john hodge Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Late last week, Fox Walden, the new family-oriented off-shoot of 20th Century Fox, sent me over this batch of pics from The Dark is Rising, which is currently filming in Romania. Based on the Arthurian-style fantasy book series by Susan Cooper, the story follows the adventures of a boy who learns that he is the last of a group of immortals who must confront forces of evil and become a great warrior. This first film adaptation is being directed by David Cunningham and prepped for a fall 2007 release, and will presumably be the start of an entire series if things go well at the box office. Fox's answer to the Narnia franchise, or something like that. The Dark is Rising is actually the title of the second book in the series. Before it comes Over Sea, Under Stone and after it comes Greenwitch, The Grey King and Silver on the Tree, so they certainly won't run out of stories to tell anytime in the next decade.

Like most people, I first fell in love with Danny Boyle's work after watching what he did with Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting. Needless to say, I'll never look at going to the bathroom the same way again. It's been ten years since the movie Trainspotting hit the scene and transformed Danny Boyle into the kind of director you keep an eye on -- the kind fully capable of sneaking up on you with a masterpiece, as he did with 28 Days Later and Millions. (As I've said before, The Beach would've been a whole lot better had they not cast Leo DiCaprio straight off the Titanic, and let Boyle follow Garland's book a bit more closely.)

What some folks do not know is that Welsh wrote a sequel to Trainspotting, called Porno. And, when IGN recently sat down with Boyle, they asked him whether he was interested in re-visiting Renton, Spud, Sick Boy and Begbie for another round of insanity. The good news is that Boyle and his gang have been given the rights to the sequel, and John Hodge (who penned the Trainspotting adaptation) has already turned in a very early script. Unfortunately, Boyle's angle depends on the actors aging a bit more. He says, "They need to have a bit of age. Our take on it is, their headiness -- these guys who lived at the absolute brink, felt they were invincible and felt they could abuse themselves to the absolute limit - suddenly hit middle age. They're in their forties and they look it -- but they don't really look it, those actors."

Boyle goes on to say that they will re-visit the project once the original actors "get a bit older." Since Ewan McGregor is only 37, I hope they don't wait until the guy hits, say, 45 or so -- I'm not sure I could hold out for another eight years when all they really have to do is throw some make-up on these guys. Heck, if Boyle can make it look like a bunch of astronauts are heading toward the sun, I'm sure he can convincingly age a group of actors by five years, right?

A cast is falling into place for the project that will bring Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising series of fantasy books to the big screen. Deadwood's lovable Al Swearengen (Ian McShane) will star, along with Frances Conroy and Alexander Ludwig. First published in the 60s and 70s, the series chronicles a struggle between two opposing forces, known simply as The Light and The Dark. The main character is a boy who learns that he is endowed with special powers that will allow him to do battle against The Dark and must accept training from an old mentor. (Did George Lucas pay someone royalties for this?)

McShane will star as Merriman Lyon, one of the 'Old Ones' who serves as the kid's mentor. The film will be one of the first to be handled under a new joint-venture between 20th Century Fox and Walden Media, and the team bringing it to the big screen includes director David Cunningham, previously known for helming the Path to 9/11 for television, screenwriter John Hodge, who wrote Trainspotting and A Life Less Ordinary (my favorite movie) and producer Marc Platt, whose credits include Legally Blonde, Legally Blonde 2, and the upcoming Untitled Kirsten Dunst Project.