I just saw an ad for this on imdb. It doesn’t look like it’s going to be that good though- I thought Ged was supposed to be black!
I’ve never read these books. Are they filmable, do you think? I’ll give it a try.
We finally got TiVo, and being able to fast-forward through the commercial breaks has made TV much more appealing.
Who’s Ged? There’s a black man in the photo. Is Ged a woman?
I knew someone who was auditioning for the role of Tenar. I got a quick look at the intial script and wasn’t impressed.
(Snotty purist) The script seemed to have considerably changed the role of the Nameless Ones. I’m very surprised the Le Guin is letting them make it without adhering strictly to her wonderful world. Snoot snoot.
Okay, I just saw some of the pics. Where’s Ged’s scar? What the hell is with Tenar being just a priestess? She’s the reincarnated High Priestess of the Nameless ones! She’s isn’t a fricking orphan! Aagh! And Ged should be black!
Wow! I didn’t know about this. I am huge Earthsea fan, but looking at the website it appears that they have changed the story quite a bit.
BTW: Ged is in the middle. Ogion is the black guy on the right. Tenar is the girl on the left.
I don’t really think it’s filmable, but I thought the same thing about LotR, IOW, only by someone really good.
Ged was the main character in the books, I believe. I haven’t read them in a few years. He was black in the books. It seems kind of wrong that they’d change him into a white guy. Also, the guy they have as him is not how I imagined him at all.
The prodcer answers some questions (sort of):
UKL’s reaction to the miniseries:
http://www.ursulakleguin.com/MiniEarthsea.html
and
http://www.ursulakleguin.com/Earthsea.html
It may have been fixed, but an early picture of the Lookfar didn’t even have eyes!
Brian
Thanks a lot for the links Brian. The second letter is much more candid than the first…
That was very informative. I guess, reading between the lines of the second one, they changed a hell of a lot besides skin color, and not for the better.
I can’t imagine that Earthsea would translate well into film. Language is such an integral part of the story–not just the lyricism of the writing, but the importance of names in the way that magic works–and it seems like TV or film can’t capture that nearly as well as the written word.
If I ever become disgustingly wealthy, I’m going to go to authors I like and buy the rights to their works, with the promise not to turn them into movies. I’ve seen too many bad adaptations of good books.
Was Ged black? I always pictured him as dark-skinned, but more Mediterranian than African - Greek, perhaps, or Turkish. It’s not all that important, of course, as the actor playing him hardly looks like a native of Thessaloniki. Just a question this thread brought up.
Anyway, I have a feeling Ms. LeGuin wishes Peter Jackson was the one making the miniseries. Not that I blame her.
I disagree: I think Book One could make an excellent movie, with an intelligent script - Toy Story has the same basic plot, after all {think about it…}. Not too expensive to film, a couple of CGI dragons and a few basic indoor sets {admittedly Harry Potter pinched the idea of the wizard’s school on Roke, but dumbed it down considerably} - and a refreshing lack of swords, if not sorcery, so no expensive battle scenes to film. Best of all, in my opinion, no sub-Tolkien quests against an evil overlord: Lord Foul? That guy needs a better press agent.
Ged isn’t black? Everyone was black, or at least dark-skinned, except the Kargads, and they were just the dumbarse Aryan window-smashers, at least initially. That was one of the things I liked about the books - she just casually mentioned that most of the “civilised” world was dark-skinned {just checked my copy, and A Wizard Of Earthsea was published in 1968: right on, sister!}, and then barely referred to it again: it just wasn’t an issue.
I guess Hollywood just hasn’t caught on to the idea that wizards can be black without being evil {Mad propz to tha homie Thulsa Doom}, or token badasses {Yo, Mace Windu! What up, dog?}. Maybe they figure that after Tolkien, wizards just HAVE to be white. Where’s Askia when you need him?
As to Le Guin consenting to having her stories butchered - hell, she probably sold off and lost control of the film rights about 30 years ago, and hasn’t regretted it until Peter Jackson came on the scene.
OK, a cite or two: {on Ogion the Silent} “He was a dark man, like most Gontishmen, dark copper-brown…” Ged, of course, is also from Gont.
On the Kargads: “…they are a savage people, white-skinned, yellow-haired, and fierce, liking the sight of blood and the smell of burning towns.”
On Vetch and Ged: “{he was} very dark of skin, not red-brown like Ged and Jasper and most folk of the Archipelago, but black-brown.”
{All quotes from A Wizard Of Earthsea}
I never read the Earthsea novels: I was a wee bit more into the Asimov/Spider Robinson/ Clarke/Ellison/Bradbury mode to read that kind of fantasy. I dabbled in Piers Anthony’s Xanth awhile, switched over to Tolkien’s less pun-drunk environs.
