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Thank you!! This looks AMAZING! You have introduced me to much, and I thank you for your wonderful blog!

OH, man. I want to see this, but I've heard varying reviews of "Oh, NOES! It's hideous!" vs. "It's okay." Sooo. I'm tempted. I feel better about it since it has people talking about the books there.

Go, guys!

The thing to remember is Chris Columbus is NOT a BRILLIANT director. Some of the dialog is fairly stolid. BUT it is enjoyable! Also, any time, even fleeting, that Sean Bean is on screen is a happy clappy moment for me and Pierce Brosnan, even with a horse's rear-end is AOK.

Oh I really want to see the movie The Lovely Bones!!^^

Vale from www.berlin49.de

In the world of "Harry Potter" fanfiction, I've actually run across stories that are better than the books. And then there are ones so bad, readers are convinced it has to be satire.

I've written some fanfiction myself and the practice has improved my writing skills considerably. What's more, I know three ladies who are now working on writing their own original fiction books after having played with fanfictioin for a long time.

And most of the major general fic archives don't let you post stories in a universe where the original author has decried fanfiction.

When you post fanfiction, you have to pick the category for your story (Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, etc). When an author has asked fans not to write fanfic with their characters, there's no option to select those universes. And I know fanfiction.net has a list on that page of authors who DON'T like fanfics.

Anne McCafferey has switched positions. She now allows fanfics to be written about her books. She was against it for a long time.

-Entling no. 2

the flavors sound wonderful! I'd certainly buy them (and I don't usually buy ice cream!) what a fun thing, thanks for posting!

Except the kids who have been cast are mostly all wrong. The actress playing Annabeth is TWENTY-TWO.

I really, really, really have my hopes up with this one. I truly hope they don't let me down!

Great casting! Thanks also for the Jimmy Fallon/Susan Boyle video--still laughing!

I LOVE these books (I just finished The Battle of the Labyrinth yesterday) and I can't wait for the movie. I do hope they choose some unknown actors for Percy, Annabeth, and Grover though.

Ooooh. What a ROOM.

...do you think this will be distributed outside of Toronto? Hope so! It will give me time to read the books...

I love all Elizabeth Goudge's books too - both for children and foe adults - my husband loved the Arthur trilogy as well - I too can't wait to see the film... But I'll have to read the book to my two first!

Thanks, Camille! I wonder when it will be released. Parts of the trailer work for me and I reserve judgement on the rest. Agree that the bedroom is spot on!

I'm such a fan of Elizabeth Goudge, though I admit I prefer her books where children are important, even if they're not the main characters. I hope that this movie will prompt interest in reissuing some of her other books, like the Elliots of Damrosay trilogy as well as the one that features Henrietta.

I'm another fan. it's a beautful room--but I have Walter Hodges illustrations so firmly in mind that I can't quite embrace it.

I'm another Goudge fan--the trailer looked good, but I still have doubts...

I'm here via Fuse #8 and had to comment to say thank you for the trailer link! I had no idea they were making a Little White Horse movie. It was one of my childhood favorites -- especially the descriptions of Maria's room (sugar biscuits and star-spangled canopies!). I am so happy they seem to have captured it!

Another fan popping out of the woodwork! I'm afraid the trailer doesn't do much for me, it doesn't seem to have the right feeling about it. But the book was a very gentle fantasy and adventure so it's probably a hard call to make that a good movie.

However, I disliked the trailer for Bridge to Terabithia and loved the movie, so there's still hope!

Deva--I remember all the wonderful descriptions of food in the story.

Emmaco--"very gentle fantasy" is a perfect description of the book.

Charlotte--I need to go find my old copy and see who did the pen&ink illustrations in my edition. It was an UK edition. I wonder if they were by Hodges?

I don't know -- I tried reading past the first one, and couldn't. It maybe would translate better into a movie? (That's saying a lot, coming from me, Hater of YA Books Into Film.)

I actually thought the second book was better than the first one. It had a nice cliff hanger ending. Some of "my" boys were annoyed with the ending of the last one though. I haven't read it yet so I don't know what they are talking about. I think one of them told me that he felt like he was being "strung along."

I like the books, and I think Ranger's Apprentice would be good as a movie as long as they stick to the books.

Very cool, Camille. I loved reading the Entlings' reactions.

Very interesting. I'm a little worried about about it, though; I haven't seen much about it, but the little I've seen makes me wonder how true to the book it'll be. And the abundance of light bulbs in these pictures seems to bear that out. I sure hope I'm wrong, though. I did love the book.

I loved the book too.

