I bet it does. I re-read some of them in college and liked them still.
I think I have it on my netflix list. If I remember, i will let you know how it is. I think I saw it at blockbuster a while back.
My vote is for the D.I.R over Prydain. I liked them both, but D.I.R. was better, and I think would translate better to moviescreen.
Wrinkle in time holds up well, She has a little of that Heinlein magic that are books age well. I re-read them within the last 2 years.
The TV movie was good but not great. My duaghter enjoyed it, way better than the awful EarthSea TV-Movie.
She also had the Dolphin book made for TV also. I think it was called Ring of Endless Light. It was well done.
Strange I would just substitute the Hobbit & LotR for Narnia and have the same favorite Books from Childhood.
Jim
I probably would have also, but I didn’t get hooked on those until well into high school. I was counting those books I read while in early to middle grade school.
I remember picking up “A Wind in the Door” because it’s cover was one of the most striking I have ever seen, even to this day - http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n3/n16546.jpg. I went to go check it out and the librarian ascertained that I had not read Wrinkle in Time and had me get that one as well, so I wouldn’t be completely confused :).
In theory, I’d love to see the Chrestomanci series made into movies–but in practice, I’m sure it would get butchered like Howl’s Movine Castle.
I remember reading The Last Unicorn years ago, and thoroughly enjoying the characters and the sense that the book evoked. I think it’d make a great movie (not the crappy animated one from a few decades ago).
I found Heinlein, Christopher, Alexander and Cooper first, but I found Tolkien & Lewis in 6th grade. Just ahead of the Hobbit TV special sponsored by Xerox. I found L’engle later that year. Between 4-7th grade I read everything available by those authors. I suspect that 7th graders shouldn’t read Stranger in a Strange Land.
Narnia never engaged me the way the others did. I think it is because I read the Hobbit first and by comparisons they were kind of similar and yet Narnia wasn’t nearly as good. The Oz books never really caught me up either.
Jim
The Last Unicorn live-action movie is deeply troubled. Peter S. Beagle no longer supports it (he doesn’t like the latest scripts, and is really opposed to a white horse with a CGI horn, which is what the producers want to do), and is actively trying to buy back the rights.
The latest (and official) information is at his agent’s site, here.
That is really bad news. I was looking forward to this one and hoping it would be good.
The series I’d really love to see filmed is Tad Williams’ Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn. Simon fighting the dragon at the end of The Dragonbone Chair would be particularly awesome.
I’ve also wondered if we would see The Dark is Rising sequence on the big screen.
Since the book is set in the 1960s (IIRC), I wonder if it will be updated for the present day or kept in that time period.
I know, but it keeps being put off and I’ve seen nothing new about it in over a couple years.
It does. I have a copy of A Swiftly Tilting Planet kicking around somewhere, but I really need to pick up the others.
I enjoy the animated one. It’s not great but I thought it captured the book pretty well.
I can’t seem to find where the info is on there? Could you point me in the right direction? I did find the thing about the audio book and a free signed copy of Two Hearts if you buy it wavers on getting the credit card out to get both
I’d like to see Barbara Hambly’s Dragonsbane made into a movie.
Go for it! It’ll rule!
After scouring conlanpress.com, I’m stymied as well. I must confess that I got the information not from the website but from Mr. Cochran himself, whom I buttonholed at GenCon. I realize that a random netizen’s LiveJournal doesn’t have the same cachet as a business’ official site; but, if you want, I posted all the Peter Beagle news I got at GenCon here. (Mods- OK to link to a LiveJournal? If not, yank. Thanks.) Or you could e-mail the guy (address on site); he’s pretty good about responding.
This concludes your Last Unicorn hijack.
The “Spellsinger” series would be great! Who wouldnt watch a hippy lute player and a talking otter??
And they have The Rhinoceros Who Quoted Nietzsche which I’ve been looking for for awhile now. But it’s in American dollars. Oh man. Maybe I’ll wait till the new year and see how my finances look.
I’ll just keep hoping for the movie, but thanks for directing me to an LJ group. I don’t know why I didn’t think to look for one about him before.
I’m currently reading Over Sea, Under Stone, the first Dark is Rising book, which I picked out because so many Dopers have recommended it, and I’m afraid that it just seems like standard 1960s children’s fantasy to me. Very much like Alan Garner or Peter Dickinson. Good, but I don’t really see what all the fuss is about.
I thought Dark is Rising was the first book, so maybe that’s where I went wrong…I started it last year but didn’t finish it. Is the first book about the same boy and his dozens of siblings?
No, the first book is about Simon, Jane and Barney (Will meets them in Greenwitch). I didn’t really like the first one. Dark is Rising introduces Will, and is much better.
As much as I adore The Dark is Rising, I don’t know that it would do well as a movie. Unless we focused on the Drews, perhaps? Movies about kids usually are about growth and learning and such that kids can really empathize with the characters. Will isn’t really that much of a sympathetic character - he already knows everything. Face it, if you knew Will, you’d probably find him pretty creepy.
If we saw things more from Jane’s perspective, though, that would be pretty cool. Um, except then we’re limited to Greenwitch and Silver on the Tree, and the last doesn’t make sense without all the backstory…
Okay, I don’t know.
I like Miller’s idea about Memory, Sorrow, & Thorn, though. A brilliant series which turns one of the most consistant fantasy themes inside out. Perhaps a little too similar to LotR, though.
For me, Alan Garner is way above Cooper. Cooper’s books just left me bored. Will is a terrible character for me, not dynamic at all. Garner’s characters aren’t incredible, but his writing is stellar.
