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ebonlockSo I made it to class last night and wasn't quite as braindead about the new choreography as I'd feared. I also purchased a copy of the last performance dvd out of...well, morbid curiosity really. R- had done a really nice job with the cover for it, and the pics of everyone looked great. Alyne assured me yet again that my goof had been edited out, rather than feeling better about that I felt a bit worse. They'd had to edit my stupidity out. Man.
Anyway, got home exactly 10 minutes too late to see my beloved Dio die on Last Exile, though he did appear briefly as a ghostly voice later in the episode. I need to find a wav of him singing his birthday song, it's almost Charlie-level cute. I also suspect TechTV/G4 is severely cropping these episodes. Grr.
Speaking of which, no new Lost tonight *sad sigh*
Yesterday I also managed to wrap and re-wrap some the last of my gifts and everything's boxed up and ready to go. I'm so efficient this year it's downright scary. Should have time on Saturday to whip off a few remaining Xmas cards and that's it, done.
And now for a mild rant. I never read the Earthsea novels so when Sci-fi decided to butcher them in a miniseries I just shook my head sadly and let it pass. I mean it's the Sci-fi channel for gods' sakes, they're like the anti-Midas, turning everything they touch to shit. It's their specialty. However, this makes me want to rain hot fiery death down on the infidels behind it:
The forthcoming Hollywood adaptation of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy is to sacrifice many of the film's anti-religious sentiments in an effort to avoid a backlash from America's Christian right.
Director Chris Weitz has upset fans of Pullman's Carnegie-winning books after he admitted in a website interview that the books' Authority - a malevolent but feeble deity - will appear in the planned films as a representation of "any arbitrary establishment that curtails the freedom of the individual".
The fans may not be happy, but Weitz, who made American Pie and About a Boy, reportedly has the full support of Pullman.
Pullman's agent, Caradoc King, told today's Times: "Of course New Line want to make money, but Mr Weitz is a wonderful director and Philip is very supportive. You have to recognise that it is a challenge in the climate of Bush's America."
What the goddamn hell? As one blogster put it, "This is not unlike making the Lord of the Rings trilogy without the Ring. I'm particularly disappointed that Pullman seems to be giving into what sounds like being an emasculation of his books. Honestly, you don't need to worry about censorship when you're too scared to make films in the first place..."
Oh dear, we musn't upset the psycho fundies! I mean it's not like these fucking freaks are going to go see the film regardless, or allow their kids to ("Demons? Did they just say demons? It must be Satanic!"), and if they protest it so fucking what? There have been dozens of fundie backlashes against Disney, but do you see them rolling up the welcome mats to their theme parks?
Being offended is what fundies do, it's their raison d'etre. Without moral indignation they'd all collapse like the soulless automatons they are. Seriously, you'd be doing them a favor by leaving the story alone. They could work themselves into a tizzy, foam at the mouth, start letter writing campaigns and protests and have the time of their lives.
Maybe they'll have two versions of the film, one for the psychos and one for the grown ups. If the latter is only released in PAL that's fine by me, I'll just wait and buy that one. But to actually pay theater prices to see a film where the director and author of the original stories don't have the backbone to defend artistic integrity against a bunch of mad dog Christians...well, I think my money could be better spent elsewhere.
Anyway, got home exactly 10 minutes too late to see my beloved Dio die on Last Exile, though he did appear briefly as a ghostly voice later in the episode. I need to find a wav of him singing his birthday song, it's almost Charlie-level cute. I also suspect TechTV/G4 is severely cropping these episodes. Grr.
Speaking of which, no new Lost tonight *sad sigh*
Yesterday I also managed to wrap and re-wrap some the last of my gifts and everything's boxed up and ready to go. I'm so efficient this year it's downright scary. Should have time on Saturday to whip off a few remaining Xmas cards and that's it, done.
And now for a mild rant. I never read the Earthsea novels so when Sci-fi decided to butcher them in a miniseries I just shook my head sadly and let it pass. I mean it's the Sci-fi channel for gods' sakes, they're like the anti-Midas, turning everything they touch to shit. It's their specialty. However, this makes me want to rain hot fiery death down on the infidels behind it:
The forthcoming Hollywood adaptation of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy is to sacrifice many of the film's anti-religious sentiments in an effort to avoid a backlash from America's Christian right.