The early publicity of the film dismayed me though because it gave away the premise of the story from the very beginning. The whole mystery of the city and where it was is part of the charm of the story for me. To give it away from the onset is a shame. I do think Murray could be hilarious as the corrupt mayor.

I agree. It's one of those books that the unfolding of the mystery is part of the pleasure. And I also agree that Murray could be great as the Mayor.

I keep telling myself that it's a good thing that so many YA books are being made into movies. I am really looking for to The Lightning Thief, as well as I'd Tell You I'd Love You, but Then I'd Have to Kill You. Like anything, some will be good, and some will be bad. Bill McMurray will be interesting, at the least!

Have I mentioned how cool that looks?!!! I can't wait to see this!

It looks like a good movie from the trailer (I still have to read the books, btw - my older daughter read them all, but the younger one & I haven't read them yet). Helen Mirren looks awesome once her hair's down!

Hello! I'm so glad I stumbled upon you today!!! I didn't know this was coming out. I'm going to be doing a re-read of it again soon. I can't wait to see this!

Sorry guess I had better introduce myself. My name is Jen or LadyTink and I hope you don't mind if I come back again soon!

Kelly and LadyTink,
I have only read Inkheart. i need to read Inkspell. The trailer gives me hope for the movie. I do think Helen Mirren looks like Gandalf in LOTR, charging forward on his horse. She is even holding a staff!

Oh, thank you for posting that!! It looks amazing!!

I haven't read Inkspell either that's why I was going to re-read Inkheart.

I talked to Cornelia Funke a few years ago in an online author chat. She was answering questions with Holly Black. She was very nice but I didn't know her work at the time (I was there for Black).

Ooh! It looks so good!

Marianne Jean-Baptiste is great as Vivian on Without a Trace. I've heard a few interviews with her, and I love her natural accent. (On WoaT, she plays a New Yorker.)

Martin Landau! Martin Landau! MARTIN LANDAU!

(Who was also on WoaT, actually, but my exclamations come more from the fact that he's MARTIN LANDAU! and was in one of my all-time favorite movies. Guess what!)

Bill Murray should be interesting in that role.

In the bonus materials, Jackson & his wife explain some of their changes. I don't agree with all of them -- particular changes to Theoden and Faramir. First, they had Theoden ACTUALLY enchanted, which was a bit more hokey than I'd have liked. And then, they had him running away, not nobly protecting his people (switch in motivation for going to Helm's Deep). Gar. And the bit with Faramir considering turning Frodo & Sam over to his father? Wrong. Just wrong. But the Jacksons wanted to make him more conflicted and less clear-purposed than in the books (and succeeded).

But it's INEXCUSABLE that the screenwriter for The Dark is Rising Didn't read at least 3 more books (arguably, he could skip Over Sea Under Stone if all those (reasonable-length) books were simply to much for him to read. And then he'd have known that Will can't have a twin. And that all that Arthurian stuff was the POINT. Idiots.

Yes, it's hard to believe that a screenwriter wouldn't read the other books in the series, especially since all the books are so closely tied in terms of the story elements. I always thought that Over Sea, Under Stone stands pretty well alone, but the other books are tied pretty closely together. Not taking the time to find out that larger story before writing the screenplay is, in my opinion, careless and irresponsible.

Regarding Lord of the Rings, I'm actually fairly happy with the film adaptation. I was worried, because that's another one of my favorite series of all times, but I thought that Peter Jackson did a good job of staying true to the spirit of the books. A few of the changes annoyed me: I hated that it took so long for Faramir to release them. I thought it changed the whole meaning of that part of the story. But overall, I thought that most of the changes made the movie stronger. I don't think that a literal adaptation of a book always works well. I think that's one of the reasons that the Harry Potter movies haven't been very good. Especially with the early movies, they tried too hard to be too faithful to the books, and it didn't always make a good movie.

So in general, I think that some changes are necessary and desirable when adapting a book to the screen. But you have to stay true to the spirit of the book, which is what Peter Jackson did but which it doesn't seem like Walden Media has done with The Dark is Rising.

I couldn't agree with both of you more. Yes, the Theoden and Faramir changes are still grimaced at here. But you are right, Jackson et al. explained why they made the changes and had their reasons for doing so.

I was always tickled by their regret and apologies to the fans for not including Tom Bombadil.

It is unbelievable that the DiR screenwriter has no idea where the story is headed. It is like someone made a movie about a lovely trip on a luxury trans Atlantic ship called the Titanic and stopped the movie after the first night out.
"Oh, did something else happen?"

As TadMack says, "It is so good to be among MY people!"

As TadMack says, "It is so good to be among MY people!"

LOL on your Titanic analogy.

I was sad to lose Tom Bombadil, but I understand why he had to be cut out of the movie.

