ChapterZero

One of my favorite series is finally making it to the theater. The Dark is Rising is being made into a movie! No doubt it will be butchered beyond recognition– it took me a while into the trailer to realize that it was indeed the Dark is Rising– but I’m stoked that the culture is such that the thought turned into a reality. My hopes aren’t raised by the fact that the director is on a self-proclaimed mission to spread the Gospel (he said this about his Hollywood career in general, not necessarily this specific movie). On the other hand, a little change may be essential for translating the sequence to the screen: it’s been a long time since I read them, but I recall part of what attracted me to the books as a middle schooler was that much of the action and development was internal and cerebral: completely unlike the usual heavy-handed young adult fare. Needless to say, it would be difficult to impossible to faithfully bring this over to the screen. But, I really hope it’s not in anyway evocative of Indiana Jones crossed with Harry Potter.