Thursday, February 15, 2007

the dark is rising

It shouldn't come as a surprise to me, but I read this morning that they're turning one of my favorite books, The Dark is Rising, by Susan Cooper, into a movie, and it sounds like Ian McShane from Deadwood is in line to play Merriman Lyon, the mentor to the main protagonist of the story. I always pictured Merriman as looking like David Kelly from Waking Ned Devine and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, if a little taller and buffer (one website suggested Christopher Lee for the role). But I've started warming to the idea:



With a prosthetic nose, a clean upper lip, and some white/gray hair, it just might work.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Except they didn't bother with trying to make McShane bear any resemblance to Merriman, just like they didn't bother with trying to make ANYTHING in the movie bear any resemblance to Susan Cooper's novel. Take a quintessential British novel, tart it up to make it more "American accessible," rip out its soul, and you get this pablum -- a movie manufactured to appeal to the shallow and immature.

Jeff Newman said...

All my hopes were dashed when I saw the most recent trailer, which opened with a guitar riff.