Date: Mon, 20 Dec 2004 09:49:18 -0500
From: "Michael Walsh" <MJW at press.jhu.edu>
To: <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: More of LeGuin on Earthsea TV
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>

> myeh at wap.org 12/20/04 9:23:51 AM >>>
>   This seems to be a rather fallacious arguement.  Its
>like saying a person shouldn't complain about a broken
>arm, because other people have had two arms or two legs
>broken.

Granted.  But still, it could have been far worse.

>     I saw another 5 minutes of the show, ugh.  Another
>character in the book, Vetch, has gone from black to white
>for no apparent reason.

But would a non-white actor in the role made the film any better?

Were the producers just ignorant? Blind? Didn't care?  Or thought,
"Well, if there was an all black Wizard of Oz, why not a nearly all
white Earthsea?" (OK, that gives way too much credit to their thought
processes...)

I think one of the problems the SciFi version was a raised bar - a bar
raised by Peter Jackson.  Most of the Robert Halmi produced films I've
seen have a bad Maxfield Parrish sameness to them.

A few years ago when China Mieville was in the US on a short tour
promoting Perdito Street Station he was asked if he would want to be
involved with the production of a film version.  His response, this
British socialist, was "Show me the money.".  As far as he was
concerned, a film will come and go, the book(s) will always be around,
separate from the film.  (If you diagree with this, go argue with China,
not me <g>.)

Anyone want place odds on Earthsea making the Hugo ballot?

mjw

>       Madeleine
>On Fri, 17 Dec 2004 15:20:02 -0500
>  "Michael Walsh" <MJW at press.jhu.edu> wrote:
>> All things considered, she doesn't have that much to
>>complain about,
>> well... atleast as compared to the 1989 film version of
>>"Nightfall."
>> Awsomely, stunningly bad.
>>
>> mjw
>>
>