Cinematical

The Dark is Rising towards a big release on October 5, and after releasing some pictures back in May, a trailer for the film has finally come out. While I can't comment on how well the novel world has translated to the movies, it looks to be the standard kid-hero fantasy fare with a great supporting cast, funky effects and lots of adventure. There's Ian McShane leading the pack as Merriman Lyon, Frances Conroy (almost looking like Maggie Smith's* McGonagall in disguise) as Miss Greythorne and Christopher Eccleston pulling off a creepy Rider. This trailer also has one of the best uses of those cheesy, bigger-than-life voice-overs. While it's groan-worthy at first, they've used it to only illustrate Will's adolescent innocence. Wait it out because when Will discovers his powers, the voice disappears and the creepy music begins.

For those that aren't familiar with the series of books, The Dark is Rising is a series from the 60's and 70's that deals with the struggle between the good (The Light), and the bad (The Dark). Will Stanton (Alexander Ludwig) is a young kid who finds out on his eleventh birthday that he has special powers and must stop the Dark, while collecting the Signs of the Light. According to Wikipedia, there are some big diversions from the books -- Will is a 14-year-old American in the movie, and apparently they give one of his brothers a bit of a twist (look here to see what that is, if you're not worried about possible spoilers).

*Thanks to roadkillbuddha for catching that Maggie Grace is not the same as Maggie Smith, even if my fingers always want to believe otherwise. MB