Frick on a stick! I am spitting mad. I was just surfing through Kevin‘s site when I saw a mention of a trailer for The Dark is Rising. What? You mean the series of books I read as a kid, the ones about the Light and the Dark and King Arthur and all the old British myths? The same series that had Simon, Jane, and Barney searching for the Holy Grail and meeting the Greenwitch, while Will read the book of Grammarye and set Herne the Hunter on the trail of the agents of the Dark? The books I loved so much that when, during our, like, second date, the Snook mentioned that he’d read and loved them too, I made a mental note that he could be “The One”? That series? Well, I had to see this. FOLKS, IT SUCKS. Those two minutes suck up one side and down the other. The Snook and I stood before my computer in stupefied disbelief. Who the hell are these people? Where’s Merriman? Who’s that kid “travelling through time” with Will? Why is Will a snotty teenager? Why is Doctor friggin’ Who playing the Black Rider? And why the hell would you set a series that is about friggin’ KING ARTHUR IN GODDAMN AMERICA?
As the Wikipedia entry sadly notes: “The film is in no way loyal to the original book.” Understatement. Of. The. Year.
5 responses
Could be worse I suppose – remember that they really, really wanted to make Harry Potter in the US too. Imagine Hogwarts in the US countryside.
They’ve killed The Dark is Rising? Nooooooo!
WHAT?????? Oh, I’m horrified. I loved the books as a kid, too. In fact, I’ve been reading them aloud to my husband, who didn’t read them as a child. I’ll steer clear of the film. No Merriman? WTF?????
Blech. Just saw the trailer. Merriman is there, though he looks like some sort of Victorian pouf. The companion is his brother. Umm… the whole point was that Will was alone. I do love Christopher Eccleston, but the whole American Teenager angle destroys the whole book, IMO. Unbelievable and so very sad.
Yeah, I don’t know if you saw over at GitM, but my sis-in-law is pretty ticked too.
I am at least glad to discover that the books have a very loyal fan base, tho’. At first, I was worried that this film was just a manifestation of the fact that every fantasy series you could think of is now being thrown up into movie form on account of Harry and LotR (Next up: Dragonlance and Xanth?) But it seems I just wasn’t clued in to the love people have for Collins’ books. So…sorry they ruined it… 🙁
FWIW, the Compass trailer is up now too.