Rae of Light

You are of course aware of my obsession with books being turned into films. Not too long ago I insisted the book is ALWAYS better. See my September post if you’ve forgotten. Whenever I hear an adaptation of a favourite or classic novel is being produced for the small or large screen I inevitably cringe. Can you blame me? Let’s review a summary of the evidence yet again: Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – a total disaster Dracula – Wynona Ryder War of The Worlds – Tom Cruise posturing Emma – Gwynnyth Paltrow’s attempt at an English accent Chocolat – great eye candy and nothing more Northern Lights – even the title was too complicated for Hollywood and had to be changed to The Golden Compass The list could go on and on but I’ll stop there because thankfully in 2016 a seed change occurred, particularly in #gogglebox adaptations. It all started with the Beeb’s excellent production of Le Carrè’s The Night Manager . The cast choice was superb and the pace exactly wh...

I recently found out that Phillip Pullman’s Dark Materials is being done as a series by the Beeb (that’s UK speak for the BBC). I certainly hope they do a better job of it than the Hollywood version starring Nichole Kidman and Daniel Craig, which chickened out on dealing with provocative issues raised by Pullman’s series. Not too long ago I was fairly impressed with the way Amazon Prime handled one of my favourite novels of all time – Good Omens . In my opinion they were spot on when they picked David Tennant and Michael Sheen to play the demon and angel. Then their script writers did a bang up job (sorry I’ve been watching a lot of Life on Mars and I’ve got Gene Hunt’s turn of phrase stuck in my head). At any rate, they did a great job with the script, updating it for a modern, younger audience and adding in the odd inspired outcome too. What I loved most of all was that they didn’t stray too far away from the Gaiman and Pratchett novel. I’ve reread it so many times ...