HisDarkMaterials.org

The Golden Compass World Premiere

Navigation

• New Line's Plan for The Golden Compass World Premiere
• World Premiere Blog
  • Introduction
  • The Golden Compass Screening Round-up
  • Screening and Roundtables
  • Interviews, videogames and treats
  • Press conference and Red Carpet Premiere
  • Premiere aftermath and returning home
• Image Gallery

New Line's Plan for The Golden Compass World Premiere

1. Press screening of The Golden Compass
   → Read our reviews
2. Roundtable interviews with Daniel Craig, Dakota Blue Richards, Sam Elliot, Eva Green, Chris Weitz and Deborah Forte
   → Transcript for room 1
   → Transcript for room 2
   → Transcript for room 3
3. TV interviews with Sam Elliot, Eva Green and Chris Weitz
   → View our interview with Sam Elliot
   → View our interview with Eva Green
4. Press Conference with Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Eva Green, Dakota Blue Richards, Sam Elliot, Chris Weitz and Deborah Forte
   → Read our transcript
5. Technical Press Conference with Ruth Meyers (Costume designer), Alexandre Desplat (soundtrack composer), Mike Fink (visual effects supervisor), Deborah Forte (producer)
   → Read our transcript
6. The Golden Compass World Premiere at Leicester Square, London
   → View our Red Carpet Premiere photos
   → View our The Golden Compass Red Carpet Premiere Interviews

World Premiere Blog

November 28th

Premiere aftermath and returning home

After last night's the red carpet event and the film's premiere, New Line threw a great after party at Tobacco Dock. The venue had several rooms fitted out with themes for the Magisterium, The North, Oxford and so on. The guests were treated not only with snacks and drinks, but also the presence of most of the talent of the movie as well as Philip Pullman.

Meanwhile, Wisse and Marijn went back to the hotel to start working on editing the material from that night straightaway. Less than 5 hours later, we had a full video report of the event as well as photos online. Talk about turnaround!

After yet another night of little to no sleep, we all made our way back to home (actually, some of us are probably still underway). It's a strange feeling that after several very exciting and action-packed days filled with both fun, pleasure, laughs and a lot of very hard work, the event is done and the movie is having its worldwide release soon. We are very anxious to see how everyone will respond to the movie.

We'd like to thank David, Edward, Graham and Wisse for joining us in London and helping us out with processing all the material we gathered and spicing up the "office" with their presence. We'd also like to thank New Line Cinema for having us over and giving us the opportunity to cover every one of the exciting events. Thanks to Jennifer from MTV for hanging out with us and Thomas from Cittagazze.com for working with us on the roundtable transcripts. Also a shout out to Alex from SEGA who was kind enough to demonstrate The Golden Compass game and to put up with our newbie mistakes.

For now that it's for the Premiere blog. Whatever material we didn't get around editing and posting yet, it'll be done over the next few days. Also expect more insights about the movie to pop up as the dust settles, and reactions from the public will begin to pop up. So far the reviews in most of the newspapers have been positive (both The Guardian and The Telegraphy have raving reviews) with just the Times basically butchering it and giving it 2/5 stars (more on that later). We really hope all you guys will have the opportunity to see film as soon as possible and make up your own minds.

Thanks for visiting!
Ryan, Erica and Marijn

November 27th

Press conference and Red Carpet Premiere

This morning there were two press conferences scheduled, one with all of the cast, Chris Weitz and producer Deborah Forte, and another one with technical staff Ruth Meyers (costume designer), Alexandre Desplat (soundtrack composer), Mike Fink (visual effects supervisor). We managed to slip in a few questions, so watch out for a write-up of that.

The transcripts of monday's roundtables are finished and up for your viewing pleasure: Room 1, Room 2 and Room 3. They really provide a few interesting statements, insights and anecdotes. We're going to have a write-up about all this later on as well.

Wisse is down here busy editing video material, so that will trickle in over the coming time as well with our interview with Sam Elliot breaking the ice.

Premiere events

Of course, later today is the event where it's all about: the actual red carpet premiere with all the staff, producers, Chris Weitz and Philip Pullman attending. We're going to be on the red carpet with photo- and videocamera crews, so we're going to have some really exciting material from that up by tomorrow! You can watch the events at Leicester Square in London through the World Premiere webcam as well. If you're around Leicester Square this afternoon come by and meet up with us!

