Did they even read the book? [orichalcum]

So, I should say, I'm not a book-to-movie purist on principle. I cheered at the absence of Tom Bombadil from Fellowship and thought the elimination of the Scouring was regrettable but understandable.

But someone's leaked the casting call for the new Dark is Rising movie, tentatively scheduled for release in September '07, and it's pretty depressing.

One of the whole points of the book is that Will is fighting to save his lovable, sweet, normal, caring, _English_ family. Not to mention, he's the youngest. And who thought a September release of a movie that's _all about Christmas_ was a good idea?

In other, semi-related news, the APA (my classics convention) is putting on a big panel next year on Classics and Comics. I feel like I really ought to submit something. Two items mentioned where they're looking for papers are Classics and Sandman and Classical narratives in manga. Anyone got any good ideas or directions to point me towards on those topics? (We're looking for a 20 minute paper worth of idea, here.) Deadline is Feb 5th.

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Check out Top Ten by Alan Moore and Gene Ha. The comic is about the police department in a world in which superpowers are incredibly common. The setting is sort of a multi-verse in which there is travel between the different versions of Earth. There's an episode in which one of the characters is sent to the Roman-Empire-never-fell Earth to compete in gladiatorial games.

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Wow. That's awful.

Oh, you'll want volume 2 of Top Ten for that. It's fantastic, don't worry. :) Read vol. 1 to figure out where you are first, though, and look out for all kinds of cameos in the interdimensional train station.

The other obvious candidate is The 300 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/300_(comic_book)

Hm... manga and classics? I just don't know. I fail!

Classics and Sandman is a pretty obvious connection. Gaiman's got a story about a kidnapped muse, and more pointedly the central mechanic of the plot revolves around Morpheus' fated suicide/murder at the hands of the Furies because he killed his son, Orpheus. It's pretty nakedly a classical tragedy in genealogy, in mechanic, and in fate, with the modern twist that Morpheus didn't have to go, but succombs to his depression deliberately in allowing fate and the story to take him.
I mean, I'm assuming you've read Sandman, but the essential books if you haven't are Brief Lives and The Kindly Ones.

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There are, in fact, cameos throughout the entire series. I always had a lot of fun re-reading each issue just to look through the backgrounds and crowd scenes and spot all the cameos.

I agree that it is an obvious candidate, but I note that The 300 also has a problem, which is that it sucks.

I actually think that somebody should do an old school comics approach. Hercules (who amusingly has the secret identity of Herakles), etc. were staples of Marvel comics for years. Not as prominent as the Norse gods, who are probably out of scope, but trips to Olympos by groups that in some ways parallel notions of heroism straight from myth... The link between hero teams and concepts like the Argonauts is well-worn. I think there is a parallel sort of thing with Wonder Woman, but I don't know DC well.

--Adam

oh yeah-- and something monkeygod used to read, shit, what's it called... "Mage". The first series is pure Arthuriana, but the second series also has a reincarnation of Hercules.

Wonder Woman is originally conceived as from the Greek amazons, and her canon in just filled with Greek mythology-- Ares, Hades, Circe are all villains for her. Hermes shows up too. But that's rather more than 20 minutes and would require re-reading tons of old wonder woman that's probably quite hard to find.

The second series of Mage, sadly, is also not as good as the first. :/ But I feel like it has actually more classical stuff in it than just Hercules... maybe his girlfriend was a Muse or... something?

I actually really like 300 so there.

Wonder Woman is in fact empowered by the Greek Gods and (under the better writers) draws upon classics all the time.

I thought that Herakles was the Eternal and Hercules was the Greek God under that bizare Celestials/Greek God alliance (Sersi/Circe, etc.) thing.

Re: Herakles versus Hercules: There is some inconsistency there, because there are also the Eternals running around (I think it's the Eternals-- aren't the Celestials the totally bizarre giant robot like people? But whatever.) But IIRC, the Olympian gods in the Marvelverse are the Greek gods (Zeus, Hera, Ares, etc.), but Hercules uses the Roman name, with the rationale being more or less that his real name is Herakles, but among the humans it's easier to use the identity of Hercules. But it's not a big deal.

Re: The 300: We'll just have to disagree.

Classics in manga...let's see. There's an anime called 'Gilgamesh' and although the animation looks kick-ass, it doesn't seem to have anything to do with the original story. There is the anime version of 'Romeo and Juliet', but that may not be classical enough. Let me think on that one and get back to you.

Wow.

Well, I, personally, am totally unsold on why this family deserves saving. Oh, wait, I guess it's Will's "innate coolness."

Jesus.

Well, it's probably not all about Christmas anymore. Maybe more of a "last of the summer action movies" thing? That would explain the "immortal warriors" stuff.

And as someone noted, there's no casting call for Merriman, which is a bit unnerving...

But yes. Will's innate coolness is particularly WTF. Will is just a normal kid - distinguished among the Stantons by Not being the Talented Musician or Artist or Sailor.

Why oh why do they give great kids' fantasy (and comic books) to screenwriters and directors who will only screw it up?

orichalcum

Did they even read the book?

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