| Legend of Earthsea | |
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DVD cover |
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| Produced by | Hallmark Entertainment Bender-Brown Productions |
| Written by | Ursula K. Le Guin (novels) Gavin Scott (teleplay) |
| Starring | Shawn Ashmore Kristin Kreuk Danny Glover Isabella Rossellini Sebastian Roché Chris Gauthier |
| Music by | Jeff Rona |
| Cinematography | Steve Danyluk |
| Editing by | Allan Lee |
| Distributed by | The Sci-Fi Channel |
| Release date(s) | 13 December 2004 |
| Running time | 172 mins |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Legend of Earthsea is a miniseries (later shortened to Earthsea), a loose adaptation of the award-winning "Earthsea" novels by Ursula K. Le Guin. It premiered as a two-night television event on the Sci-Fi Channel in December 2004.
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In Earthsea, a world of one thousand and one islands, priestesses led by the High Priestess Thar lock in the tomb of Atuan the diabolic Nameless Ones. However, the ambitious King Tygath, who intends to unite the realm, wants also to release the demons to learn their secret of immortality, and uses his mistress Kossil to poison Thar. Kossil expects to be nominated the next guardian and get the keys and enchantment that keeps the darkness forces apart, but Thar selects the pure Tenar. Meanwhile, in the island of Gont, the reckless and rebel son of a blacksmith Ged dreams on being a wizard. He is sent to the island of Roke to learn magic, but in a dispute with a corrupt mate, he accidentally summons a powerful Nameless One that becomes The Gebbeth and wants to devour his soul. Now his only chance to survive is to follow the lead of a dragon and find the two parts of an amulet to destroy the Nameless Ones
The series was produced by Hallmark Entertainment in association with Bender-Brown Productions. It was adapted by Gavin Scott (The Mists of Avalon) from the Earthsea novels for executive producers Robert Halmi, Sr. (Merlin, Gulliver's Travels, Animal Farm), Lawrence Bender (Kill Bill, Pulp Fiction) and Kevin Kelly Brown (Roswell). The series was filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Reviewing the mini-series, the book The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Fantasy claimed Legend of Earthsea "totally missed the point" of Le Guin's novels, "ripping out all the subtlety, nuance and and beauty of the books and inserting boring cliches, painful stereotypes and a very unwelcome "epic" war in their place". [1] The Moria website's review of "Legend of Earthsea" states "Earthsea feels exactly like tv filler. In the books, Ursula Le Guin expended a great deal of time creating a world with a depth and culture, but nothing of this survives in the mini-series". The review also argues Legend of Earthsea "is shabbily and indifferently directed" and "The dialogue is dreadfully clunky and often excruciatingly bad". [2]
Le Guin, author of the novels on which the miniseries is based, was not involved in the development of the material or the making of the production. The author was not asked to participate in any way in the production of this version of her work and the director is even quoted as putting words in her mouth about the published series. Le Guin has maintained a relatively quiet stance on the production. She has written a number of responses to the handling of this adaptation of her works, including "A Whitewashed Earthsea" and "Frankenstein's Earthsea".