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- Spideristic, on 10/11/2007, -2/+91http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fa-W4q2nsHY
http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/thegoldencompass.html
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Based on author Philip Pullman's bestselling and award-winning novel, The Golden Compass tells the first story in Pullman's "His Dark Materials" trilogy. Nicole Kidman, Sam Elliott, Eva Green, Dakota Blue Richards and Daniel Craig star.
The fantasy adventure by writer/director Chris Weitz opens in theaters on December 7.
His Dark Materials is a trilogy of novels by the fantasy fiction author Philip Pullman, comprising Northern Lights (released as The Golden Compass in North America and published in 1995), The Subtle Knife (published in 1997) and The Amber Spyglass (published in 2000).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/His_Dark_Materials - BESTenemy, on 10/11/2007, -4/+73"I have a contract with Coca-Cola corporation..."
- MikeWa11ace, on 10/11/2007, -4/+50Dugg for a talking polar bear.
- Tetragrammaton, on 10/11/2007, -2/+45Some say it's the atheist rebuke to the Chronicles of Narnia. I don't see how you could construe it to be pro-Christian...
- Fizban119, on 10/11/2007, -2/+37No, no air ships and pirates! They're zepplins and gyptians!
- Azimuth1, on 10/11/2007, -3/+34I absolutely love the books, and I cannot wait for this movie.
- masterskill, on 10/11/2007, -0/+31You can bet Colbert will have something to say about this one... 12 foot tall talking bears with thumbs and armor; a recipe for disaster and unamericanism in my book.
- speerross, on 10/11/2007, -1/+30The entire basis of the entire 3 books was 'pseudo-christian' as you put it. He didnt suddenly implement that solely in the 3rd book.You can see parallels, allusions and clear explanations for the 'pseudo-christian' elements right the way through. Remember, the entire premise of the trilogy is to kill God (That is Azruels (sp?) objective from the outside and hence what set in motion the adventures of lyra).
And I damn well hope they haven't pussied out and dropped the religious parts of the books as that is THE central theme. Without that it's just another adventure story rather than the epic that it is. The religious elements ARE the plot, it is nothing without it. I refuse to pay for this film if they have dropped what is the central theme to appease Christian rightists. - aikahanyou, on 10/11/2007, -4/+32I can't wait!
The CG looks *beautiful*.
But where are all the daemons? They had a quick shot of Pantalaimon near the end, but the daemons were pretty much absent for the rest of the trailer. I hope they're not being written down to pets or something... - xXShadowstormXx, on 10/11/2007, -2/+26The book to this adaptation is effin awesome.
A MUST READ.
Author: Philip Pullman - zdislaw, on 10/11/2007, -0/+22Funnything, that. Phillip Pullman HATES Tolkien (C.S. Lewis too):
“ ‘The Lord of the Rings’ is fundamentally an infantile work,” he said. “Tolkien is not interested in the way grownup, adult human beings interact with each other. He’s interested in maps and plans and languages and codes.” When it comes to “The Chronicles of Narnia,” by C. S. Lewis, Pullman’s antipathy is even more pronounced. Although he likes Lewis’s criticism and quotes it surprisingly often, he considers the fantasy series “morally loathsome.”
From the New Yorker, December 26, 2005 (http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/12/26/051226fa_fact?currentPage=1) - Walker2323, on 10/11/2007, -0/+20Yeah, she's reeeeeally hard to look at:
http://www.imdb.com/gallery/ss/0381061/Ss/0381061/Colour.jpg?path=pgallery&path_key=Green,%20Eva - Artifez, on 10/11/2007, -2/+21Panzerbjorn!
- nathanwalker, on 10/11/2007, -0/+17@aikahanyou
Exactly what I was thinking. If they plan on taking this to the next level, they had better put emphasis on the daemons, because the entire plot of the second book revolves around the connection between people and their daemons. - Myonosken, on 10/11/2007, -0/+15Kinda peeved that the daemons received like a second of actual footage in the trailer.
