There's nothing like hearing that a favourite book is being adapted for the screen to set the heart aflutter. On the one hand, there is the possibility of the glorious realisation of heretofore imagined scenery and characters; on the other, the (let's face it, more likely) prospect of those scenes and characters being disastrously, irredeemably wrecked by an interpretation that bears no resemblance whatever to your own.
This seems to be particularly true of well-loved books from one's childhood. While I'm a great fan of, say, Pride and Prejudice, I was sanguine about the desecration of the text perpetrated by Knightley et al in the recent adaptation; that is, it appalled me, but I didn't take it personally.
With children's books it's different: these are books that have been read and reread, whose landscapes have become part of your own internal world; they feel as if they genuinely belong to you. Raised, as I was, on the outpourings of Tolkien and CS Lewis, I've already been through a couple of hairy book-into-film moments in recent years, and have emerged, I'm happy to report, relatively unscathed.
But for those of us who are of opinion that Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising sequence is THE best thing ever to have graced a child's bookshelf, news that the second novel of the five - also called The Dark Is Rising - is being filmed and is due out in September is the most nerve-racking to date. But it was not until the latest casting news emerged from the studio that apprehension sank into despair.
As those of you familiar with the books will know, the central adult character is one Merriman Lyon, a modern incarnation of Merlin who acts as guide and mentor to the younger heroes. He's wise, gruff, noble and adamant, craggy of visage and rangy of limb, with a head of strong, white hair. And who have 20th Century Fox, in their wisdom, chosen to play this colossus of children's literature? Ian McShane. That's right: Lovejoy.
Now I have nothing at all against McShane, personally. Everyone who's seen Deadwood tells me it, and he, are fantastic. Hell, I liked him as Lovejoy, for heaven's sake. But the lingering aura of "loveable rogue" means that, for me, he simply doesn't have enough gravitas to play the part of this mystical, terrible, oak of a man. Wherever he travels, the whiff of musty antique shops travels with him.
The failing, no doubt, is mine. I should be less precious about these books and accept that Ian McShane, by trade an actor not an antiques dealer, will do his job and convince me that he is the first Old One, guardian and warrior of the light and onetime adviser to King Arthur. On the other hand, if it bothers me so much, I could of course just stay away from the cinema altogether. But here's the thing: as far as I'm concerned, these books are MINE. I don't want to have to boycott the film; I want to know why, when it came to casting decisions, I wasn't consulted. Answer me that, 20th Century Fox.