November 26th

Interviews, videogames and treats

Today we've done a few one-on-one camera interviews with Sam Elliot, Eva Green and Chris Weitz. They turned out really great and we'll post them as soon as we've got them converted and sorted out.

Other than that, we've had to opportunity to play The Golden Compass videogame on the XBox 360. We had very low expectations, but it turns out it's become a very fun and enjoyable game. The graphics are a lot better than we've seen on screenshots and video previews so far, and the gameplay is straightforward yet ever so slightly addictive (Erica couldn't stop exploring the world and plunging Lyra off of ladders anyway). The normal adventure-style gameplay is complemented with alethiometer reading puzzles and "deceiting" mini-games. We hope to do a full review of both the Xbox/PS2/PS3/PC/Wii as well as the Nintendo DS version (which is different altogether) soon.

After treating ourselves with some gold-plated chocolate cake treats, we headed back to the "office" again. We're finishing typing up yesterday's roundtable transcripts and we're preparing for the day of tomorrow. Tomorrow is actually going to be the most exciting day, so keep checking HDM.org for the latest updates!

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November 25th

Screening and Roundtables

This morning Edward, Dave, and Graham attended a screening of The Golden Compass. They had some interesting comments about the movies, and our general review shall be updated accordingly.

However, there are certain points on which we share different views, so we will post a series of individual commentaries as well. This will hopefully also give you some insight about how we came to the verdicts that we did in our overall movie review — contrary to popular belief we do not simply label everything 'fantastic' just because we work for the website.

We're currently survivng on the good fortunes of something called "Pot Noodle" - a new experience for the girl from the U.S. (Erica). The roundtables start in roughly an hour, afterwards we'll provide you with a complete transcript straight away. Stay tuned!

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November 25th

The Golden Compass Screening Round-up

Tonight was the big night of the movie screening. The event has seemed like some goal faraway for the past four years, but suddenly it was awfully close. Ryan, Erica and I were shipped off in a shuttle bus to the hotel were the screening was taking place. About forty other journalists, mostly USA/Canadian, sat in a little hotel theatre as witnessed this movie for the first time. Read our review here.

After the round-up we went back to the hotel, had a bite to eat and then we went straight to work on the reviews of the movie and soundtrack.

The folks from French fansite Cittagazze.com, Thomas and Magali have been around to cover the event for the French fans. Jennifer from MTV is hanging out here with us at our suite in the wonderful Millenium Mayfair hotel.

Tomorrow we're covering some interesting events, and we're planning to some video items as well. Check back this space for some more on-the-side information and photos, and HisDarkMaterials.org for all the latest news from London!

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November 24th

Introduction

Hello, and Welcome to the HisDarkMaterials.org The Golden Compass Premier event. Over the next four days, we are going to be keeping you up to date with the goings on in London ahead of the premier on Tuesday. Expect lots of pictures, videos, and blog updates as and when we get them!

"We" are Ryan (Lord Asriel), Marijn (L!NK), Erica (Phit), Dave (ArcT) and Graham (Latency) and myself (edd8990)! We all arrived today days, and are now hard at work :)

We're already getting our faces well known by the hotel staff, we've moved rooms, had the staff in moving furniture, phoned the IT desk many times, and even had security round!

We've got lots of computers set up (Seven at the current count!) allowing us to work on many projects at once.

Anyway. It's my job to make a start on this, Ryan went and registered with New Line, and we got lots of press stuff, and a copy of the Soundtrack CD (Look for Dave's review soon!). The press pack, whilst coming in a very impressive box, contained mostly the same images that have previously been released, along with character Bios, but nothing really new, so instead of reviewing that, I will give you a run down of whats happeneing over the next few days.

Tonight at about half six, three people will go to the first press screening of the movie. Look for the reviews later on! Tomorrow, there will be round table discussion with Daniel Craig, Eva Green, Dakota Blue Richards, Sam Elliot, Chris Weitz and Deborah Forte. On Tuesday there will be a press conference with all of the people from the round table, plus Nicole Kidman. This will be followed by a technical print conference, with Ruth Meyers (Costume design), Alexander Desplat (Composer), Mike Fink (Visual Effects Supivisor) and Deborah Forte (producer). Then in the evening, there will bt the after premier party.

We are also going to be attempting a video blog every night, so make sure you look for that.

Right, we're off. Updates soon!

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Image Gallery

• Out and About – A selection of photos that we've taken so far outside official events
• Red Carpet Premiere - HisDarkMaterials.org photos
• Red Carpet Arrivals - Press photos