Posted by Andy on January 09, 2006 at 15:29:42 from 130.159.248.44 user AndyG.
In Reply to: Re: Narnia movie- WD next? posted by Peter H on January 07, 2006 at 16:48:08:
Having recently re-read much of WDMTGTS, I think it stands out as a naturally filmable book compared to the rest of the series.
After all, it needs little in the way of explanation to know why the characters are present in Harwich for the start of the story, the background behind them and their motivations/skills. It's obviously a self-contained adventure with a clear and strong beginning, middle and only slightly wobbly end - though that surprise at finding Father might well work better on film than it does on the page. I'm sure I could "buy it" at the cinema, even though it made me think "what the?" when I first read it. And of course (unlike all the other novels) there's no hordes of kids to dissuade the potential Squashy Hats from seeing it. :-)
The fog, storm and night sequences could be extremely realistic with modern CGI effects, as could the 1920's Harwich/Flushing harbour scenes.
The only real difficulty with regards to directly translating this novel to a visual medium, is with the sense of time in the story. Above all the novels, Ransome is at his most skilled and inventive here: transferring the reader from the already-at-sea, death-defying Swallows back to the comfort of Pin Mill (and Mother) the preceding evening and night, and (later) filling in the back story of Jim Brading's injury. I'm not sure that that would work visually as well as it does on the page...almost certainly some "chapters" would have to move.
As for subplots: I'd suggest that Sinbad would almost certainly be cut. The rescue adds almost nothing to the story. I could see the pilot sequence going too (much to the furore of those of us in the know) with the pilot being concatenated with the Dutch harbourmaster...
There is, currently, little market for childrens' adventure films, and less for historical childrens' adventure films - but perhaps once the pendulum has swung away from "epic fantasy", who knows? It'd be cheap(ish), a rattling good yarn, a period piece - there's a lot going for it.