They best not underplay what was one of the best bits in the book, - dangshortasians, on 10/11/2007, -1/+14@coniferous
Did you not see the giant talking bear - saska, on 10/11/2007, -0/+13@speerross,
"In an interview published on the internet in December 2004, Weitz indicated that the film would make no direct mention of religion or of God, two of the key themes of the trilogy – a decision attacked by fans of the novels. Weitz stated that New Line Cinema feared that "perceived antireligiosity" would make the film financially unviable in the US. However, Weitz attempted to reassure fans by saying that religion would appear in euphemistic terms. He also indicated that he believes His Dark Materials is "not an atheistic work, but a highly spiritual and reverent piece of writing"."
Read the wiki. - Tetragrammaton, on 10/11/2007, -2/+14We can't know yet, but they sure are playing up the relation to LotR.
- ShadySpace, on 10/11/2007, -2/+14Steampunk FTW.
- anonym41414, on 10/11/2007, -3/+11I haven't read Pullman's work, and I don't understand his criticism of Lewis well enough to address it, but I think he's right on about Tolkien. What little fragments of actual human relationships there are in his work are real pleasures to find, because they're so damn rare. The guy would rather write about trees and flowers and languages than people.
Obviously there's room in this world for all different kinds of books, and I don't know if throwing the word "infantile" around helps anybody, but Tolkien was never my cup of tea for precisely the reasons Pullman described. So I think he's got a point. - saska, on 10/11/2007, -1/+8All the religion is gone from the films according to the early production discussions. They were afraid it would be too controversial.
- roastnewt1, on 10/11/2007, -0/+7I could see how you could remove some religious references from the first and maybe the second book. But the whole plot of the third book is about a war against God. Are they not planning on making that one into a movie?
- feebie, on 10/11/2007, -0/+7I'm still wondering how they're going to pull off those crazy hairy elephants with a wheel for feet from the third book.
- Abaddon1125, on 10/11/2007, -1/+7This is the part where I have to wonder if anyone writing the above comments even watched the freakin trailer. They specifically refer to the alethiometer by name in the trailer, and the title "Golden Compass" is the title under which the book was released outside of the UK in order to better coincide with the titles of the other two books, the Subtle Knife and the Amber Spyglass.
And yes, to a degree, the alethiometer is a sort of compass. Instead of pointing toward magnetic North, it points toward the truth. - ckSubs, on 10/11/2007, -1/+6I'm a fan of the American name. It fits so much better with the other books and the series as a whole.
From:
http://www.bridgetothestars.net/index.php?p=FAQ#4
-Why are there two different titles for the first book?
A source of endless confusion and bitterness across the Atlantic, the name change came about through a fairly bizarre (and certainly annoying) sequence of events, which Philip Pullman explains below. "Two nations divided by a common language"... At any rate, the books are nearly identical, aside from a few words and spellings here and there, and in the earlier British editions one of the dæmons of the masters in the crypt was a 'fair-haired lady' - this was corrected later since people can't have human dæmons. Curiously, there seems to also be a some missing passages in the UK edition, that the U.S. edition does contain.
Philip Pullman: "The trilogy known as HIS DARK MATERIALS didn't have that name in my mind from the start. In fact it didn't have a name at all; it was just 'the big book'. When I'd finished the first volume and was talking about it with David Fickling, my British publisher, we tried various names and couldn't find one that worked. I knew that the trilogy needed a name, and that each of the books needed its own separate name too (I don't like numbers in titles: THE GODFATHER PART TWO, and so on. Just a fad. But it's my fad). So: what should they be called?
My first discovery was the phrase THE GOLDEN COMPASSES (plural, note). This comes in Milton's Paradise Lost, a poem which inspired me a great deal. The line refers to the Son of God taking 'the golden compasses, prepared / In God's eternal store, to circumscribe / The universe, and all created things."
