All the children's classics, come to life

[moonwise]

It's not too often I get very excited about the prospect of movies coming out, but some of the movies in production have got me bouncing in my chair.

1. Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell

I was very excited to see that this movie is in production after poking around IMDB thanks fo the upcoming movie "The Prestige." On the surface, the plot of the upcoming movie "The Prestige" sounds a lot like Susanna Clarke's groundbreaking (and very very long) novel - two Victorian-era magicians in a rivalry trying to best one another. However, in Clarke's book, the magicians use magic rather than legerdemain. Wonderful metaphors to work with (the gentleman with the thistle-down hair, the unnamed slave, the raven king, and all of it dripping with Victorian intrigue and cobwebs) and in fact this book will probably benefit in the same way as Two Towers from being shortened.

2. His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass

The only problem with this trilogy being made is that it's going to break my heart at the end, the same way the books did. I'm going to cop out here and say that the summary on IMDB says it all.

3. The Dark is Rising

No word on how far along this is, or whether it's being made, but these were probably my favorite books growing up along with Robin McKinley's Damar books. There's been some inevitable grumbling on the website that the movie would start with Will Stanton's story and wouldn't cover the Drews' discovery of the grail, but to be frank, I never read "Over Sea, Under Stone" and never felt I lost anything out of the series. Oddly, the thing I'm most hoping to see is that someone like the Noble Collection will license props like Will's belt of the Signs of Light, and if they release the crystal sword Eirias, I think I will die of joy.

Can't wait, can't wait, can't wait. :D

Comments

[ghostfire]

*gasp* #3... I think I had some sort of religious experience reading that book when I was in fifth or sixth grade. I never got to read the others in the series, though.

[arafel.livejournal.com]

Pity! The rest of the books are as good or better. I'm quite sure they'd be available in the local library, because IIRC The Grey King won the Newbery Award.

[scathachdhu.livejournal.com]

The Dark is Rising?!?

I'm so excited! I still love those books...in fact, I just bought the set a few years ago because I decided my personal library was just not complete without them. I can't wait to see how this turns out.

[arafel.livejournal.com]

Wouldn't it just be so great to have that belt of Signs on your wall? I'd get so excited.

[tiggymalvern.livejournal.com]

My main worry about these is of course how badly they could get it wrong.... I've a horrible feeling that all the stuff about God and religion will somehow go missing from His Dark Materials, among all the depth that will inevitably be cut for length.

I don't think you're missing a lot by not reading Over Sea, Under Stone - it's a very different book, much more Famous Five style and clearly written for a younger readership than the sequels. It really doesn't have the layers that are there in the others.

[arafel.livejournal.com]

I'm inclined to agree with you re: His Dark Materials, because they were subversively anti-religion (i.e. as religion is presented these days.) The producers could surprise us, though; the success of the Harry Potter movies has shown Hollywood that you can kindasorta combine the "kiddy" and "adult" movie, and HP is considered "young adult" anyway. "His Dark Materials" falls into the same category, but the gay angels might cause a bit of a stir, yes.

What is "Famous Five" style? I did try to read "Over Sea, Under Stone" and got rather bored, esp. after reading the rest of the sequence first.

[tiggymalvern.livejournal.com]

Children's books by a British author, absolutely ubiquitous if you grew up there. I tend to forget that not all Americans know them!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enid_Blyton

[arafel.livejournal.com]

...Hmm. I wonder if a longstanding puzzlement is related to these books.

In short: someone funny at Planet-F1 writes the Very Sekret Diaries of Michael Schumacher. One recurring gag is Schumi's quest to become 50% funnier, and so sometimes his "diary" would end with a joke. This was one such joke:

Anyway, back to my quest at being 50% funnier

Here's a good one: Why do Elephants have big ears?
Shall I tell you why?
Because noddy wouldn't pay the ransom money.

Yes, I didn't understand it either, but Ross laughed.

(Ross Brawn is British, if you didn't know already.)

I noticed that Noddy is one of Enid Blyton's heroes, so maybe that has something to do with it?

[tiggymalvern.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Big Ears was the name of Noddy's friend in the books, so it makes sense to a Brit XD Though of course, like 'eats shoots and leaves', it's a joke that only works orally because written down you have to capitalise Big Ears to refer to the character and then it doesn't work for the elephants and....

[arafel.livejournal.com]

It looks like there's going to be three if the series takes off, since the first movie is "The Golden Compass." I do hope so!

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell is a good read, but I admit I had trouble getting through the entire thing. There comes a point about two-thirds through the book where you just have to push on to get to the good parts. Then it picks up again.