The press conference that New Line held on Monday was without a doubt their most important event in Cannes. Reporters from around the globe were present, from every type of media. This immediately proved New Line's global ambitions for The Golden Compass. This also meant that a lot of the press wasn't familiar with the source material, so we prepared ourselves for some very standard questions.
The perfect example was when a reporter asked Chris Weitz about the dæmons. He replied "have you read the books?" "No" she answered. "You should" Weitz responded, and that was the end of the matter.
Also, the fact that Daniel Craig was present meant that 90% of the reports were solely focused on getting his quotes. Not that I don't like Lord Asriel, but in the books he's not the most important character, so I would have preferred to see some more questions for Dakota, Sam, and Eva.
When Eva was asked what role she played, she responded that she played Serafina, a pretty witch without a broomstick, who protects Lyra.
We got to ask Dakota a question, and we asked if she had any trouble having to interact with Pantalaimon — who during filming did of course not exist apart as some styrofoam block — especially considering she had no prior acting experience.
She replied that it was had been difficult, but she had picked it up relatively quickly.
The best answer of the conference came from Sam Elliot, who when asked about his role in the movie replied that he had played this role before. Being an aeronaut in an alternate world was new, but the rest of the role was very familiar to him.
Sam also remarked that he was just a cog in the entire movie project. He did his scenes, and now it was out of his hands, referring to the 500 strong CGI team no doubt.
One reporter also asked what the cast members' perfect world would be, but not surprisingly none of them was able to give an answer.
An English journalist asked Weitz whether the movie would still be anti-religious. Chris answered:
In the books the Magisterium is a version of the Catholic church gone wildly astray from its roots. If that's what you want in the film, you'll be disappointed. We have expanded the range of meanings that the Magisterium represents.
When asked whether New Line had a marketing plan to neutralize a potential religious backlash he replied that they were going to let the movie talk for itself, which we would say is probably the best approach. That way Pullman's anti-totalitarian message is not only retained, but it will allow the fans of the books to freely interpret the Magisterium as being religious... if they really want to.
We'll expand this article as we continue to work through our notes.
1 comments - Add yours
#1
haha, alright....
# May 22, 2007 02:04 by Lee_Scoresby