Not content with utterly ruining one of my favourite childhood books, Susan Cooper's splendid 'The Dark Is Rising' (Moving a story grounded so perfectly in old English and Arthurian myths to the US? Casting Ian bloody McShane as Merriman?), it appears they are at it again with another one.
They are about to release a movie based on "The Little White Horse" by Elizabeth Goudge.
The trailer isn't soothing my fears for this latest attempt. *sigh*
They hate all of us. 'School for Scoundrels' (Terry Thomas, Alister Sim) is one of my favourite films. Did you see what they did to that?
ReplyDeleteNo wit, no subtlety. Just shit, and plenty of it.
I adored the whole Dark is Rising sequence, (6 books iirc, although the first "Over Sea, Under Stone" is pretty weak and obviously aimed at much younger children).
ReplyDeleteI won't be taking my kids to see this travesty.
Seeing abominations like this drives home just what a good job (against all the odds!) that Peter Jackson did with his highly sympathetic remake of Lord of the Rings.
Just wait. They'll be wanting to do this to "The Weirdstone of Brisingamen" & "The Moon of Gomrath" next.
Yup, the first book ('Over Sea, Under Stone') was a frequent participant in the 'read aloud to the little 'uns..' hour at school.
ReplyDeleteBack when teachers did those things, of course. Now, I suspect there's a few who'd struggle to read it themselves...
The rest are, of course, not so kiddie-friendly. Though some seem a little dated to modern eyes, they are far, far superior to the ghastly 'Harry Potter' juvenalia.
i loved 'Weirdstone' too - would love to see that made into a film (properly, naturally). ITV didn't do too bad a job with 'The Owl Service'.
Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings adaptation was fantastic. I hope 'The Hobbit' is as well-adapted, with him at the production helm, rather than directing...
My mother read "Weirdstone" to us as a bedtime story. There's one chapter where the children are trapped underground, in pitch blackness, under unimaginable tons of rock, and that's where it ends. Then she turned the bedroom light off & went out. My God, even now the memory is still fresh.
ReplyDelete"Then she turned the bedroom light off & went out."
ReplyDeleteHeh. Nothing like setting the scene for impressionable young minds... ;)
You could always try, you know, not going to see the films, if you hate them so much.
ReplyDeleteMy pet peeve is the Disneyfication of A.A.Milne. How I would love to explain to all those little children that the ghastly slick smirking caricature shown on their rucksack is not actually Winnie-ther-Pooh but a horrible American travesty.
But I guess it would just get me arrested.
E.H.Shephard rocks!
"You could always try, you know, not going to see the films, if you hate them so much."
ReplyDeleteThere's always the triumph of hope over expectation, though...