I know it's near heresy to admit here, but LOTR was a book series I never could really get into; but I absolutely adored the movies.

amy: I never read them until I was in graduate school and (Michele bonks me on the forehead from across the Atlantic when I admit this) and the first time I read LOTR, ... I skipped the songs and the poems. [shrieks of horror]

Admitting this continues to cause my family to hang their heads in shame.

I loved the movies so much. Those actors have become the characters in my head now I think.

Wow, so that's the person in charge of adapting the Cooper series? I can't respect the creative chops of someone who couldn't manage to read four tiny children's books.

I read your other post on this and was horrified to read that they've dropped the Arthurian theme. I honestly can't see what the heck this story could be about, besides involving randomly special kids getting into trouble.

*reaches arm across the Ocean for the obligatory bonk on Camille's forehead* :-D

Yep, the screenwriter of DiR is an idiot (and that's me being *very* polite) and deserves to be bonked somewhere far more painful than the forehead for such stupidity.

I'm in no way a fan of Arthurian stories, BUT they fit beautifully into this series, of which I AM a fan, so really, what a wally !

Camille, the interview excerpt is quite revealing. Now you got me worried. I saw the trailer a couple of days ago and I don't think Ian McShane fits the description of Merlion. But I may be nitpicking, since McShane is a good actor. (And what a coincidence, eh?-- another Ian performing a wizardly role).

I just stumbled into your blog, courtesy of a friend who's been reading it. I like your blog a lot! :)

ben: I just saw the trailer tonight too. The wholesale abandonment of the Arthurian legend which is at the heart of the series makes me wonder what were they thinking? If Walden was searching for another franchise with the possibility of sequels, they have just painted themselves into a corner. It is distressing for those of us who love the series. I documented my family's distress about the changes here

.
Thanks so much for dialing Book Moot up!

imani:
Wow, you nailed it. He couldn't "manage to read four tiny children's books."

I really think you nail it when you talk about love. When the screenplay is lovingly written by someone who loves the source material, he or she can be forgiven the necessary changes, additions, or omissions that come with the new medium.

What do you and other commenters think of the film version of Holes, a movie I love nearly as much as the novel?

I really liked 'Holes.' I thought they did a good job of translating it to the screen. It helped, no doubt, that the author, Louis Sachar also did the screenplay! Have you read the sequel, 'Small Steps?' I need to read it.

Radagast the Brown was another wizard. I remember him from LOTR, but according to handy dandy Wikipedia, he was "mentioned" in The Hobbit.

Bonus points to Entling 2 for knowledge of such minutiae.

Radagast the Brown was the nature-loving wizard who sent Gandalf to Saruman who then trapped him on the top of Orthanc. But Radagast was just a messenger, he had no involvement with Saruman's fiendish plot, so he complied with Gandalf's request to have news sent to him of what Sauron was up to, which enabled Gandalf to escape from Orthanc when the eagle arrived...

I'm not going anywhere near the DiR movie - I've heard more than enough about it to know it'll make me howl with outrage to watch it...

You sent me that post like 3 hours ago, and I'm still thinking of ways that dopey director is going to mess it up. Crickey!! - Entling No. 1.

WORD! Or, if you prefer, "what SHE said."

I was so distressed by all the news coming from The Dark is Rising movie and its minions that I threw up a little in my mouth.

THAT right THERE, is the reason I loathe, and despise movie versions of films. I'm so angry reading these changes I can't see straight. The books are all very fresh in my mind as I read them all for the first time this year, as a 40 year old. It makes me sick to my stomach. Sigh.

I am SO with Entling No. 1. It makes me want to cry, too.

Oh I'm glad I read this, I will file it under movies I'm never going to watch, because I loved those books!

Now I'm scared--I didn't even know this was going to BE a movie, an it sure sounds like they're going to ruin it (shudder).

Oh, but of course Will has to be American . . . all the British child actors are tied up with Harry Potter.... (grin)

We've been deep in denial in this house - fingers in ears and humming 'La la la' all the time - since reading about the butchering job being done for this film. But I managed to come out of it long enough to read your daughter's thoughts, and am glad I did. Clearly her brain has been turned too, to great effect! Only thing I'd love her to have added is why she thought setting it in the US wasn't a big deal (or wouldn't have been if not for the Arthurian element removal).

I read that post you linked to, and I think I threw up a little in my mouth.

What is really the point of making a Dark Is Rising movie if it has so little resemblence to everything that make those books wonderful? If you're going to make Will 13 and American and disliking his family - and with a twin! - if you're going to take out the Arthurian bits - if you're going to twist and change it so much that it's practically a different story altogether - why not make a new story and call it something original and different?

