Some words about The Dark is Rising movie. (Oh, and um, hi.)

[dotsomething]

Hi. I swear I meant to do a real update and don't mean for my first post in a while to be only film-related.

But I'm having an unpretty film moment.

Unlocked, please link away.

Thank you sistermagpie for alerting me with her post with the info. Originally found by charlotteschaos and posted here. Here's the page ywith the original information, the audition casting notes

Comments

[raincitygirl]

I think the book is very specifically placed in its setting for a reason, and there's just like in tDiR there's subtle class commentary in the later books in the series. The shifting economic and class structure in Britain in the past, say, 150 years, is just fascinating. And the evolution of education policy in the UK during the whole of the twentieth century is wonderful microcosm of class as a systemic barrier to social mobility, how that gradually changes, and the consequences.

It's actually very similar to structures in countries with racial minorities who were kept down by systemic, codified means. And similar structures arose in the UK when widespread non-white immigration turned the UK into a multiracial society with racial and non-Christian religions to contend with, on top of (and in many cases superseding) the barriers of class, sect (Anglican, Catholic, Nonconformist), country of ultimate origin (ex: the Irish got ethnic and religious discrimination as well as class barriers to deal with).Sorry, my poli sci major, modern history minor geek is showing!

And the encouragement of singing is another indication of possible ambition, and reminder of an economic way out. Cathedrals ran (and still run) choir schools for talented boys, and as they're subsidised by the diocese and focus more on vocal talent than sky high marks on the 11 plus exam (an exam which was stacked against the working classes anyway, subconsciously), it was a lot easier to earn a free place and therefore a middle-class educational background than among the other private schools, which had few scholarships available for lots of bright working-class kids. Boys, I should say. There were no choir schools for girls, naturally. But if you had a son who sang and sang well, that was a potential route upwards.

All that having been said, I think you *could* update it to the modern day. You couldn't set it in a village near Windsor, because it's pretty much a suburb now. Much of that agricultural land has become subdivisions for commuters, and the old-fashioned, picturesque farmhouses and cottages bought up by prosperous incomers. There's a hint of that gentrification already when they talk about the bank manager and his wife who've retired to the village, bought a cottage, and gentrified it. But thirty-five years on, a lot's changed in the area surrounding Windsor.

But there are still agricultural villages in England, so as long as you changed the setting slightly, you could do it. And you'd probably have to cut out a good deal of the class stuff,

A, because modern audiences wouldn't get it,
B, American audiences definitely wouldn't get it, and,
C, Cooper lets it all hover in the background throughout the series. It's definitely there, but as a detail some readers will pick up on and others won't.

So, yeah, updating to modern day would work, although you'd probably have to turn the Manor into a country house hotel or a National Trust museum. But it definitely could be set in modern England without sacrificing very much. But the major changes in personality, and the Americanisation of Will (note that the Narnia movie made money everywhere despite casting British actors as the kids) takes away his roots to the community. Although even the Americanisation bothers me MUCH less than the recasting of his family as remote, inadequate parents and his older siblings as bullies. I could cope with an American Stanton family better than an unrecognisable Stanton family.