Ludwig finds the first sign entirely by accident, when he buys it in from a stall in what looks like a UCI Whiteleys. This must be the most passive quest since Proust excavated his own memories.

Screenwriter John Hodge (whose CV also boasts that kindly Christian parable Trainspotting) has admitted he has no particular fondness for fantasy - nor, from the evidence of this film, does he have apparent affinity with it. But more seriously, Walden have assiduously removed every trace of the pagan (ie, non-Judeo-Christian) elements that were crucial to the original plot, all that fine old Celtic/Arthurian folklore - the Sleepers, Herne the Hunter, the Old Magic - presumably because they ran counter to the ' family values approach to positive messages' which the film's makers seek to impart.ĭoes the result work? No. No mention of their connection to the elements. In order to save the world, our hero, Ludwig, must locate six 'signs' - all of which happen, conveniently, to be located within a few miles of his own home. Thus, after a thousand years of inactivity, The Dark is marshalling his power (why now? we're never told). Now, perhaps inevitably, Cooper's hour has come - in a new film directed by one David L Cunningham, a self-described 'missionary to Hollywood', and produced by Walden Media, the Christian film production company who gave us The Chronicles of Narnia, last year's remake of Charlotte's Web, and the forthcoming Mr Magorium's Wonder Emporium.Īh, but caveat emptor! The makers have taken considerable liberties with their source material - not only changing the nationality of the hero and his family (to American), and the title throughout the rest of the world (to The Seeker), but also excising virtually the entire back story of the town and its inhabitants, and turning the original narrative - fairly gripping, you might recall - into little more than a find-the-treasures video game.

But then came Peter Jackson, whose Lord of the Rings made epic fantasy a profitable concern.

Susan cooper's the dark is rising