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So, I like The Dark is Rising as much as the next guy. After watching Chronicles and Potter over Christmas I decided the time is ripe for an adaptation. Especially with the current crop of quality British child actors getting experience in these other films.
Lo and behold, they've just announced that a Dark is Rising movie is in the works. The studio is Walden (same one as just released CoN:LLW). Here is a link to the (brief) info I've found. There's also an IMDb entry, but with no real content other than somewhat inane message board entries (reading such things really helps me appreciate the level of dialogue at Hatrack).
So, any readers of the series have casting ideas? Let's mention Freddie Highmore right away and get that out of the way. And no one say Ian McKellan for Merriman Lyon, please. It just seems trite at this point. So, barring those, any other ideas. My best so far is Rupert Everet as "The Rider." Or maybe Cillian Murphy, if he wants to keep up his bad guy persona.
Here are the major characters, and my picks: Will Ohmsford- Skandar Keynes (Edmund from LLW, except now I see he's far too old). Merriman Lyon- Hugh Laurie (TV's "House"; he's brilliant in a small role in Sense and Sensability, and I'm a big Blackadder fan). Rider- Rupert Everett (Talk, dark and handsome, with great potential for a darker violent side). Walker- Bob Hoskins (Perfectly fits my image of both the old, rumpled, hobo Walker and the younger, proper English butler Walker)
<edit> Oh, and Jeremy Northam as Will's father. Brilliant </edit>
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I always pictured The Rider as having pale skin and flamingly red hair. Is he described in the books as being dark haired and complected?
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I don't know if Hugh Laurie can pull off Merriman Lyon. I don't know who could, but I'm skeptical about him doing it. Not that he's not a brilliant actor-- it's the quality of his face. There's something missing that Merriman Lyon needs.
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Yeah, I'm going to have to think long and hard about all of the casting choices. I don't know of anyone, offhand, that strikes me as being exactly right for any of the parts.
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I am with Kwea. It had better be done well. The Dark is Rising Series is only slightly surpassed by the Wrinkle in Time series as my favorite children's series. (Actually, not really.)
As for casting, as much as I adore Hugh Laurie, I can't see him as Merriman. Merriman had a hawk-like profile. I could see Patrick Stewart as Merriman. I could see Cillian playing the Rider though.
Not sure who should play Will. Hmmm.... maybe that kid from the Sixth Sense or that other one from SW:TPM. Just kidding.... just kidding. Hey, don't look at me like that. I was only kidding.
/ducks into the last post thread to hide
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I seriously had a virtual rotten tomato in my hand, ready to hurl at you
And I'm surprised by the lack of Hugh Laurie enthusiasm. He's tall (unlike Stewart) which is a prerequisite for me. He has the crag-like features. He can be brooding but also bright and happy. The more I think about it the more I like it.
As for The Rider, I think you're right on the red hair, although I've always seen it as dark brown in my mind. But I still think Everett has the right quality. Smooth and seductive, with a hint of menace.
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This makes me feel old. I know I read all of that series and it enjoyed it very much. But I can't for the life of me remember much about it. Was it a King Arthur story?
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Sort of. At least, parts of the story had King Arthur turn up. But he was a secondary character who didn't turn up much. Heck, in the first three books he didn't turn up at all.
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For the Rider, I suggest Cillian Murphy, who played Scarecrow in Batman Begins and the badguy in Redeye. That guy is very creepy looking.
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quote:Originally posted by larisse: The Dark is Rising Series is only slightly surpassed by the Wrinkle in Time series as my favorite children's series. (Actually, not really.)
Ack! Gag!
You just compared one of my favorite books to one of my least favorites. A Wrinkle in Time was an interesting idea, but Meg was such an obnoxious, whiny character that she pretty much ruined the whole book for me.
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The deal is this: Even though the series is set on ordinary, modern day Earth, Magic is secretly real.
There's the High Magic that governs the universe. This is beyond good and evil.
There's the Old Magic of the Earth and the Wild Magic of nature. These are the powers of the elements and natural life. Again, beyond good and evil as we understand them. Wild Magic can be both cruel and kind.
Then, there are two magical "poles". The Light and the Dark. Around the world, upon reaching a certain age some people wake up and find out that they are actually the immortal Old Ones. They have an innate connection to either Light or Dark magic. These two groups of magic users are in continual conflict.
The Light want to save the world for mankind. But, they're not the "good guys" in a traditional sense. The Light accomplishes much good, but it's core purpose is...alien to human morality. (This causes those Old Ones with close mortal human friends no end of grief.)
The Dark want to control the world and enslave the mortals. They're more traditional "bad guys"...but again, the ultimate goal of the Dark is for an alien purpose that ordinary, mortal humans can't truly understand.
Upon the coming of age of the last Old One of the Light, a series of prophecies begin to come true. Only by collecting certain Objects of Power will the Light have hope of a final triumph against the Dark.
quote:Originally posted by Nevyan: Guranteed they will mess it up. I mean seriously are they going to compress the WHOLE thing into a film running 140 minutes?
Look for some major plot cuts and holes...
No...the first film is an adaptation of the second book in the series, titled The Dark is Rising.
It's not a condensed version of all the books, though it may have a reference to Over Sea, Under Stone here and there. Posts: 6689 | Registered: Jan 2005
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Thanks Puffy Treat! That jogged my memory a bit. I'll probably reread the series before the movies come out. Posts: 1947 | Registered: Aug 2002
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One thing that strikes me upon rereading it is how very bittersweet and downbeat the series becomes. Greenwitch and The Grey King especially contain some very adult, poignant elements along with the expected epic fantasy thrills.