In other words, these were compasses to draw a circle with, not a compass to find your way with. I liked the phrase, and the trilogy became temporarily, during the publication process, The Goldem Compasses. And we finally settled on Northern Lights for the title of the first book.
Meanwhile, in the US, it was being read by the editors at Alfred A. Knopf. Someone decided (mistakenly, but firmly) that the title referred to Lyra's alethiometer, which could be regarded as a sort of golden compass, but of the direction-finding and not circle-drawing sort. So the same someone or another someone decided to refer to the first book, for their own internal discussing-a-forthcoming-book purposes, as THe GOLDEN COMPASS.
Meanwhile, back in the UK, I had found the much better phrase, HIS DARK MATERIALS, for the title of the trilogy. I quote the passage from which it comes at the very beginning of the first book. Better, because it's more atmospheric, and there's the uncanny resemblance to 'dark matter', which figures largely in the story. So out went THE GOLDEN COMPASSES, and in came HIS DARK MATERIALS.
Meanwhile, back in the USA, the publishers had become so attached to THE GOLDEN COMPASS that nothing I could say could persuade them to call the book NORTHERN LIGHTS. Their obduracy in this matter was accompanied by such generosity in the matter of royalty advances, flattery, promises of publicity, etc, that I thought it would be churlish to deny them this small pleasure.
So that's it. The fact that all three titles refer to an artifact is no more than a coincidence, though it does make a nice pattern. Before I'd finished the third one, the artist Eric Rohmann, who drew the wonderful covers the books had in their first Knopf editions, asked what the third book would be called, and before I could tell him, volunteered THE SOPHISTICATED MONKEY-WRENCH.
One tiny final thing: my first suggestion for the third book was THE LACQUER SPY-GLASS. My editor at Knopf, Joan Slattery, pointed out that this might be mis-heard as LACK OF, and that made sense to me; so it became AMBER instead." - theorem7, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5@arbulus
In the UK it is called Northern Lights.
I agree with daofma, the American name fits in better with the series (The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass), as it gives the series a more consistent feeling. Additionally, the series is referred to as "His Dark Materials", thus naming the books after said materials would be appropriate. Nevertheless, Northern Lights is a completely acceptable name for the book by itself, I just think that the alternate title fits in better with the series. Pullman is British however, so I'm assuming that the title in the UK is the one that he intended, and it was changed when it was published in the US. - Myonosken, on 10/11/2007, -3/+8Still prefer the UK title tbh.
- xler8, on 10/11/2007, -1/+6
Actually, at one point in the series, the polars have to leave their homes because of the temperature is heating up and the ice is no longer stable.
:) - djAnakin, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5http://www.goldencompassmovie.com
- Artifez, on 10/11/2007, -3/+8I didn't, it was just weird.
- filmbandit, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5"Here is a very impressive trailer for "The Golden Compass", and I must say, this thing looks beautiful. The effects look amazing, the scenery looks amazing, the acting looks amazing…basically the entire things looks amazing."
beautiful: 1
amazing: 4
= amazing throttles beautiful 4 to 1
. . . and a decent thesaurus is about the same price as a matinee movie ticket - Coniferous, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5@aikahanyou
Daemons are still being rendered. Did you notice almost a complete lack of anything hard to animate in that trailer? Probably why. - MyDigitalSin, on 10/11/2007, -2/+7well it's good to see that global warming won't wipe out all the polar bears by the end of the year!
- theorem7, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4Actually, there definitely is a prophecy in this series. I'm not going to give too much away and spoil it for people who haven't read it yet (you need too!), but basically there is a prophecy among the witches that Lyra is going to be the next Eve, and the choice she makes at the end will determine the fate of every universe. The catch that differentiates this from other stereotypical prophecy stories, however, is that they never tell Lyra of the prophecy, although it is likely that she inferred some sense of her importance through hearing people talk or from the alethiometer.
- daofma, on 10/11/2007, -1/+5The US title fits in so much better with the series. Both other books are titled with an adjective and a tool. It doesn't make sense to have just 2 of 3.