I am a big believer in sitting out movies till the end, no matter how bad they are, but if Will really does have a secret twin, I will almost certainly walk out of the theatre right then and there.

kidlitjunkie: Our family is a stay-until-the-last-credit-line rolls family too. Directors are rewarding us with little treats at the end for our trouble which is gratifying.

lady s.: I can't speak for Entling no. 1, perhaps she will weigh in here, but I interpreted her comment as: ok, whatever, Will is an American but his family has moved to England. Maybe she was thinking if that was the ONLY change they were going to make in the story (since apparently screenwriters don't think Americans will tolerate a British hero--ever hear of Harry Potter chum?) that would have been one of those moments to sigh heavily but move on.
There was a whole other spate of furious emails from her about them filming in Romania. She was bemoaning the loss of the English countryside and villages and Windsor Forest.

Oh yes, that makes sense - and if it had been the only change, and they'd still managed to keep the British mythology in which the books are so steeped, then a heavy sigh would have taken care of it. Quite agree about the idiocy of film companies ignoring the HP success in assuming all the kids have to be American! But then, this whole thing is so full of idiocy from start to finish that that one hardly surprises.

(Sigh)
It's so good to be among my people, the ones who HATE BOOKS MADE INTO MOVIES BECAUSE ACTORS APPARENTLY CAN'T READ ANYTHING THAT IS BOUND INTO BOOK FORM, AND DIRECTORS CAN'T EITHER.

This completely ruins the series, and all the deeply spooky bits are taken out with stupidity like love interests and teen angst and the like. My biggest bewildered "Eh?" is cutting the Arthurian connection. I am ... I don't know where else they can go with this, I truly don't.

And I so love how articulate Entling No. 1 is when infuriated... all I could screech was NO! No, no NOOOO! for quite some time.

Yes, removing the Arthurian connection has me deeply bewildered, as well. I mean, it's one of the underpinnings of the whole series!

Joining in the bafflement here... Sometimes, you just want to go and kick a Director in the rear for being such an utter MORON !

Honestly, the movement to present-day and the lack of the arthurian themes is going to kill the movie. Why is Will all of a sudden a generic teenager? What is with the tacky love interest?

Worse, why is everybody suddenly American? And worse still, the best actor of the lot gets to be the villain. Bah. Cliche, uninteresting, and a waste of a great actor.

We're faced with a cinematic flop that will destroy the reputation of any of the actors/actresses, as well as screw over any hope for a sequel.

Not that anybody would hope for a sequel to this rubbish.

I was so excited when I heard they were making a movie - after all I had been waiting for 23 years! Better than JK better than His Dark Materials - now just ruined - it's tantamount to blasphemy.

Amen, brothers and sisters!

Saw poster in cinema, haveing just seem Transformers (which was cheesetastic) with son, though 'naa it can't be' horse is the wrong colour, came home, did search, found site with short trailer...I feel violated! These books are my favorate and my sons, Will NOT be going to see this travisty of cinimatogrophy, the whole cast, crew and financiers should be throughly ashamed of themselves.

Just joining my voice to the rest of you. I've loved these books for over a decade. I have a quartered circle hanging up on my wall. I chose the screenname of Pendragon because of her stories. I'm so annoyed at this sham of a movie.

Had to add my ranting. I agree with everything everyone else has said. The only hope I have is that this travesty will quickly fade from memory, enough that some enterprising independent film company will revisit it in 15 years or so and actually make a movie that begins to compare to the books. This reminds me horrendously of Ella Enchanted and its accompanying horrible movie. I know Ella isn't "high" fantasy in the truest sense, but the book was still ripped apart in the movie, all because the stupid writers couldn't create an original movie, and warped some poor, unsuspecting, upstanding book author's work.

Let's face it....This movie is NOT an attempt at a faithful adaptation of "TDIR" like "Lord Of The Rings" or "Lion, Witch, Wardrode"!!! It is one very loosely based upon that novel. So if you see it, DO NOT expect any resemblence at all. Unfortunately, this means the odds of actually ever making a movie based upon the book for real are now severely diminished. I, too, upon hearing the name "Will Stanton" in the theater before the Harry Potter movie could not believe my ears. Then, sadly, I couldn't believe my eyes, as the trailer proved to be a sham of a mockery of anything decent. Had NOONE involved read the book at all? There was a South Park episode where a commentator follows Stan around and turns his life into a stupid movie trailer. This "The Seeker" trailer was just like that episode, only pathetically it was real. "Will Stanton thought he was an ordinary boy. But he's gonnna find, being the Seeker, isn't what he thought!" DUUUUUUUUHH. But nothing will every sully my memories and love for that series, no matter what dung is flung onto the screen.

