{"id":1317,"date":"2007-10-03T22:15:00","date_gmt":"2007-10-03T22:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/10\/is-the-dark-still-rising-in-the-seeker\/"},"modified":"2007-10-03T22:15:00","modified_gmt":"2007-10-03T22:15:00","slug":"is-the-dark-still-rising-in-the-seeker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/10\/is-the-dark-still-rising-in-the-seeker.html","title":{"rendered":"Is the Dark still rising in The Seeker?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a>
For those who may be following the saga of The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising<\/a><\/i> and its ever-morphing title, I saw the film this morning \u2014 and the title of the version that I<\/i> saw contains all six words.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is not simply The Dark Is Rising<\/i> \u2014 which is the title of the Susan Cooper book that the movie is based on and the title with which the movie went into production<\/a> almost a year ago.<\/p>\n

And, contrary to what at least two of my American colleagues tell me they have been told by their local publicists, it is not simply The Seeker<\/i> \u2014 which was originally imposed onto the beginning of the title<\/a> a couple of months ago, and was reportedly all that was left when the title was trimmed just a week or two ago.<\/p>\n

Granted, the words \u201cThe Seeker\u201d appear onscreen by themselves for a few seconds \u2014 but then the words \u201cThe Dark Is Rising\u201d appear beneath them. So the full title is<\/i> up there on the screen.<\/p>\n

Is this one of those weird cases where the Canadian and American versions of a film have different titles, like what happened with Harry Potter and the Philosopher\u2019s \/ Sorceror\u2019s Stone<\/a><\/i>?<\/p>\n

Or is it possible that I saw a not-quite-complete cut of the film \u2014 which would be odd, given that it comes out this Friday?<\/p>\n

Or is it possible that, in the United States, the film\u2019s publicity campaign is simply divorced from any consideration of what the opening credits actually say<\/i> the film is called?<\/p>\n

One other puzzling detail: I have read numerous reports over the past five months to the effect that the protagonist, Will Stanton, has been changed from an 11-year-old boy, as he is in the book, to a 13-year-old boy. But Will actually celebrates his 14th birthday within the film\u2019s first act \u2014 just as, I gather, he celebrates his 11th birthday near the beginning of the book. So wouldn\u2019t it be more accurate to say that the movie has made him 14<\/i> years old?<\/p>\n

Just to be clear, I am not commenting on the film itself in any way here; I am simply puzzled by the way it has been packaged (and re-packaged, and re-re-packaged) and promoted, etc.<\/p>\n

OCT 4 UPDATE: For what it\u2019s worth, the Variety<\/i> review<\/a> calls the film \u201cThe Seeker\u201d, but then notes at the end: \u201cTitle was presented as \u2018The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising\u2019 on print caught.\u201d Hmmm.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For those who may be following the saga of The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising and its ever-morphing title, I saw the film this morning \u2014 and the title of the version that I saw contains all six words. It is not simply The Dark Is Rising \u2014 which is the title of the Susan […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1116,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nIs the Dark still rising in The Seeker?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"For those who may be following the saga of The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising and its ever-morphing title, I saw the film this morning -- and the title of the\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/10\/is-the-dark-still-rising-in-the-seeker.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Is the Dark still rising in The Seeker?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"For those who may be following the saga of The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising and its ever-morphing title, I saw the film this morning -- and the title of the\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/10\/is-the-dark-still-rising-in-the-seeker.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"FilmChat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-10-03T22:15:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/_MwnH1kpbPRM\/RrJgKGr4cXI\/AAAAAAAAAec\/5LV1P_3Oa1Y\/s400\/darkisrising-theseeker.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Peter T. 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