HisDarkMaterials.org

It has taken filmmakers almost a century to get J.M. Barrie’s evergreen children’s classic Peter Pan right, but now, exactly 99 years after the boy who never grew up made his first appearance on the West End stage, director P.J. Hogan (My Best Friend’s Wedding) has finally done justice to the story’s every unsettling nuance, with nary a false note or a misstep. Remarkably, this is the first straightforward adaptation—notwithstanding Disney’s 1953 cartoon and Spielberg’s 1991 abomination, Hook—since the silent era. And it arrives during a new golden age for children’s entertainment, at a time when the under-12s are without doubt the audience demographic best served by Hollywood.

This recent interview from the British Council in Poland with Tom Stoppard gives quite a lot of new information, including Tom Stoppard´s views on the length of The Amber Spyglass, and how it will ever fit into a movie. It also confirms that 'The film version of the first book, with a screenplay by Tom Stoppard, will be released Christmas 2004'.

Sir Tom Stoppard, award winning playwright and screenwriter, visited Warsaw in November 2003 as a guest of the British Council. He found time in his busy schedule to talk to us about his forthcoming film adaptation of the fantasy trilogy ‘His Dark Materials’ by Philip Pullman.

Playbill.com just posted an article today informing us that His Dark Materials ws to be converted to the big screen by New Line Cinema. A bit late I'd say. Anyway, they posted this funny description along with it...

The fantasies center on a precocious child called Lyra Belacqua, or, at other times, Lyra Silvertongue. She lives around the grounds of Oxford's Jordan College, her ambitious parents busy elsewhere. The story features such mystical elements as Dust, a secret substance; creatures called "gyptians"; a knife that can slice its way into parallel worlds; a couple of rebels in the persons of Lord Asriel and Mrs. Coulter; and a device called an alethiometer, which divines the truth.

Now that "The Lord of the Rings" has proven it can be done, now that we know that a three-part, nine-hour plunge into a multilayered fantasy world dreamed up by a onetime Oxford academic can become not just box office manna but also an International Cultural Happening -- and now that this Happening is poised to culminate with New Line Cinema's release, this Wednesday, of "Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" -- it's time to ask the inevitable question: When's the next epic three-part fantasy dreamed up by a onetime Oxford academic going to hit the big screen?

An article about Tom Stoppard, writer of the screenplay of the His Dark Materials movies.

Tom Stoppard spent four years researching his new trilogy - yet finished it in a last-minute rush. As his 65th birthday looms, the playwright talks to Dominic Cavendish about a lifetime spent battling his perfectionist nature

This article is about how "[Newline] appears to be backing away from its brasher days with its new lineup of remakes and sequels."

It mentions His Dark Materials:

"But New Line's string of blockbusters every Christmas could be in jeopardy. After the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy concludes next December, the studio had hoped to launch its next multipart literary adaptation, a two- or three-part series based on novelist Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" fantasy trilogy, in December 2004.

But screenwriter Tom Stoppard is still working on the adaptation, and complicated special effects mean the first movie probably will not be ready until the summer of 2005, if not later."

As Jumpers returns to the West End, the playwright Tom Stoppard happily tells our critic Benedict Nightingale that he's right out of ideas:

THERE’S ONE CLOUD in Tom Stoppard’s sky, and, no, it’s not exactly that he’s suffering from writer’s block. As he reminds me in his genially punctilious way, that would mean he had a play in mind which he was finding impossible to write. But 18 months after the three parts of The Coast of Utopia opened at the National, the problem is a lack of ideas and the feeling that, at 66, time is limited: “I go to bed every night saying please God give me a play, and so far he hasn’t.”

This article from the Guardian reports that:

"Philip Pullman's Whitbread-award winning His Dark Materials Trilogy was optioned by the US studio Miramax. It will be adapted for the London stage by the National Theatre in December, amid mumblings that British cinema lacks the drive of its risk-taking theatre directors. "

I asked Newline for confirmation, and they said they were still doing the movies, that Miramax has got nothing to do with it, and that the Guardian simply had made a mistake.

Don't panic! – an important advice before reading this preview of the upcoming film. And I will repeat it: don't panic! It can't be half as bad as pictured here, it just can't!

I have just found a synopsis of the upcoming HDM film on movies.com – and had to laugh out aloud! The summary sounds as if the film were just any cool fantasy, sci-fi action film. My guess is that the reviewer has not read the books:

This one is an old CBBC article about the His Dark Materials movies. Quite a lot of interesting information, but it says:

It means that Will, Lyra and her daemon Pantalaimon could soon be taking on the Dark Forces on the big screen.

The Dark Forces? Oh dear. Read the article below.

This article writes about how kids' films give dangerous impressions of madness. The author mentions how mad people should be depicted in a more positive manner. It seems that the author thinks that the HIs Dark Materials Movies will do this:

"Similarly, the mother of Will, the hero of The Subtle Knife, the second of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, is described as vulnerable, distressed and having compulsive obsessions. Yet she is also depicted with sympathy and as a positive character. More important, Will provides her with emotional and practical support."

Read the whole article below

I found this article on Variety.com. It's about the future films that Newline Cinema is going to produce... it mentions His Dark Materials...

What's the answer to box office success for New Line Cinema after "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy is through? Variety writes:

"The company is set up so we don't need tentpoles," he says. "Historically, New Line has found them in places where you didn't expect."

At the same time, Emmerich is not willing to leave them entirely to chance. He's overseeing the development of a number of pics that have the potential to flutter balance sheets such as the His Dark Materials trilogy, "Shazam" and "Iron Man." All are earmarked for 2005 or later.

As a response to the article in the Times, that said that the screenplay for The Golden Compass/Northen Lights was finished, I asked Newline for confirmation. This was their reply:

"I know that a prelminary draft was discussed but I do not know at what stage they are in the development process with the script. I do know that there is no cast or director planned yet so there will still be quite a bit of a wait."

It seems that the screenplay for the first installment of The His Dark Materials movie trilogy (The Golden Compass/ Northern Lights) is finished.