The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising
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Short description
The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising follows Will Stanton, a boy who discovers on his fourteenth birthday that he belongs to an ancient line of immortal warriors sworn to oppose the forces of darkness. As the last of them, he alone can move through time to recover the Signs of Light. He gathers clues that help him understand and use his newfound powers, while the darkness prepares to strike again, leaving the fate of the world in his hands. The film adapts Susan Cooper's novel The Dark is Rising and was directed by David L. Cunningham, the second of the four features he has made, following To End All Wars in 2001. John Hodge wrote the screenplay, and Marc Platt produced.
Alexander Ludwig plays Will, with Ian McShane as Merriman Lyon, Christopher Eccleston as the Rider, Gregory Smith as Max, Jonathan Jackson as the Walker, and Wendy Crewson as Mary Stanton; twenty-three performers are credited. Made for a budget of 45 million US dollars by 20th Century Fox, Walden Media and Marc Platt Productions, it earned about 31 million US dollars worldwide, less than it cost. On IMDb it holds a rating of 4.8 out of 10 from roughly 16,000 votes, and on TMDB a rating of 5.4 out of 10 from 456 votes. A critics' rating of 4.2 out of 10 from 93 reviews places it below both audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- The film is based on the second book in Susan Cooper’s "The Dark Is Rising" series (1965-1977).
- Initially, the rights to adapt the book were acquired as early as July 1997 by the independent company Jim Henson Pictures. Over the next eight years, the project never moved forward, and in May 2005, the rights were purchased by Walden Media.
- The character of Jonathan Jackson, named The Wanderer, who played a key role in Susan Cooper's novella, and the entire storyline associated with him, were completely cut from the final version of the film. This is particularly surprising, as the actor's image appeared on almost all of the early posters for the film.
- Filming took place from February 26 to April 2007 in Romania. Instead of traditional location shooting, the film crew largely preferred to work in the MediaPro Studios pavilions, located near Bucharest. There, on special sets, an English village, the Stanton family home, and a medieval church were built.
- The film contains only about 200 computer-generated special effects, which is unusually low for this genre. This was a conscious choice by the director, who preferred to use conventional filming techniques wherever possible.
- After filming was completed, the original title of the film was changed from “The Dark is Rising” to “The Seeker: The Dark is Rising.” According to the film studio itself, this was due to the fact that many fans of Susan Cooper's series were simply furious about leaked information regarding changes made to the script compared to the book.
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