(no subject)

[labellementeuse]

Couple of things of interest:

- Some absolutely awful, horrible, no good, terrible news on the casting call for the Dark is Rising movie. I already saw this, one of y'all linked it, so I've had a little time to get over the crushing horror.

- Am rewatching the last seven episodes of Buffy S3, for no other reason than I kind of feel like it and my brother, who is strangely into genre TV (my good influence) is progressively acquiring more and more of Buffy on VCR - yes, useless for just about everyone in the world now, but my family has a combined DVD/VCR player that we won't be gettingrid of anytime soon, so I can play them. I'm quite enjoying it, just about to start on Earshot and then Graduation Day 1/2 - but what I really get a kick out of is seeing Wentworth Millar in the credits. I have no idea why, I just think it's hilarious. (He was one of the swim team jocks.)

I gotta say, Choices was kind of a really good episode, especially with the hot Angel/Faith macking. I'm kind of an Angel/Buffy girl, so this is a good season for me too. But the ep really kind of loses its suspense the second time though - once you know Angel's faking it, there's no crushing tension or betrayal or horror or whatever. The Prom is still just as awesome the second time through. *heartclutch* it's just kind of sad that the supposed lowest mortality rate for a graduating class probably became the highest.

And somebody, help me out: the Geek triad of Evil (or whatever they called themselves) in the fourth (or is it fifth? I have a feeling it must be fifth) season. (or wait. Fifth season was Glory. But hey surely weren't as late as sixth.) Andrew, Jonathan, and who the hell was flayed-alive guy? I can't remember and it is making me nuts. (Okay, I gave up and wiki'd: Warren, and sixth season, duh.)

- the reason I'm talking about television is I'm doing precisely nothing else right now other than working. Someone should come see The Prestige with me. Anyone?

Comments

[amarynth.livejournal.com]

Don't get me wrong, I'm not for a second saying that this is in any way going to be a good movie. But I have often found some adaptations, as you say, suffer from being too faithful, and the main aim here is to make a successful movie, not to pay homage to the books. As for what's happening here, the Americaness in itself, while it seems gratuitous, doesn't bother me overtly. Can I imagine Will as an American? Yes. He's still Will, just with an American accent. I never felt there was anything innately English about him - it could be argued that his love for the English countryside and its folklore was, well, English, but I've seen expatriots fall just as deeply for their new surroundings.

The fiddling around with his family I am less able to write off. What worries me is the implication that Merriman and Will's father are seemingly being merged into one character which will, in my opinion, make the relationship between Will and Merriman much less interesting. One of the most interesting ongoing themes of the books is the conflict between Will the boy, who looks to his father and family, and Will the Old One, who looks to Merriman and sees his family as not quite as important to him as they once were. Making it a father-son thing just seems like it's oversimplifying a hugely interesting relationship.

But actually what really worries me about this casting call is not the substance of what's said but the style of it. I'm not familiar with the sort of language casting calls are usually written in so maybe this is just industry jargon but it does seem like they're pitching it as a teen coming of age movie.

It's possible that, as a latecomer to the Dark is Rising books, I don't have the veil of nostalgia that comes from reading them in childhood, and I can totally respect those who do - I'm like that about a lot of things - but I guess not this.

[nzlemming.livejournal.com]

You say:
"Can I imagine Will as an American? Yes. He's still Will, just with an American accent. I never felt there was anything innately English about him - it could be argued that his love for the English countryside and its folklore was, well, English, but I've seen expatriots fall just as deeply for their new surroundings."

Will is bullied and/or ignored by his older brothers, and Will is gloomily convinced that he's doomed to be a bookish, gawky oddball at the bottom of the pecking order. However, he is actually an innately cool kid who has not yet grown into his coolness</>

That's not just "Will with an American accent" - that's a whole different kid.

I didn't read them as a child (I don't think they had been written then) but as an adult. It is a quintessentially British story, tieing together a number of strands of British mythologies and especially, Arthurian legend.

An American actor might</> be able to play English!Will, but making the characters American (and as they are written in the posting) changes the nature of the story. That's not good adaptation - that's "I'm too lazy to write my own fantasy, so I'll use someone else's ideas and rewrite it to suit my own desires."

Bah! I say. A pox on their houses!

[amarynth.livejournal.com]

Making Will an American and changing his family situation are two different things entirely. I'm not opposed to the first, and not opposed to the second on principle, but the way the second has been changed gets my goat. Still, I fail to see how changing the nationality of a character changes the 'nature of the story'. If I had to describe the Dark is Rising in four sentences, or even a paragraph, or even an essay, I could do it quite easily without using the word 'English' once.

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

and the main aim here is to make a successful movie, not to pay homage to the books.

I disagree. I mean, on the one hand, all the people who are doing this probably are just out to make money. But IMO adapting books should be both successful movies and respectful of, if not faithful to, the books.

I agree with what you said about Merriman and the tone of the casting call, but the more I think about this the worse I feel so I'm just gonna skip being thorough. :-/