The Dark has Risen

11 June 2007

Gerard Wood

Walden Media, the studio that gave us The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, brings another fantasy series to the big screen this October with The Dark is Rising.

Susan Cooper’s 1973 novel The Dark Is Rising is the second in a sequence of five: OverSea, Under Stone, The Dark is Rising, Greenwitch, The Grey King, Silver on the Tree, and also the name of the series.

Set in Britain in an indeterminate present the stories draw upon the rich mythology and folklore of the British Isles and relate the final (or at least the latest) chapter in the battle between the forces of Light and Dark. The hero of this second novel in the series is schoolboy Will Stanton, seventh son of a seventh son, who discovers on his eleventh birthday that he is one of the Old Ones. An immortal, reborn to continue the fight, he is charged with a perilous quest that takes him back and forth through time to locate the six signs of the Light that together are required to stop the Dark from rising. The novel was a 1974 Newberry Medallist...

The Dark is Rising continues a trend that has seen literary series about the fantastic adventures of (quintessentially British) children mined for film. Directed by David Cunnigham and adapted by Scottish screenwriter John Hodge (who collaborated with Danny Boyle on Trainspotting and The Beach) it was filmed in Bucharest, Romania, and stars Ian McShane, newcomer Alexander Ludwig (as Will), Frances Conroy, Gregory Smith and Christopher Eccleston (Dr Who, Heroes). Walden Media is producing the film in collaboration with Twentieth Century Fox.

Any transition from page to celluloid entails some violence to the text and we should not expect The Dark is Rising to be any different. Given the different media such change is often inevitable and necessary. Not infrequently though we’re left wondering why certain changes were introduced. Often they seem arbitrary and pointless.

Of course, there’s always a reason, if not always a point. Sometimes changes are introduced by the insensitivity of the writer / producer / director to the source material. By a failure to understand the material. Sometimes the reasons are purely commercial. Understanding the reasons for changes can be instructive and reveal much about the writers, producers and/or the Hollywood system itself.

Most of the purported changes to the film version of The Dark is Rising tell us a lot about who the target audience is. And a little about an attitude to the existing readership. Will is a little older, at 14 (maybe we come of age a little later these days). More interestingly, the Stantons are an American family that has moved to Huntercombe Village in England. What possible purpose could such a change serve? From the perspective of the story – none whatsoever. The story has succeeded quite well with a British protagonist. My guess is that the producers believe such a change will better engage American audiences (and having watched The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in Ann Arbor, Michigan, I think I understand why - while the audience clearly enjoyed the movie there was much in the quintessentially British humour and characterisation that was missed by most. Perhaps Walden has learned a lesson from this.) You can be sure that such a change however will disturb the existing readership, whichever side of the Atlantic they live on.

What this brings into sharp relief is that Hollywood makes movies first and foremost for an American audience.

No shit, Sherlock!

Yes, I know it’s obvious, but it’s so obvious we sometimes overlook it (we don’t see the trees for the forest!). While it’s reach is global, those of us living outside the US should not delude ourselves that Hollywood is anything but an American cultural phenomenon and consciously or not a critical and highly effective arm of American cultural imperialism.

For those living in the US in particular, it’s worth keeping in mind that Walden Media was created in 2001 as a movie, TV, publishing and Internet enterprise whose goal is avowedly to teach and entertain kids. Its owner Philip Anschutz has a conservative Christian agenda and an expectation that his studio’s movies are entertaining, but also life affirming and that they carry a moral message.

Of course, Hollywood films are rife with messages, Liberal and Conservative, left and right, explicit and implicit. Anybody who was surprised by the conservative Christianity of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe clearly hadn’t read the books. In the end, we’re all entitled to a voice. Some of us though have bigger and louder voices than others. But as long as our agenda is clear to everyone else, all well and good.

Anyway, I loved the books and I look forward to seeing how the non-Christian mythos of The Dark is Rising will be handled. The fact that John Hodge has written the screenplay gives me hope that the spirit of the original story will remain, even if the body isn’t quite recognisable.