HisDarkMaterials.org

On the 17th of October, HisDarkMaterials.org was invited to attend a press preview of the new The Golden Compass video game. The event was held at FrankPR's London offices in Camden. The video game is being developed by Shiny Entertainment (Who also created "The Matrix: Path of Neo" and "Enter the Matrix") and is being published by SEGA.

The New York Times has published a lengthy article on the development of The Golden Compass and its importance on the future prospects of New Line Cinema:

Not since Dorothy landed on the witch has a young girl shouldered quite so many worries as 12-year-old Lyra Belacqua.

The fate of the universe, certainly. A movie budget of $180 million, at least. The future course of New Line Cinema, perhaps.

For the last year New Line has been wrestling with its London-based production of “The Golden Compass,” an ambitious fantasy in which Dakota Blue Richards, a schoolgirl with no previous credits, plays the intrepid Lyra. Supported by Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig, Ms. Richards’ character is the heroine in what is planned to be the first of three movies based on Philip Pullman’s “His Dark Materials” series of novels, New Line’s answer to Disney’s “Narnia” films.

This article from Entertainment Weekly mentions the removal of the religious themes in the movies, and confirms that Daniel Craig and Nicole Kidman have signed on for The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass.

Fall Movie Preview

Clergymen who kidnap children. Witches who aren't wicked. Even a pair of sexually ambiguous angels. If you thought Harry Potter was blasphemous, wait till you get a look at the His Dark Materials trilogy. New Line's $150 million adaptation of the first in Philip Pullman's series of theologically trippy novels, The Golden Compass follows 12-year-old Lyra Belacqua (Richards) as she sets off on an epic odyssey through a fantastical parallel universe inhabited by armor-wearing polar bears and shape-shifting daemons.

We're proud to present the preproduction movie of The Golden Compass. It's basically a run-through of the whole movie before — as the title implies — any shooting was done, so the material consists of storyboard sketches, scene tests, and preliminary CGI. It provides a wonderful view into how the movie was out together, and come to life. Be warned, this 27 minute movie contains spoilers for those unfamiliar with the storyline.

Thanks go to our members situ, for bringing this to our attention, and Pylse, for helping us publish this.

View the preproduction movie.

Movies on MTV.com reports: There's another character that has been written with Kidman in mind: Mrs. Coulter from the "His Dark Materials" fantasy-book series, which is headed to the big screen. Author Philip Pullman has suggested he had Kidman on the brain when he wrote the manipulative character, leading her to laugh: "I don't know if that was an insult or a compliment!"

Kidman will play the character against Craig's Lord Asriel in the film adaptation of "The Golden Compass," the first "His Dark Materials" installment. But before we seem them working against each other in the fantasy epic, they'll be onscreen in "The Invasion," the update of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers."

The official Golden Compass blog has been expanded to contain a lot more side-information about the movies. The newly added content includes storyline information, a video and images section, character and cast bios, design and filming locations.

The video section features a movie with outtakes from the footage we've seen at the Cannes Filmfestival, focussing on Panserbjørne visual effects. Although it is all footage that has been released before, it is interesting to see all the Panserbjørne outtakes pasted together.

Watch the video here

The New Line presentation at Comic-Con 2007 screened a special 5 minute long extended preview. It's basically an edited version of the 10 minute preview which we saw in Cannes.

The preview includes a lot of cinematics, dialogue and more dæmon detail than ever seen before.

View the extended preview.

MTV Movies Blog reports: Our team is on the ground in San Diego, and we’re the first inside Comic-Con!

Our friends at New Line were nice enough to sneak us in a side door and let us tour their massive display for December’s “The Golden Compass.” And to even call it a “booth” is ridiculous, because it’s big enough to house the cast of a Steve Martin family film.

View the photos

Animation Magazine reports: Noted CG and vfx house Framestore CFC will use REALVIZ Movimento for its jam-packed 2007-2008 production pipeline, including His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass. REALVIZ Movimento is a state-of-the-art video-based motion capture solution, “powered by smart,” REALBIZ’ powerful automatic 3D tracking engine. REALVIZ Movimento was unveiled at SIGGRAPH 2006 in Boston, and offers the unique capability to capture the motion of any non-rigid object (humans, animals) in post-production, from synchronized image sequences with total flexibility—starting from two cameras, to as many as needed, cameras can be fixed for moving, of different frame rates and definitions, and no need for a mo-cap studio.

New Line handed out production notes to the press at Cannes; these notes contain a huge amount of information on the process of adapting The Golden Compass, and about the cast, crew, and creative team of the film.

View the production notes

New Line has released a new teaser trailer for The Golden Compass.  The trailer has a few new snippets we've not seen yet  including Lyra spitting at the Tartar guards in Bolvangar and a scene of Lord Asriel and Mrs. Coulter about to kiss.

View the official teaser trailer.

Cinematical reports: The recent trailer release gave us plenty of reasons to geek out over the promise of The Golden Compass, New Line Cinema's winter tentpole and hopeful torchbearer in the franchise department: The talking polar bear, the emergence of another young talent named Dakota, Daniel Craig's reunion with fallen Bond babe Eva Green, Daniel Craig's (post-Invasion) reunion with Nicole Kidman... Now we have some pretty artwork to feast our eyes upon, along with four character posters that are essentially puzzle pieces enlarged from the key art. Not that we mind: Check out the shoulders on Kidman! Salty. Green's poster gives us a nice view, too, of the scenic parallel universe. I suppose the ladies will dig on Mr. Craig's Wright brother-in-the-wilderness look as well. And yeah, the kid on the bear's cute and all. Safe to say this one's already shaping up to appease all ages...

View the posters

ZeeNews.com reports: New Bond star Daniel Craig showed just how dangerous he can be, when he inadvertently left a crewmember with broken bones on the sets of his new movie The Golden Compass.  Craig, who plays the character of Lord Asriel in the movie adaptation of Philip Pullman's 'His Dark Materials' trilogy, caused the accident when fiming a scene in Oxford he ran straight into the path of a rickshaw that was carrying the cameraman. The rickshaw swerved to avoid hitting Craig, and as a result the cameraman was thrown out from it.

The Golden Compass crew has landed in Oxford again for another shooting session. Ted Weiland was in the neighbourhood, and he shot a few pictures. They include mostly pictures of lights, green screens and scenery.

They are available on his Flickr page. Filming will continue tomorrow, so keep an eye on Ted's Flickr for an update!

IGN reports: Currently slotted for a Boxing Day release in Australia (and December 7 in most other, more fortunate regions), The Golden Compass is the first of three films based on author Philip Pullman's celebrated and cherished all-ages fantasy trilogy, 'His Dark Materials'. Since the public trailer contains moments expanded on in the sneak preview, that's our focus for this feature. Unlike the immediate start of the public trailer, the extended look at The Golden Compass opens with a fly-over of Oxford. As the bronze airship passes silently over the art-deco-machina, alternate 1920s cityscape, you'll push aside your doubts. The Golden Compass and the subsequent releases are going to be fine films. This will not be another Eragon pratfall, nor the overblown fluff offered by The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.