The Dark Is Rising (Spoilers)

I am starting a thread about a movie that I have no intention of seeing, and that I want to discourage the rest of you from seeing as well. That movie is The Dark Is Rising, the upcoming adaptation of Susan Cooper's classic children's book. While obviously the thread is fair game for any discussion pertaining to the movie, I am particularly interested in discussing the choices made in adapting the movie, which I think absolutely terrible. As it looks like a pretty bad movie, I'm honestly not sure what else will be worth discussing about it, though by all means, chime in with anything you like.

A word of warning. Given my interest in the adaptation of the book, this thread will be spoilers allowed, for both the book and the movie. While being spoiled for the movie may be no tragedy, it really is a good book, and I would encourage everyone to read it. So go check out the Amazon page and think about picking it up before you dive in and get it ruined for you. Also, because the book is part of a series, there will inevitably be some spoilage for other books in the series. Consider yourself forewarned.

Now, a word of background. The Dark Is Rising is a book in Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising Sequence, a five-volume children's fantasy series. The first book, both chronologically and in publication order, is Over Sea, Under Stone, but it's pretty apparent to me that OSUS was originally written as a one-off, or at best as a loosely constructed piece in a larger universe. The Dark Is Rising is where the series proper gets going, because most of the series is centered around the character of Will Stanton, the last of the Old Ones. For this reason, I recommend starting with The Dark Is Rising and fitting in Over Sea, Under Stone either directly after Greenwitch or last. (Adopting the latter option, the correct reading order is: The Dark Is Rising, Greenwitch, The Grey King, The Silver on the Tree, Over Sea, Under Stone.)

The Old Ones are an ancient line of humans who wield a tremendous influence over mankind's destiny and who greatly embody the struggle between good and evil. Most Old Ones are aligned with the Light, who do battle against the the Dark. There are various artifacts that the Light must come to possess in order to be able to drive back the Dark. I know it all sounds very fantasy cliché, but I swear it doesn't read like that! Cooper's writing is thoughtful and subdued, focusing to a great extent on the children involved, and it comes off as something elegantly personal, even though the people involved are caught in a cosmic struggle of sorts.

The Dark Is Rising is the story of Will Stanton's discovery that he is one of the Old Ones, and of his quest to find the six Signs. The Signs are scattered and hidden; together, they form a powerful force against the Dark, and they will be instrumental in the final battle that is to come.

Actually, typing that up helped me realize why it is being filmed so badly; it sounds terrible. But the series is very elegantly written, as I said, and steeped in the folklore of England and Wales. The Grey King is commonly cited as one of the best children's fantasy novels; I consider The Dark Is Rising equally good.

Because this is a fairly long post, I'm going to end with a link to the trailer, which you can find at the official site. Disappointingly, this mess is being brought to us by Walden Media, who did such a wonderful job with the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe adaptation. I'll throw out some thoughts of my own later, but for now, I'd be interested in any thoughts or reactions, both from those who have read the book and those who have not.

-Paul

 

The Dark Is Rising is one of my favourite fantasy books, and has been for over twenty years. I think it is the best in the series, much better than The Grey King, or any of the others. It just has more atmosphere, at least it does for me. Over Sea, Under Stone is a good childrens' book, but very different in style and character from the later books in the series. The main protagonists in it are on the very periphery of the struggle between the Light and the Dark, and as such the book seems much shallower in terms of the series' mythology.

I have just seen the trailer. WHAT HAVE THEY DONE?

 

I remember this series and I'm a big fan of it and have always loved the books. But man, just watching that trailer, I just want to cry. First they messed up Dinotopia with a movie and now another favorite book series of mine. Maybe, hopefully, a better trailer will come out but right now I'm just shaking my head and cringing on the inside.

 

Man, I actually liked the trailer. Like the recommendation for the book though too...will probably have to check it out.

 

I don't know whether to advise you to read the book first, or wait till after you've seen the movie. If you read the book first, I don't think you can possibly like the movie, and it's a bit of a shame to do that to you. On the other hand, The Dark Is Rising is one of the great children's fantasy books, and it really ought to be experienced on its own terms, terms that the movie will not allow you. Modernizing the setting, giving Will a dysfunctional family, and making him American are all clear indicators that the filmmakers simply do not understand the book, so at the very least please try to maintain an open mind and keep the book and movie as mentally separate as possible. I think I would encourage you to go ahead and read the book, just because it's so very good.


I notice from the posters and the way the movie is now being referred to on IMDB and Apple Trailers that they seem to have changed the title to The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising. I can only assume that they're eying the possibility of adapting the other books, and thought that having a series that shares its overall title with one of its entries was too confusing. Honestly, I don't think the reception of the film is likely to earn them the chance to make more. Since The Seeker is being featured more prominently, I'm assuming they're making it the title of the first movie, with The Dark Is Rising as the series title. That would make more sense, since Will is the Sign Seeker only for the first book, and can't really be treated as the sole seeker of the other Things of Power. Still a bit weird, though. Why couldn't they just have let TDIR stand as the title for the first movie, and then use that title in marketing the others? I d'no.

I've thought for a long time about how I would adapt these books, which I think are imminently filmable, and that's one of the reasons it's a shame that it seems to be being done so badly! If I were doing it, I think after The Dark Is Rising, I'd do a single film that combined Over Sea, Under Stone and Greenwitch. OSUS is, in my opinion, too weak to stand on its own, and Greenwitch is very short, but I think they could work well together. They take place in the same location, decades apart, and have very compatible central quests; OSUS is concerned with the initial finding of one of the Things of Power, and Greenwitch is about rediscovering it after it has been lost. I think a film that moves back and forth in time between these two stories, which have close narrative ties, could be very interesting. It's been a while since I read either book -- they're my least favorites of the series -- but as I recall, the end of Greenwitch even sees a kind of ghostly revival of the past; I wonder if that could be somehow adapted and/or broadened as part of the vehicle for weaving the two films together. Does this sound like a reasonable way to work the film?

-Paul

 

Saw the trailer, enjoyed the trailer (Christopher Ecccleston and time travelling immortals, what's not to love?) and then read the book. Personally although I enjoyed the book, it never really grabbed me as much as others have. Maybe that's because it's set in winter and I was reading it in the middle of the summer, maybe it's because I had other things to read, I dunno.

Will see the film and probably will enjoy it because I like to watch and enjoy films on a different level to where I enjoy the books, makes it a whole lot more easier than watching a film and immediately going "they did this wrong and that wrong and this wrong and that wrong". Kinda taints the film enjoyment when you do that.

Keep an open mind. You could get surprised.

 

I'm bumping this up as the film has just come out in America.

 

Has anyone seen it? Anyone at all?

I'd be really curious for a report on how it is...

-Paul

 

...Bump this up...

Has anyone seen this movie? We'd like to know what anybody thought of it.

 

I didn't realize that the film was out.

 

It was dire. Truly dire.

The American kid was so incredibly...American. Even Christopher Eccleston couldn't stop me hating this movie. If I paid for a ticket, I would've left and snuck into something else.