- alexhhhh, on 11/28/2008, -1/+4loved those books
can't wait for this - saska, on 10/11/2007, -2/+5Prepare to be depressed. Well, unless you were bothered by the discussion of religion and the nature of God in the books. They cut all of that out of the films because they were afraid of offending people.
- Steyr47, on 10/11/2007, -3/+6Best book ever?
Yes. - BrowserBabe, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3Wow I didn't realize that this trilogy had become so popular until recently! I read this back in high school for an English Festival. I loved it and when my English teacher ask the class for suggestions of good books to read she completely ignored my suggestion of this book. I really disliked her ...but gosh I wish I could bump into her now and remind her of this incident.
LOL...I'm excited... I am definitely going to have to reread the story!
I'm definitely digging this! - chokeaduck, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3I am a fan of the HDM trilogy, and eagerly await both "The Book of Dust" as well as the movie trilogy.
- saska, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3You're entitled to your opinion. If you want me to respect it, you'll have to make the exact same type of complaint about the Narnia series.
- quaff, on 10/11/2007, -1/+4SWEEET!
this trilogy is awesome! i don't read books normally.. but this series ("His Dark Materials") really blew my mind, I can't wait to see if hollywood will mess up this adaptation or not. - Rikushix, on 10/11/2007, -1/+4It must have been very gripping.
- LowFuel, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3Newsflash: they are.
- inactive, on 10/11/2007, -1/+3the bar has to get raised on CG, they're cheaping out
this is pretty as hell (and I am *so* going to the theatre for it), but they really need to put more dirt in/on things
that initial blimp just looks so CG to me, instant spit out
and goddammit it is just getting so obvious when someone's flying on wires, nothing breaks my illusion faster than movement that looks off. if you don't get that basic right, the rest is wasted.
the polar bear's lip sync is rushed too
not to invalidate anyone's nerdgasm - feebie, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2I was thinking it looked way too futuristic too.
From the book I definately thought the alternative Oxford looked more like it would have in our world in the mid 1800's, with perhaps some things more advanced than we were at that time and maybe others less. A mixture of different technologies, and not so much of that curvy, jutting, futuristic design of vehicles and buildings. - MikeWanDo, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Nevermind, speerros beat me to it.
- feebie, on 10/11/2007, -1/+3seeing as this is the trailer, i highly doubt any of this cg was final.
- zummerzet, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2As an Oxford resident, I have to say that the city portrayed in the trailer doesn't look anything like Oxford! I was hoping for more of a steampunk kind of re-imagining, however, the trailer made "Alter-Oxford" look more like a city from one of the planets from StarWars I-III! If you will excuse the cliché - don't you just hate it when films spoil the book for you! Does anyone else feel that the trailer looks a little too futuristic?
- speerross, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2@ artifez
But in hindsight of the third book you see Azreuls (sp?) actions are always directed at this "war against the creator/heaven" from absolute day 1 of the book. The book is essentially an alternate take on Christian mythology (with a ***** of science thrown in) for instance the Adam and Eve storyline, to me this is an integral part of the story and meaning behind the book and is obvious for those reasons. The series is about Christianity (although its point is aimed at organised religion in general, the fiction story itself is based solely on Christianitypresumably because this is the religion Pullman is most familiar with ) it is not a subtle allusion to it or an allegory for Christianity. The Christian elements of the plot were behind every plot element from the dust of Northern Lights to The War on Heaven of The Amber Spyglass. So yeah it came off as obvious, but that was the point, and far from ruining the world he had created it was a central and integral part of it (just as it is a central part of ours) and to me it is the religious aspects that turn this from a well-written adventure in to a real epic. . I think many peoples reactions to the series are representative of that; by the end of the first book I thought well that was good, by the end of the 3rd such a sense of awe and power was installed in me like a real epic book should.
@chewie
an irrelevant reply to this thread of discussion, expect to be buried... -
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