"The Dark Is Rising..."

"When the Dark comes rising, six shall turn it back;
Three from the circle, three from the track.
Wood, bronze, iron; water, fire, stone;
Five will return, and one go alone.

Iron for the birthday, bronze carried long;
Wood from the burning, stone out of song;
Fire in the candle-ring, water from the thaw;
Six Signs the circle, and the grail gone before.

Fire on the mountain, shall find the harp of gold;
Played to wake the Sleepers, oldest of the old;
Power from the green witch, lost beneath the sea;
All shall find the light at last, silver on the tree."

So, they’re making a movie out of one of my favorite books of all time: Susan Cooper’s “The Dark is Rising.” While I’m thrilled that the success of the “Harry Potter” films is getting Hollywood to look at producing some of the other great YA fantasy out there, I’m terrified that they’ll rip the guts out of this fantastic story and turn it into so much celluloid schlock just like they did with “Eragon.”

Which I watched this weekend.

And which sucked mightily.

“Stardust” and “The Golden Compass” are other examples, but they haven’t been released yet so can’t say whether or not they’ll fall into the same abyss of suckage.

I don’t know that much about the movie yet, but what I do know thus far does not give me a good feeling. First of all, they changed the title to “The Seeker.” I guess calling a movie marketed to kids “The Dark is Rising” was deemed too scary? I dunno, but how’re you going to tie in to the book’s fan base without the title? Also, Susan Cooper didn’t have anything to do with the screenplay.

Worst of all, now that I’ve looked at the imdb.com page and seen the actor they’ve picked to play Merriman…uh, no. Just…no. And they’ve got a handsome young guy playing The Walker? I can see it for the big flashback scene, but for the rest of it? They’ll need to rely heavily on good makeup effects, I guess.

Anyway, as another fantasy hero of mine once said “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”

All of which brings me to my list of fantasy/sci fi books that I wish would get made into GOOD movies. The following are in no particular order:

1. Zelazny’s “Amber” books. The casting call for Corwin alone would become legend, I think.


2. Any of the Sime/Gen books – such great potential for intense drama


3. Norton’s “WitchWorld” series – although you’d have to be careful with this one so that it didn’t come off like a bad “Conan” re-make. I mean, look at what Hollywood did to her “Beastmaster” novel. {{{Shudder}}}


4. The “Darkover” books – can’t decide which book to start with, though. I’m partial to “The Bloody Sun” but there would have to be quite a bit of exposition/intro leading up to it.


5. Melanie Rawn’s “Dragon Prince” and “Dragon Star” books – the undercurrents of political intrigue and the ability of power to corrupt have such great parallels to much that is going on in our world today.


6. For YA markets, Mercedes Lackey’s “Valdemar” books, but the whole pretty, white, talking horses thing would have to be carefully handled or it would come off pretty campy.


7. “Sorcery & Cecilia” by Patricia C. Wrede & Caroline Stevermeyer – it ties in quite nicely with the popularity of Jane Austen’s works in recent years as well as the new movie “Becoming Jane” and last year’s “Miss Potter.”


8. The first three Anita Blake novels. Yes, I know. But maybe all the money could be diverted to charity? Or at least character rehabilitation classes for Ms. Hamilton? And the first three books ARE good. Oh, and I’d vote either Jessica Alba or Eva Longoria to play Anita…provided they could pull off the sarcastic humor AND the toughness part.


9. Sharon Shinn’s “Angel” novels. They’d be an interesting poke in the eye to the current religious climate. Oh, and cute guys w/ wings…always a plus.


10. Honorable mention goes to Butcher’s “Dresden” books. They would probably have been my first choice except they’re already a TV series (which, please, oh please, let Sci-Fi decide to make a second season of). His Alera books would be great, too. They’d kind of play off that whole recent “Troy,” “300,” etc. genre.



What, you didn't think I was going to give away the end of my "Transformers" story already did you?



HAHAHAHAHA! I'm evil that way...



KJ