. Apparently, the company that produced the movie, Walden Media, is a “family friendly” organization that produces primarily Christian content and excluded the pre-Christian and Arthurian content. (These items are integral to the books.) This topic is further discussed on another blog, The Wild Hunt.
Movie Web has an on-location visit with the crew and script writer for The Seeker. John Hodge, author of several well known screen plays (including Trainspotting), details the liberties taken with the book’s plot and characters, plus some of the reasons why these decisions were made.
One review from Blog Critics Magazine describes the difference between what the fans expected and what was actually delivered. A telling quote:
During filming in Bucharest, Romania there was a joke on The Dark is Rising set that only three things have been changed from the original 1973 novel: the nationality of lead character Will Stanton, changed from English to American; his age changed from 11 to 13; and everything else that happens in the story.
And another review of the movie from Stylus. I honestly haven’t seen any positive reviews about this movie, other than if you don’t know the books you might like it. And if you see the movie and then read the books, you’ll discover everything that is missing from the (!#@$) film.
> During filming in Bucharest, Romania there was a joke on
> The Dark is Rising set that only three things have been
> changed from the original 1973 novel: the nationality of lead
> character Will Stanton, changed from English to American;
> his age changed from 11 to 13; and everything else that
> happens in the story.
Hahaha – oh thank you for this great quote! Sorry if my comment last night spurred you to reconsider unhappy memories of one of your favorite books being brutally and savagely raped by “family friendly” movie executives. Shall I PayPal you some funds for a therapist to work through the trauma?
Venting with friends is therapy enough! Not unhappy memories. The righteous indignation of bad literary adaptation!