Poor Ursula K. LeGuin. I just read her essay, A Whitewashed Earthsea: How the Sci Fi Channel wrecked my books. There’s also an extended version, called Earthsea in Clorox (via Neil Gaiman). So in hindsight selling the movie rights was not the best move, but she explains her thinking behind it…and a bit about how and when things went very very wrong. And she offers this apology:
I’m very sorry for my readers who tuned in thinking they were going to see a film version of my books. To you readers, I apologise. I love movies, and I did want to see an Earthsea movie, so I fell for it. I’m sorry! We’ll do better next time.
I do hope so. Sigh.
Bonus: The talented Leslie Hall has created a CD called Bake Me Some Mama Drama. And from it there are some, umm, lovely video clips turned into holiday greeting cards, available via Beat Greets. Oh my.