Have just seen the trailer for "The Seeker"- and was halfway through it before I realised what it was supposed to be! What a tragedy. My son was named Will after this series, but he won't be going to see this film. BBC Sunday Teatime series would have been preferable to this nonsense.

Cooper's epic fantasy has traditionally been grouped with The Lord of the Rings and Narnia as an examble of great British fantasy. While it never attained the popularity of these serries, its poetic prose and haunting pre-Christian imagery weave a tale of terror and beauty. Cooper also relies on lesser-known myths, like the tale of Hern the Hunter to add an exotic flair to the familiar mythology of the English countryside.
These books certainly have faults - the plots are sometimes dense and confusing, and some of Cooper's characters, especially Will and his family, are too wholesome and flat to be believable. Cooper tries to correct these mistakes in later volumes, but they are certainly present in her second book, The Dark is Rising. As for most of the characters that ally with the Dark, no effort is made at any point to flesh them out beyond a cartoonish image of a debonair villain.
However, none of these faults justify the most glaring changes that were made to the script. By making Will an American, Hodge denies the deeply English soul of the stories. In her most poetic passages, Cooper is writing a paen to English myth and magic. By relying on cliches like missing twins, Hodge denies the otherwordly quality that Cooper invokes by using lesser-known myths like the tale of Hern the Hunter. Not to mention that making Will a whinny, self-centered teenager, Hodge denies the painful loss of innocensce that makes the tale poignant despite it's somewhat flat character development.
Some of the changes were needed - its unlikely such a small studio will make sequals - where are the promised Narnia sequals? - so its acceptable to remove the some of the Arthurian plotline - the plot needed to be prunned considerably to fit into a theatre-friendly format. However the changes went too far to preserve the aspects of The Dark is Rising that made it a fantasy classic.

Wow that was long! But these were my favorite books when I was growing up!

Well said, scott, vertisflame and cecilia. We could not be in more agreement about the given need for changes when a book is translated to the big screen. The Potter films have had their high and low points as did the Narnia movie, all succeeding in some ways and falling short in others.

In this case, I think the casual, disrespectful and callous handling of Cooper's book(s) is what is causing the outcry and dismay.

In the case of the Potter films, Narnia and most splendidly, the Lord of the Rings, the directors/producers all addressed the "book to film" issue with comments or at least a nod to the origins of the stories they are telling and expressed a hope that they could bring the author's, Rowling/Lewis/Tolkien, visions to life on the screen.

Rowling had terms and conditions about the movie rights to HP so none of the HP directors said, "well, Rowling's story is so...British. We have improved it and made Harry an American and he attends Hogwarts High School in Santa Barbara, California where he and his pals suffer in Chemistry class with a mean and cranky teacher, Mr. Snape. Hijinks ensue including a fruit cart scene!"

The interviews with The Seeker/DiR people all seem to be saying, Cooper's book was an ok springboard for their own reinvention and improvements. "We will make up our own story." There does not seem to be even an echo of interest in the elements of the story as cecilia so eloquently described them and that is what has upset the folks who love these books.

I do not think the Walden/Fox people ever understood why the books have such a following. They have stepped in it and are now stymied to find the "fans" they were counting on to support the movie in an uproar.

What really irks me about this is that Waldem Media markets their movies to librarians (like myself) as true to the original books. I was so excited about this movie and now I want to go picket Susan Cooper's house.

Poor Susan Cooper sold the rights to the book to the Jim Henson folks years ago (if I am remembering correctly) and then years later, they got picked up by Walden et al. Authors must have to emotionally distance themselves from the movies since they usually have no control over what happens but it must be irksome and disappointing to see the way the book is being handled.

Am 62 y.o. and have read the "Dark is Rising" sequence about 20 times since I first discovered it many years past. As much as I love H.P. I so often commented "if only someone would make TDiR as a series of films". Well, I certainly take that back!! Having seen the trailer I am totally horrified. They have cut the heart and soul from the story and trivialized it into not much of anything. How sad....

anonymouse, You have expressed the fans feelins perfectly.

ARGGGH!

Now that's out of the way, I feel a bit better. The costumes look good. The movie looks okay, as a work of fiction, but it's pretending that it's not fiction. ARGGGH!!

Sorry -- my WIP is a biography of Jane Austen in period verse, and I've been researching her for months now. And the story the movie purports to tell isn't true, really -- it's complete speculation.

But the clothing looks lovely, I'll give you that!

Kelly, I share your "argh" but YAY! I look forward to reading your book!! Period verse!! Wow!