Director Chris Weitz has upset fans of Pullman's Carnegie-winning books after he admitted in a website interview that the books' Authority - a malevolent but feeble deity - will appear in the planned films as a representation of "any arbitrary establishment that curtails the freedom of the individual".
The fans may not be happy, but Weitz, who made American Pie and About a Boy, reportedly has the full support of Pullman.
Pullman's agent, Caradoc King, told today's Times: "Of course New Line want to make money, but Mr Weitz is a wonderful director and Philip is very supportive. You have to recognise that it is a challenge in the climate of Bush's America."
What the goddamn hell? As one blogster put it, "This is not unlike making the Lord of the Rings trilogy without the Ring. I'm particularly disappointed that Pullman seems to be giving into what sounds like being an emasculation of his books. Honestly, you don't need to worry about censorship when you're too scared to make films in the first place..."
Oh dear, we musn't upset the psycho fundies! I mean it's not like these fucking freaks are going to go see the film regardless, or allow their kids to ("Demons? Did they just say demons? It must be Satanic!"), and if they protest it so fucking what? There have been dozens of fundie backlashes against Disney, but do you see them rolling up the welcome mats to their theme parks?
Being offended is what fundies do, it's their raison d'etre. Without moral indignation they'd all collapse like the soulless automatons they are. Seriously, you'd be doing them a favor by leaving the story alone. They could work themselves into a tizzy, foam at the mouth, start letter writing campaigns and protests and have the time of their lives.
Maybe they'll have two versions of the film, one for the psychos and one for the grown ups. If the latter is only released in PAL that's fine by me, I'll just wait and buy that one. But to actually pay theater prices to see a film where the director and author of the original stories don't have the backbone to defend artistic integrity against a bunch of mad dog Christians...well, I think my money could be better spent elsewhere.
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no subject
Date: 2004-12-15 05:59 pm (UTC)It's like making Harry Potter without wizardry. :p I guess I should be thankful that they left that in. :p
no subject
Date: 2004-12-15 10:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-15 10:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-15 11:12 pm (UTC)There's watered down and then there's castrated. Have you read the novels? I mean when they compare to doing LOTR without the Ring, they're really not exaggerating about the change that's being proposed to this story.
Trying to be optimistic
Date: 2004-12-15 11:16 pm (UTC)Some good news
Date: 2004-12-15 11:57 pm (UTC)Re: Some good news
Date: 2004-12-16 12:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-16 12:32 am (UTC)Having read the books pretty recently, the Authority struck me as not much of a problem - underwhelming at best. The VP angel (Enkidu?) was the major hard-ass. Of course, if you're offended by the Almighty being portrayed as Allfeeble, well, I guess I can't help much, now can I? /B-)
no subject
Date: 2004-12-16 01:55 am (UTC)Is the Authority really that central to the plot of the story? I've heard otherwise from other people, but I'd like to hear more of your take on it.
no subject
Date: 2004-12-16 05:04 pm (UTC)The plot? Mmm, debateable, but I would argue that the Authority is pretty central to the overall message of the books, and certainly its demise is. But it's possible that I read more into it than the author had originally intended. Can the story survive without that aspect? Well, yes, but I'd argue that it's not going to be the same story. Sure there'll be recognizable elements (though I really do fear that they'll somehow change the name of the "daemons" to make that more palatable as well), but it's just not the same story.
It could be argued that Peter Jackson did something similar to LOTR with the changes he made (and I'd even be willing to take that side of the discussion when it comes to the "Scouring of the Shire" which I find integral to the characters', especially Frodo's, development). However, the central core, the central message remained intact. The changes were mostly cosmetic, or at least they seemed that way to me.
What scares me is not the change itself, really, it's the reason for it. If Pete had come out and said, "Look, I need to change Sauron from a big fiery eye into a giant fluffy bunny so the fundamentalists won't boycott the film." I'd have been just as pissed. Sure, he'd make it into one helluva scary fluffy bunny, but still...