susan cooper Tagged Articles at Cinematical

If I were going to pitch Susan Cooper's kid-lit fantasy series, The Dark is Rising, to a room full of studio execs, I'd proceed as follows: "Listen, guys. I'm not gonna lie. This is gonna be a real challenge. These books are not only noticeably dated from a sci-fi/fantasy fan's perspective, but also remarkably insular and plotty, and not even the good kind of plotty. They aren't 'every chapter is a new adventure' plotty, but more like a catalog of meaningless busywork-tasks the hero has to perform. The books remind me of a third-rate Atari 2600 game, in which the hero has some Arthurian pedigree that's spelled out in the booklet, but on-screen he's just a bland avatar who has to collect six out of nine sacred talismans and place them in the right spots on the map, in order to thwart the 'forces of darkness.' That's all this series amounts to, but I wouldn't be pitching this to you if I didn't see some ways we can get around that stuff. So allow me to proceed.

We're going to adapt the second book in the series, for two reasons: first, because it's called The Dark is Rising, which will make a cool title, but also because it contains an intriguing substrata. The main character, Will Stanton, is a 14 year-old wizard who is struggling with puberty just as he's discovering his wizarding ways. The bad guys know this, so they send a witch to tempt him, in the form of a hot, older girl. In the book, this is hardly more than a footnote and most of the plot is given over to the young wizard learning his craft from an old wizard, but that's just bo-ring. We're going to downsize that angle considerably and make the witch subplot the A-story. I'm envisioning a tragic first-love saga between this kid who doesn't know any better, and this more experienced girl who is allied with the forces of evil, but isn't totally evil to the core. There's a sort of Anakin Skywalker quality to her, which a good script will heighten. With me so far? Good.

You never know quite what you're going to get with Ian McShane, interview-wise. Sometimes he's playfully grumpy, as he was with some journalists who visited the set of The Seeker: The Dark is Rising earlier this year. "What made you want to do this film?" they asked. "The check," he replied. Other times, he's relaxed and jovial, as he was back in 2006 when I sat in on his roundtables for Woody Allen's Scoop. He always comes across as a straight-shooter, and I don't think it would be tough to get him to go off-message, but mostly he just wants to be in and out of press situations with little fuss, it seems. That was the case when he agreed to speak with Cinematical late last week about his role as Merriman Lyon in Seeker. When the time came for our appointment, I got a call from McShane's handler, telling me the big guy had decided to put off our call in favor of a quick lunch, so when he finally called a half-hour later, it seemed like the place to start.

Cinematical: So, how was lunch? What'd you have?

IM: Ha! I don't know what it was. I ordered some artichoke and it came up ... it's very good if you put it across pasta ... and buffalo wings, which were so hot I must have put a pound of vinegar on them, God knows what. Anyway! Enough of lunch. I'm fine. I've just had some melon and I'm having a coffee and I'm talking to you. How are you?

Cinematical: I'm good, thanks. So it's all press for you today, then?

IM: Yeah, I've done the junket. So far, we've done all the TV stuff. Now I'm doing the online, and some telephone stuff, and I'll be through by about five.

Cinematical: I have to start by asking you about the status of the Deadwood movies. I wish I could think of a fresh way to ask, but there it is. Has that ship sailed?

IM: You might be onto a thing there. I just got a call on Friday from ... a dear friend of mine, who told me that they're packing up the ranch. They're dismantling the ranch and taking the stuff out. That ship is gonna sail. I think with the uncertainty of the future, because of this possible strike next year, the writers and the actors, there was no chance of doing it before next May or June anyway, because I'm committed to other things. So I think it's ... Bonsoir, Deadwood.

One of the most highly anticipated films of the fall is Fox Walden's adaptation of The Dark is Rising, the popular young adult fantasy adventure first published in 1973. The second installment in a five-book series by author Susan Cooper, the book follows a young hero named Will Stanton, who wakes up on his 11th birthday to find that he has traveled many years back in time. This is his introduction to an ancient, ongoing war between the forces of The Light and The Dark -- a war in which he's been fated by birth to be a central figure. The story is drenched in Old English/Arthurian influences -- there are Grail cups, talismans and magical swords galore -- and there's more than enough action to make for a rousing, special-effects heavy big-screen adventure, which seems to be what we're in store for.

One of the more memorable characters introduced in the book is Maggie Barnes, a seemingly sweet young farmgirl who the heroes quickly discover is actually something quite different. Playing Maggie in the movie version is Amelia Warner, an up and coming 25-year old British actress who you may remember as Una Flux in the 2005 Charlize Theron movie Aeon Flux. The early word on The Dark is Rising is that Amelia's performance is going to be one of the major selling points, although exactly how much her character has been altered from page to screen is being kept top secret. The picture you see above, which was released to Cinematical two days ago, is one of the very first of her character. I recently called up Amelia in Los Angeles to talk to her about the project, who she thinks will enjoy it, and where she goes from here in her career.

