Posted by deb on January 09, 2006 at 22:49:50 from 203.79.92.154 user deb.
In Reply to: Re: Narnia movie- WD next? posted by Peter H on January 07, 2006 at 16:48:08:
I agree that WD could make an excellent film - but what if the director, script writer etc decide to modernise it or add more drama or whatever it is that happens to many films based on book 'adaptations'?
I haven't seen the Narnia film but I understand that it adheres closely to the original book which makes it something of an oddity. Even the recent, and wonderful, Lord of the Rings wasn't exempt from the problem. I loved the films and loved seeing NZ as Middle Earth but there were still too many scenes where I cringed at what was done to the story.
The reason behind this rant is that the SciFi Channel's 'adaptation' of two of Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea novels has just shown on NZ television and it was awful. It started by (sort of) following Le Guin's story but almost the entire second half bore no resemblance to the original novels at all.
When a particularly bad 'adaptation' of Jane Austen's Mansfield Park came out several years ago, I remember one witty reviewer saying that there were only two problems with the film - the name of the film and the names of the characters. I could easily apply that to Earthsea. I never, never want to have to apply it to a Ransome 'adaptation'!!!