A voyage to Earthsea?

While dredging through the debris covering my desk, I came across the still-unread February issue or Locus. Good thing I noticed it, too, because right there on page eight was a photo of Ursula LeGuin, with a caption stating that "the miniseries based on the first two novels of her 'Earthsea' saga for the Sci-Fi Channel has been given the green light to begin production in New Zealand this Spring." A little more digging (on the web, this time) led to more information and an invigorating interview in the Guardian in which the GrandMistress herself discusses the miniseries, Dr. Who, dreams, and other stuff:

Q: Perhaps you feel a bit out of step with your contemporaries?

UKL: Why should a woman of 74 want to be "in step with" anybody? Am I in an army, or something?

By casting Danny Glover, Kristin Kreuk, and Isabella Rossellini in leading roles, the producers seem to be paying at least some attention to LeGuin's description of the people of Earthsea as primarily dark-haired and dark-skinned. Of course, the main character may look a little pale by comparison....

What will matter more than cosmetics, in any sense of that word, is whether the series manages to capture the psychological subtlety of LeGuin's work. Yes, Ged is a wizard-in-training, but his reasons for his journeys and tests are a bit less obvious than a game of Quidditch, and the far-flung, culturally fragmented archepelagoes of Earthsea are more varied than Hogwarts Academy.