The Little White Horse/The Moon Princess/The Secret of Moonacre (man, that's a lot of title changes!) is one of the books J.K. Rowling credits as a childhood favorite. I should check it out.
Posts: 6689 | Registered: Jan 2005
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From what I heard this morning on NPR, The Dark is Rising went from TDIR, to The Seeker: The Dark is Rising, and now it's just The Seeker. Came with an interesting interview with Susan Cooper. I'm in the middle of Over Sea Under Stone at the moment and I find them fairly enjoyable, if not a bit too much like Chronicles of Narnia so far.
I wonder if all this ripping off and ridiculous extremes in plot raping will poison the well of fantasy movies. They are adapting ideas that have a BUILT IN AUDIENCE, many of which will NEVER make it big anyway, and for what?
It might make them better movies, but it doesn't make them better stories. Though I have to admit, I like the cast for this one.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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Keeping in mind this is just something I remember off the top of my head:
Much of the discussion was based around the Dark is Rising, when she wrote it, how she felt about it, and then about the movie. She hasn't seen the movie, but she did read the screenplay for it. She wrote the director and asked him to make several changes but has no idea if they were made or not. She also said she understands that turning a book into a movie isn't as simple as it sounds, it's a different animal. She wrote her own screenplay version of the book that her daughter said was good, but she never had the confidence in it. She said several studios have come to her over the years with ideas to make it into a movie but nothing ever clicked.
Then they went into a bit of detail about the changes made. First off, the character is made an American who lives in England, instead of an English boy in England, and they upped his age from 11 to 13. Cooper said she specifically made him 11 because it's a time when you're trying to figure out who you are, not who you are sexually, and of course, the filmmakers have added some sort of romantic element that Cooper speficically never wanted in the movie to begin with. She said some more things about the movie to book changeover that I can't remember.
They also discussed the director a bit, who never wanted to make the movie at all, and apparently dislikes fantasy movies greatly. He specifically changed the plot around to not make the boy a kid who finds he has magical powers because he wanted to avoid all comparisons to Harry Potter.
Then she closed by saying she thinks she has one really good story left in her, and hopes to write it, but it hasn't come to her yet. So she sits out on the marshlands in I think Deleware waiting for it to happen.
That's all I remember. Though I should add that her tone of voice was forlorn. She sounded like a child had gone off to war and she hadn't heard from him, having no idea whether he was in danger or not, but fearful all the same.
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That's so sad, and I say that with all possible feeling. It sounds like she doesn't even want to be associated with it anymore, which is like having something of yours mutilated beyond recognition. If I end up being a screenwriter/filmmaker, I will write The Dark is Rising into a screenplay and get it done properly, gosh darn it.
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Huh. I've seen the commercials for the Seeker, but it didn't register that it might be the Dark is Rising movie.
I definitely won't be seeing it, then. Too bad about all the changes. It's one of my favorite young adult novels.
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Good to know; I probably won't bother listening to the piece when I get home, in that case. Or maybe I will; I'm curious to know what Cooper's voice sounds like.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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Hey, Lyr. Yeah, I'm certain The Seeker will suck. I'll also note that many fans of The Dark is Rising Sequence agree with Cooper herself that Over Sea, Under Stone is the weakest book in the series.
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Yeah, she has a very dim view of her earliest attempt at writing child characters. That's why when Jane and her brothers turn up again a couple of books later, she takes pains to revamp and expand them. Posts: 6689 | Registered: Jan 2005
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Don't worry, I'll get through them all, I won't stop because of one weak book. I mean hey, most of us made it past The Magician's Nephew to LWW right?
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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I *ahem* loved The Magician's Nephew. Which, it should be noted, was originally book 6 in the series before HarperCollins reshuffled the Chronicles. Posts: 6689 | Registered: Jan 2005
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