And 9, 9, 9 for a lost god

[venta]

One of the things most guaranteed to throw any sensible person into a flat spin is the discovery that a favourite book is being made into a film.

Sometime this year, a film version of The Eagle of the Ninth will be released.

Will it suck? Will it be great? Will it trample all over one of the best-loved books of my childhood[*]?

I'm waiting anxiously.

Oh, and yes I do know that the book is based on an entirely false premise - what was a reasonably valid historical theory in 1954 is now known to be untrue. Don't care.

_{[*] and adulthood, if we're strictly honest}

Comments

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

now known to be untrue

Is it? Yikes, I should probably have paid more attention in history lessons. Which bits are wrong?

[zotz]

If I'm remembering rightly, the 9th is now known to have served in Germany after its time in Britain.

[venta.livejournal.com]

zotz is pretty much spot on (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninth_Legion#Disappearance). I think the short version is that records of them existing after AD 117 have come to light since the '50s.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Hmm, the idea of them eventually being destroyed in a Jewish revolt might make for a good book too.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

(Especially in a Jewish revolt led by the man who invented Twenty Questions.)

[mrph.livejournal.com]

...and we also get Neil Marshall's take on it, Centurion.

I may have commented on this before, but I'm starting to see a theme in his films.

Dog Soldiers? Squaddies visit Scotland, meet grisly death (werewolves)

Doomsday? Special forces troops visit Scotland, meet grisly death (post-apocalyptic renegade types).

Centurion? Roman legion visits Scotland. Hilarity ensues.

[verlaine.livejournal.com]

The Ninth had nothing on Legio XX Valeria Victrix, I'm telling you...

[venta.livejournal.com]

;)

Currently reading The Lost Eagles (http://www.amazon.com/Lost-Eagles-Ralph-Graves/dp/B000OU7YFA) about XX and its mates... which really is terrible slush. It might be well-researched slush (I'm not well-enough informed to comment), but really. Crikey.

Edited to add: ye gods. Look at the review on Amazon to see what reading it can do to your brain...

[ebee.livejournal.com]

Ohhhhhh....I Share your concern!

[mrlloyd.livejournal.com]

That was a good book. I do hope the film is good.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Hmm... early still pictures here:

http://unwrappedphotos.com/collections/movies/eagle-of-the-ninth/

Don't think they're great for historical accuracy (the horses look a bit dodgy for a start), but I'll settle for "good story" if necessary ;)

[mrlloyd.livejournal.com]

I have no idea. Looks like they're interested in looking like Gladiator as a first step. Very much the same palette.

[wimble.livejournal.com]

I did read it, a couple of times, when I could acquire it from my sister's bookshelves. The first time I was probably around 7, and the second, I'd guess at 9. I can remember nothing about it, other than the existance of the book.

Now I should decide whether to get myself a copy (and probably some other Rosemary Sutcliff) before the film comes out.

[venta.livejournal.com]

I highly recommend Eagle of the Ninth, The Lantern Bearers and The Silver Branch which loosely form a trilogy. I highly recommend quite a lot of her other books too.

You're welcome to borrow my trilogy, although it might be considerably easier and more fun to read a copy which isn't shedding pages left and right.

[wimble.livejournal.com]

I suspect the looseness might be down to the fact that you seem to be referring to books 1, 4 and 2 of a seven book set :).

It looks like OUP are releasing the first three in a single volume, in June.
(Or there's an audiobook of Eagle#9)

[venta.livejournal.com]

1, 3, and 2, I thought. Brainwilt brought on by a late night got them in the wrong order.

They're all in a single volume (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Three-Legions-Silver-Lantern-Bearers/dp/0140319174), anyway.

[wimble.livejournal.com]

Point, it wouldn't make sense for the (new) collected edition to include 1, 2 and 4 would it? In whatever order (I'd figured out the brainwilt).

I've just noticed (since you brought my attention to it), that the series page on LibraryThing has two entries at "number 3" (Lantern Bearers and Frontier Wolf). I'll be thinking that's wrong then, but don't know enough to be able to put the right information in.

[wimble.livejournal.com]

Ah, Wikipedia claims that Frontier Wolf was the sixth, in order of writing, and doesn't think the "The Shield Ring" is part of the set (it would have been second, in writing order). So it looks like it should just be six books in the series.

[wimble.livejournal.com]

Ah, I've got a clarification, if you care: http://www.librarything.com/topic/82145

[venta.livejournal.com]

Ah. That explains it. I was being a bit confused by the phrase "Dolphin Ring Cycle", which I'd never heard.

I'm not sure which of them I've read (or indeed which I own). Must order bookshelves better. Or at all.

[mrlloyd.livejournal.com]

Blimey. I thought it was a standalone.

6 more - that's tempting.