Had I known Ged could be black, though, that would have totally intrigued me enough to read LeGuin’s work. The only black wizard I ever remember seeing growing up was Moses Gunn as the wizard in that one scene in The Neverending Story.
I have mixed feelings about this.
It’s clear why the change was made: for broader commercial appeal. They already have Danny Glover as Ogion, did Ged have to black, too? We don’t see black wizards for the same reasons we don’t have, and have largely never seen, a popular Asian male lead whose key appeal to a crossover audience is sexual (although I grant you Chow Yun Fat comes closer than Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Jet Li and Sammy Hung ever did). This country is still easily shocked by that which challenges ur sensibilities.
See, I’ve embraced the colorblind casting in the past for things like multicultuiral productions of Shakespearian plays and why it was okay by me to change Kingpin to a brother in Daredevil because, well, a great big intimidating brother who’s the undisputed criminal mastermind in New York was a plausible change that is ultimately irrelevant to the character: think Marsellius Wallace in Pulp Fiction. Who knew that Daredevil would skimp over character development? Who knew the script would suck?
I have rarely argued to change the lead character’s ethnic background, although I have opined that both the Rock and NYPD Blue’s Henry Simmons could easily play Superman. Of course, Superman has been around in about eleventy billion incarnations throughout the media, including comics, radio, movies, television, animation, video and RP games, etc, – I figured one buff mixed race African American male might be able to pull it off.
That said, i understand why it was done – but I’m a non-fan, and I’m still not pleased. Fans will ultimately vote with viewers whether or not they like what they see.
Apologies now for any omissions and errors. i’m getting sleepy! Night.
Ah, so maybe Ged and the rest are close to Indian (Subcontinent, not American) than anything else, which would put Earthsea in sort of a fictional Indian Ocean. Or maybe I’m just overthinking things.
Askia andAlessan: like I mentioned earlier, Le Guin doesn’t make a big deal of race or skin-colour {that’s one of the things I like about the books - she casually subverts stereotypes by barely referring to them}; the references are just in passing, and Ged isn’t overtly presented as a BLACK {that is, African, or African-American} hero - as the quotes above show, almost everyone in Earthsea is dark-skinned, unless otherwise specified - so while they are “canonical”, I can see why the producers would gloss over them for the mass market, not wanting to make a “Hey! It’s a BLACK fantasy movie!” Hell, it probably doesn’t even register for most casual readers.
Race aside, Askia, I’d thoroughly recommend at least the first three books {A Wizard Of Earthsea, The Tombs Of Atuan, The Farthest Shore} - opinion is divided over the later sequels - as an excellent fantasy read: most people would probably classify them as “Young Adult”, but Harry Potter they ain’t - they’re intelligent, thoughtful, beautifully written, and avoid all of the “Dungeons And Dragons” poor man’s Tolkien fantasy cliches. Well worth checking out.
I always pictured Ged as having a Mediterranean or Arabic look, and Vetch being black. Just poking around the site there’s no way I’m going to watch it. I think I’ll just get out the books and give them another read.
Ged is supposed to have black hair and copper skin. This doesn’t mean he’s black. Ged’s friend Vetch from Roke Island, was black. I believe, that Gontishman are that world’s version of bronze age Scottishmen…or that was my impression, escpecially considering the description of the culture and geography of Gont. I know the Kargishmen were the Vikings of that world. Go re-read the descriptions of Gontishmen to refresh your memory. I believe Ged is described fairly well in “The Farthest Shore” at the point where he’s using magic to disguise himself as the Arren’s uncle. I’m waiting to see how well the program is done, even though the actor portraying Ged looks more like he came from Karego-At, than Gont.
I think its always a challenge for people to learn about/see an adaptation of a favorite novel. We all have a certain version of how things are in our imaginations and anything different can feel like a personal betrayal when its just one more persons vision.
So yeah they changed the casting a little for Ged but it honestly doesn’t bother me that much. Its an adaptation, so its natural that some things will be different. I’m open to some change and I’m curious to see what I’ll recognize from the books vs. someone else’s imagination.
It premieres on the 13th and I’m definitely watching it.
But… but… Tenar/Arha is still portrayed as an orphan and not the reincarnated Priestess of the Namelss Ones!
:slinks off, nitpicking angrily::
They portray her as an orphan? Why? I guess in a way it makes sense, but I wouldn’t do so if I were the director. Maybe it’s because it’s easier and faster to explain rather than going through her long history, or maybe they’re thinking of suprising those who haven’t read the books with her history during the series? I’ll read the sites more closely now, I don’t often read the sites about a show before watching it on things like this, I like to try to have a more open mind. I’ve seen the teasers for it though.