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I was just re-reading these the other day (doesn't take me very long, sigh). I pray that someone will be understanding of the book rather than just making it... I'm getting a little tired of moviemakers kind of missing the real point of the book and just putting the book on the screen in some half-hearted fashion.
I agree that these books have very grown-up themes. They should be made into quite dark-coloured movies with a lot of deep history wound into it. These should not be made lightly.
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For instance, the emotional abuse that protagonist Bran goes through later on in the series is much more real and painful than that more often seen in such books. It's not the tongue-in-cheek broadness seen in the Lemony Snicket or earlier Harry Potter books.
Walden Media has a website for the film up. Not much on the film itself, but tons of information on the books!
posted
It will definitely have to be British actors (or anywhere from the U.K.) I don't think in this book that they had a lot of Welsh characters and language.
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The Grey King and Silver on the Tree are where the Welsh characters and (legendary) history comes heavily into play.
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I did like that series, but I haven't read them in years and years. It might be time to look again.
SPOILERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I was thinking at the end of the series some of the kids had their memories erased? Is that correct? If so, that is the main reason I didn't totally adore the series.
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I was going to read these books. I checked them out from my school's library in third grade. But I got distracted and started reading Roald Dahl instead. Maybe I should go back and pick these up.
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I don't know how I missed these books when I was a kid. They sound like they would have been right up my alley.
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Yes, the (mortal) cast members had their memories of anything magical altered or deleted.
The Light, as I said, are not the traditional sort of "good guys". They don't relish doing it, but they consider knowledge of just how fragile the thin skin of human reality is over the omnipresent supernatural forces of the universe to be too unbalancing and frightening for mortals.
I'm glad Susan Cooper herself had them admit the moral dubiousness of it in the books, because except in one or two cases, it's done without consent.
You just compared one of my favorite books to one of my least favorites. A Wrinkle in Time was an interesting idea, but Meg was such an obnoxious, whiny character that she pretty much ruined the whole book for me.
--Mel
Oh, I agree with you about Meg. Although, she did get better as the series progressed. Besides, I was always partial to Calvin and Charles Wallace*.
I was going to buy the Dark is Rising series set just this past week, but I opted to buy A Game of Thrones and some other books instead.
quote:Besides, I was always partial to Calvin and Charlie Ben.
I think you you mean Charles Wallace - isn't Charlie Ben one of OSC's children?
Oh, I just read The Giver for the first time a few weeks ago. Disturbing. My hubby really hated it. I think I enjoyed it.... Anyway I won't forget it any time soon!
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The Giver definitely isn't a very cheery book. Though Lowry has said maybe she should have been more clear that the ending is meant to indicate a better beginning for the protagonist.
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Jenna... you are right. Thank you for pointing that out. Sheesh, my memory is getting really, really bad. I wasn't thinking about that though.
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You ought to read the Q&A section with her in the latest edition. She's both amused and depressed that 9 times out of 10, readers pick the downbeat interpretation for what the ending meant.
As I recall, as a teen I couldn't decide whether the ending meant they had found a genuine Good Place...or if it was a final hallucinatory vision brought on by the talents of being a Giver.
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quote: Though Lowry has said maybe she should have been more clear that the ending is meant to indicate a better beginning for the protagonist.
Thanks for saying that, Puffy, I chose to believe that but thought I might be deluding myself. I'm afraid hubby may have chosen to believe the "hypothermia and delusions".
I haven't read The Dark is Rising but I really enjoy children's/young adult fiction so I'm looking forward to finding this one! One quick question: I understand The Dark is Rising is the second in the series - is this another series where they've re-numbered the books? (Like CoN ) What should I start with?
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Jenna, The books aren't renumbered. The main character of the series, Will Stanton, is introduced in The Dark is Rising. Over Sea, Under Stone is the first book in the series, but you don't have to read that book to get the rest of the series. I didn't read it until after reading Greenwitch, the third book in the series.
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Over Sea, Under Stone is also being skipped because it does nothing to explain what the heck is going on in the series.
Really.
It builds mystery, I suppose. But it's a very unsatisfying book, unless you've read the other books first and thus have a clue to what it all means.
To be fair, Susan Cooper herself may not have had the series worked out when she wrote OSUS. Other than the identity of Merriman Lyon, everything is very obscure.
If he wasn't so closely asociated with the Harry Potter films, wouldn't Alan Rickman make an interesting Merriman?
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The Walden film I'm most looking forward to this year is Charlotte's Web. The book is one of my all-time favorites...and they promise it will be a bit less kid-vid-flavored than the 1973 Hanna Barbera cartoon.
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Puffy, that is a good choice for Merriman. He has the hawkish look to him. He is tall. He can be brooding and kind, which is how I always saw Merriman or Gumerry (always liked that nickname). A fierce lion who protected his pride. (No pun intended)
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Oh, I hope Rickman isn't forever stereotyped as Snape. He's so good, he deserves to do a lot more. Although it may be hard to avoid, as he's the PERFECT Snape. Perhaps if he washes & cuts his hair....
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I wonder how they'll handle the whole color thing without being completely obvious, in The Giver...
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You know, it would very much be casting against type, but I could see Liam Neeson doing a really good job with The Rider.
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