MovieChat Forums > The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising (2007) Discussion > A Hollywood View of England yet Again

A Hollywood View of England yet Again

posted 15 years ago by pineleigh
38 replies | jump to latest

As someone who lives here in the UK, why must we have this idea of what Hollywood thinks our country looks like in film. When Will leaves school
for the Christmas vacation it could be England, but then the film cuts to
the school bus going thru' what looks like German or East European countryside
& the buildings are nothing like the ones here in the UK, this view of the UK
is so inaccurate why can't Hollywood get it right set these films in some other country if they can't make it accurate, at least they don't show us shroaded in fog anymore(I hope).

[–] knight_sentinel 14 years ago

Hollywood? most of the actors were from Canada, UK, and Romania and other European countries, with a handful of U.S. character actors. Even the production companies specialize in doing world wide productions, which are usually filmed in countries where they can save money, and get tax breaks, since the film was released 2007, getting those type of tax breaks in the U.S.. Was highly unlikely unless it was a major motion picture with a major name star.

Movies will make you famous; Television will make you rich; But theatre will make you good.

[–] hollis-58 14 years ago

Agreed. One would think it'd be easier to hire English actors and film it there. It was supposed to take place in the English countryside in the 1970's for crying out loud. Things like this ridiculous parody plus all of the remakes makes Hollywood generally embarrassing. :/

[–] pbarnes-9 14 years ago

Why would they bother to film a quitessential British story in Britain with British actors when they'd already decided to rip everything out of the story that made it so British? An American family in place of the British Stantons, no reference to Athurian myth -- why bother to film in Britain?

And why bother to watch it?

Thankfully, a lot of people felt that way. :o)

[–] hollis-58 12 years ago

Oh, I didn't watch it. I just loved the book series so much that I felt the need to badmouth the movie on the internet after watching the trailer. Guilty. ;)

[–] missiworld 14 years ago

This film was a disaster in general, though, so I'm not surprised that it looked like the wrong place. Let's face it, not even The Doctor had the ability of saving this film.

[–] raygirvan 14 years ago

Yep. It's just on in the UK now, and I was going WTF at how they took a bus from London, passed a signpost to Amersham, and then arrived somewhere obviously in eastern Europe - wrong architecture, a level of disrepair to main street buildings we haven't seen in England since WW2, a main street with untarred roadway, etc. I wondered if I'd dozed off missed something, but no.

[–] deadinred 14 years ago

haha I'm watching it now too, well I say watching . . .

[–] zak-831-973958 14 years ago

I`ve sky+`d it and found myself fast forwarding the movie and watching the adverts??? Whats happened to Christopher Ecclestons acting? I thought this must have been one of his very early films, but 2007? aaaaggh

[–] Vanderelt 14 years ago

Baffling, isn't it?? Just watched it again on Film4, and it's worse than I remember, which is saying something...

I agree that it was hilarious how many times policemen, police cars etc. appeared in passing - there's obviously a rural crime wave going on in those parts. Also, it did get to me, how peculiar the stylistic choices were: I mean, you'd think that the fact the story is set in England and we see British road signs and other street furniture, and all the characters outside of the Stanton family speak with various English accents etc. would be enough to get the message home about where the action is taking place; but no - it seemed like we couldn't have an outdoor scene without characters walking past either the ever-present police car or a red postbox or red phone box, no matter which way they turned. OK, it's a time-honoured cliche how local characteristics have to be rammed home in 'Hollywood'-style movies, like the way the Eiffel Tower seemingly follows people around Paris - but you don't need to keep doing it throughout the film to the point of parody. And, if you're going to film in Romania but pretend so visibly hard that it's the UK, you really shouldn't show a lot of wide shots of the town with a whacking great church right in the middle that's unmissably not at all British-looking, should you now?!

I am a citizen of the universe, and a gentleman to boot

[–] 14 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Brennan-8 13 years ago

Correct me if I'm wrong, but is this not a British film made by British people written by British people. How is its accuracy or lack thereof Hollywood's fault?

[–] Hedvig88 13 years ago

That's a fair point. I loved Cooper's book and thought the film was inexcusably horrible, but the hideous screenplay was written by a British man, with some other rather good screeplays under his belt. Why the change of the Stantons to a dysfunctional American family and why all the other alterations to the story, and why is it so craply pretend Englandland?

was Adam1982

[–] micky-gwilliam 13 years ago

He who pays the piper calls the tunes. And if he who pays is an American...? Well. Sad, really, as it might have made a half-decent film had it been better cast. Parachuting an American family into a British scenario, then filling the other parts with English character actors who have all worked together is a bit unfair. I suspect it would have made a better film if the casting had been more cohesive. And a British director would have overcome the difficulties of shooting overseas, as so many have with great success. I was a little surprised to see how little effort had been made to create even a hint of Berkshire or Buckinghamshire, where the coach seemed to be taking Will, and now it seems obvious when I see that the director was Swiss. So we have a Swiss view of the Home Counties recreated in eastern Europe. No, it is definitely the payers fault.

[–] weejockxxx 9 years ago

I agree even the clothes were more like turn of the (19th) century European. A horrible adaptation full of awful characterisations.
Really disappointing.
Oh gravity, thou art a heartless bitch!

[–] cythna 9 years ago

I couldn't believe what those kids were wearing. Almost every child in the UK wears a school uniform, and even if it was a mufti day they wouldn't be wearing those very casual scruffy clothes. The whole film is a mess.