They're making one of my favorite books, "The Dark is Rising", into a movie, and in the time-honored tradition of misguided studio tinkering, they're changing stuff.

When I was at NYU film school-- did I ever mention that I went to NYU film school? ;) --I had a class where the assignment was to come up with a pitch to give to Academy Award winning producer Jerome Hellman. To my surprise, some girl got up and pitched her concept of "The Dark is Rising" as a movie, making Will an American kid and moving the action of the story to, like, Connecticut or something. Well, of course, I argued with her, and, needless to say, I kicked her and her bad idea to the curb.

What is it with filmmakers that they don't trust young American audiences to identify with characters that aren't American? If I'm not mistaken, certain producers wanted to move Harry Potter to America, as well, and thank god they didn't, and see, all you Hollywood fuckheads, you still made an ass-load of money on those movies, so please, please stop pulling this crap.

And no, I'm not buying that whole "we updated the story to emphasize the theme of alienation" bullshit. Seriously, some half-assed hack writer reads Robert McKee and suddenly, oh, he's an expert on theme! What a crock.