Earthsea miniseries on SciFi
Dec. 29th, 2004 06:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sethrakI read the Earthsea books a looooooong time ago. Middle-school, I think, or freshman year of highschool. They never resonated with me to the depth that Tolkien's four major MiddleEarth books did, but I enjoyed them a great deal, and always rather wished Ursula L. LeGuin had written more of them.
When I heard that SciFi Channel was airing a miniseries based on Earthsea, I was cautiously pleased. It couldn't be as in-depth a handling of the story as the LOTR movies were, since it was only going to be a miniseries, but the Earthsea books are also a lot smaller than LOTR. It had potential to work. I've seen some quite good miniseries based off of Narnia, for example. Not perfect, but worth watching.
Then I heard it was only going to be a two part miniseries. I cringed. There are four books in the series. Even as comparatively thin as they are, that was going to take some tight editing of the story.
Then I heard that Ms Le Guin was... displeased... about the way the people behind the miniseries had treated her world.
Found her website. Read her brief but definitely acerbic comments on the subject. Saw the commercials, including who they'd cast as Ged. >_< Yes, casting *does* matter in this case, profoundly so. Ended up refusing to even try getting Dav to watch it with me, or watch it alone.
I knew it had to be yet another case of idiots exploiting the general science fiction and fantasy fanbase in the hopes of making a quick buck. ::cough"D&Dmovie"coughhack:: Exactly the sort of thing that had me torn between elation and worry a few years ago when I heard about the LOTR movies. Thank God Peter Jackson really loved the books and put the effort into the movies that they deserved. (I wasn't quite as worried about Harry Potter being mangled in movie form; they have been, a bit, for length, but not to any extent that distorts the tale beyond recognition.)
What I couldn't figure out was *why* Ms. Le Guin had let her work be turned into what she considered to be such a travesty. It couldn't possibly be money. She's been a successful writer for decades, and fairly committed to keeping her work done *right*. Her comments on her own website were terse.
Now I know. She finally wrote a lengthier explanation of what she disliked about the miniseries, and why she had no ability to fix it, for slate.com.
I'd stomp around and indulge in a proper dragonish geek rage, but it would frighten Callisto the Ebil Kitten. Instead I shall go devour one of those chocolate chip ice cream sandwiches I bought earlier.
Edit: Or bounce and squee. ::enormous book-loving grin:: One good thing came of this rant: I was looking at her bibliography, and wondering if she'd written any more like the same universe as Left Hand of Darkness - and it turns out that she not only wrote *six* others in that series, but wrote two new Earthsea books in 2001! I plot a trip to a bookstore next payday. ^_^ V
When I heard that SciFi Channel was airing a miniseries based on Earthsea, I was cautiously pleased. It couldn't be as in-depth a handling of the story as the LOTR movies were, since it was only going to be a miniseries, but the Earthsea books are also a lot smaller than LOTR. It had potential to work. I've seen some quite good miniseries based off of Narnia, for example. Not perfect, but worth watching.
Then I heard it was only going to be a two part miniseries. I cringed. There are four books in the series. Even as comparatively thin as they are, that was going to take some tight editing of the story.
Then I heard that Ms Le Guin was... displeased... about the way the people behind the miniseries had treated her world.
Found her website. Read her brief but definitely acerbic comments on the subject. Saw the commercials, including who they'd cast as Ged. >_< Yes, casting *does* matter in this case, profoundly so. Ended up refusing to even try getting Dav to watch it with me, or watch it alone.
I knew it had to be yet another case of idiots exploiting the general science fiction and fantasy fanbase in the hopes of making a quick buck. ::cough"D&Dmovie"coughhack:: Exactly the sort of thing that had me torn between elation and worry a few years ago when I heard about the LOTR movies. Thank God Peter Jackson really loved the books and put the effort into the movies that they deserved. (I wasn't quite as worried about Harry Potter being mangled in movie form; they have been, a bit, for length, but not to any extent that distorts the tale beyond recognition.)
What I couldn't figure out was *why* Ms. Le Guin had let her work be turned into what she considered to be such a travesty. It couldn't possibly be money. She's been a successful writer for decades, and fairly committed to keeping her work done *right*. Her comments on her own website were terse.
Now I know. She finally wrote a lengthier explanation of what she disliked about the miniseries, and why she had no ability to fix it, for slate.com.
I'd stomp around and indulge in a proper dragonish geek rage, but it would frighten Callisto the Ebil Kitten. Instead I shall go devour one of those chocolate chip ice cream sandwiches I bought earlier.
Edit: Or bounce and squee. ::enormous book-loving grin:: One good thing came of this rant: I was looking at her bibliography, and wondering if she'd written any more like the same universe as Left Hand of Darkness - and it turns out that she not only wrote *six* others in that series, but wrote two new Earthsea books in 2001! I plot a trip to a bookstore next payday. ^_^ V
