OH NO THEY DIDN'T

Today I found on ohnotheydidnt that Christopher Eccleston (Nine on Doctor Who, InvisiClaude on Heroes) is in Romania filming the movie version of The Dark is Rising, in which he plays the Black Rider.

Now, some background. The Dark is Rising is the second in a series of young adult fantasy books by Susan Cooper, and also the name of the series. The books alternately center around two sets of children, linked by the mysterious old man Merriman Lyon. He is the adopted great-uncle (known as "Gumerry") to Simon, Jane, and Barney Drew, three ordinary English children who discover an ancient cup. And Merriman also is the oldest of the Old Ones, a group of immortal magicians who serve the Light: in this role he serves as mentor to the youngest and last Old One, 11-year-old Will Stanton. Eventually the two groups of children meet, along with Will's Welsh friend, the orphan Bran (who is of higher parentage than he knows), and a final confrontation between the forces of Light and Dark ensue in the final book. It's full of English and Welsh mythology, and centers around the Arthurian mythos especially.

This series of books was one of my absolute favorites when I was a kid. I still reread them regularly. As you can imagine, the news that they were making a movie, that it was coming out in October, and that it featured Chris Eccleston as the Black Rider (the most visible emissary of the Dark, at least at first) made me gleeful as a kitten. I was a little sad that they weren't starting the series with the first book (Over Sea, Under Stone, which features the Drew chidlren discovering the Holy Grail), but I figured it kind of made sense to start with the most well-known one, so I was okay with it.

Then I looked up more info, and my heart sank.

( Spoilers for the new movie, and why it will almost certainly suck D: )

RAGE BUILDING, WANT TO KILL...I swear, if they mess up this movie, I will hunt down the producers and rip out their tracheas (tracheae?). T_T