Have you seen a cut of the movie yet? And what's your sense of the overall vibe, in terms of how it's been put together? Sort of a Lord of the Rings? Harry Potter?

AW: I haven't seen it. We only finished about two weeks ago, and yeah, I guess you could kind of make comparisons to stuff like Lord of the Rings and stuff like The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, because it has those fantasy elements to it, and it's an adventure and there's quite a lot of action. It's kind of following a boy who discovers that he has what's almost like a quest that he has to complete. It's about him and him being tested along the way. All of those kinds of films or books, there's always that kind of struggle between good and bad and the light and the dark. Good and evil. This film is definitely ... that's what it's about. It's been going on for ages and ages and across time. There's been this struggle between good and bad. When the film starts, the dark is rising and Will Stanton, who is the chosen boy, can help the light fight them.

I read the books a long, long time ago, and I remember your character, Maggie Barnes being something of a minor character -- are they taking the female role and beefing it up?

AW: I don't know, I haven't read the books! I started to read the book and to be honest, the script is so different -- there's been a lot of changes -- that I almost found it confusing. I'm going to read it after I finish. I haven't done it yet, but I'm planning on doing it.

Well, in the book she's something other than a traditional romantic interest -- what can you tell me about how she's portrayed?

AW: I'm not really allowed to say very much about her -- she's kind of like a mystery. You don't really know what side she falls on, and in the story, she appears to be a new girl at the school. The character of Will sees her in the village and kind of develops a crush on her, and she's just kind of lingering around. But she's there to look after Will and to make sure that nothing bad happens to him, and she's going to protect him.

Unlike Ryan, who has written most of the info on The Dark is Rising up until now, I am not familiar with Susan Cooper's fantasy novels. So, as is often the case, I'm looking at a poster with a fresh mindset. I have read some bits and pieces about the adaptation, though, and have seen some of the disappointed comments regarding the choice of director and the changes made from book to movie. I can't imagine that this new poster, which MTV shares with us, gives any new hope to fans.

First of all, the title and credits in the middle is just not pleasing to the eye. It could just be my being used to seeing them on the bottom, but something about their placement there makes all the stuff beneath seem unimportant yet distracting. Obviously the placement is to divide the two groups of characters, but they seem so contrasted that each makes the other appear kinda silly. The top section looks like a cheap Lord of the Rings knockoff -- Christopher Eccleston's Rider even seems to intentionally evoke Viggo Mortensen's Aragorn -- while the bottom section looks more Clockstoppers than Harry Potter, which is what I imagine the studio would prefer (though this didn't work for Eragon).

This is the kind of one-sheet that makes me wish Drew Struzan could paint every poster. The style, though more photoshop/photorealistic, is totally his, with all the little plot details represented in the background, but the composition and design is nowhere near as good. It isn't even as good as most of those influenced by his style these days. Whoever made it should have paid more attention to the original Fellowship of the Ring poster, and learned how to copy correctly. If this artwork does have you intrigued, take a look at the production stills we released last month. And make sure to see if the movie does the books justice when it comes out this October.

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.

Walden Media is chugging along in their efforts to bring Susan Cooper's excellent young adult fantasy The Dark is Rising to the big screen. They announced today that they have hired David Cunningham to direct the film, straight off of his controversial The Path to 9/11 television movie. The film had previously been in development by Jim Henson Pictures, going as far back as 1997, although Walden acquired the rights to the five-part series in May of 2005.

Cunningham is a talented director, but has yet to prove himself in features. Additionally, most of his credits come from documentary work, or from adaptations of true stories. Before 9/11 he directed the miniseries version of Little House on the Prairie , and his next film is a documentary about urban explorers called After ..., which is about people who sneak into "the planet's most dangerous man-made structures, just because they can." Hopefully he can make the leap into fantasy from the real world he's so used to covering.

I read The Dark is Rising when I was just starting junior high school, and it set the bar for all of the fantasy books I read afterwards. Cooper's Rising series is very dark (no pun intended), and focuses on young Will Stanton who finds out on his eleventh birthday that he must take on the Dark by himself, while looking for and gathering six different Signs of the Light. This isn't a Harry Potter book, which would be considered light and cheerful by comparison, but it is extremely rich in story and detail, especially for a book meant for young readers.

This also shows just how far the success of The Lord of the Rings has swung the gate open for the fantasy genre. Since then studios have acquired and greenlit book adaptations like Eragon, His Dark Materials, The Chronicles of Narnia (which had been in development for a long time, but the success of LOTR helped serve as a catalyst), and others are sure to follow. It's a great time to be a fantasy fan, as long as the adaptations can stand up to the rich source material.

Do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of The Dark is Rising at your local bookstore or library and read it before the movie comes out. Hopefully you'll enjoy the story in both forms.