HisDarkMaterials.org

Metro.co.uk reports: A new interactive feature called Meet Your Daemon has been launched by New Line Cinema on its official website for the upcoming film The Golden Compass. The new feature, at GoldenCompassMovie.com, allows users to discover exactly what daemon best represents their personality, and then allows them to take their daemon avatar with them by embedding it on their own website or MySpace page.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports: TUCKED BEHIND THE gargoyles in the vestibule of Oxford Town Hall, Philip Pullman signed his name. Not once, but at least 400 times. Perhaps 500.  Jolly and avuncular at first, the author of the best-selling His Dark Materials trilogy became tetchy as the last autograph hunters lined up, thrusting scraps of paper at him, rather than one of his books.

Who could blame him for wanting to bolt? For the previous 90 minutes he had addressed an Oxford Literary Festival audience of 600 - more men and boys than women and girls - about The Golden Compass, the film adaptation of Northern Lights, volume one of the award-winning trilogy.

We've got our hands on the first exclusive pictures of Dakota Blue Richards in the wild, thanks to Mikayli, a member of Cittàgazze.

The pictures show Dakota posing for the camera, jumping on the trampoline and generally having a good time. They really show the energy and the quirkiness that make Lyra Lyra.

View a selection of the pictures here. After an internal discussion we've decided to pull the images.

The thread on Cittàgazze.

We've received some very interesting pictures, as well as some video footage, from behind the scenes at the set of The Golden Compass from a member of ours, KINGY.

The pictures were made on the backlot of the Shepperton Studios in London where parts of The Golden Compass were shot. They include close-ups of the Gyptian boat as well as details of the Bolvanger town.

Most notable is the picture on which a man with a halo is portrayed on a wall. This would indicate that not all religious references are removed afterall.

The video footage shows how a whole snowy atmosphere was created with artificial snow in Farnham, Surrey by a company named Snow Business.

View the pictures.

View the video footage.

Update: A small video clip has popped up that shows The Golden Compass crew working with cats in the streets of Oxford.

A Times Online interview with Bob Shaye, head of New Line Cinema, which is producing The Golden Compass, includes this:

"While Shaye’s contract with New Line is up next year, he remains optimistic about the company’s future. Most notably there’s the release of The Golden Compass, the first in Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials series and starring Nicole Kidman, which, at a cost of $180 million, is the company’s most expensive single film to date. It’s enough to make the miserly producer in him worry. “It’s a big bloody investment,” he shudders.

But then, so was The Lord of the Rings."

The first actual movie footage from The Golden Compass is now available to the public. The footage is probably best described as an early teaser-teaser trailer and features raw, untextured renders of landscapes, cities and shape-shifting dæmons as well as a look behind the scenes and introductionary notes by Chris Weitz, Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig and Eva Green.

Watch the movie here!

Join the discussion on Cittagazze.

Thanks to Ilaria of BadTaste.it for alerting us.

Elbakin.net adds another new scan from the French magazine Studio.

The scan contains a new image of Lyra and Lord Faa.

Elbakin.net, an online French fantasty books website, has just posted some fantastic scans of the French Promotional Booklet.

The booklet contains many previously viewable images as well as content and a new image of Lyra, presumeably from the Bolvangar portion of the book.
Translation work in-progress.  For a brief translation please visit the discussion in our forums.

Finally we received the footage from our visit to the set of The Golden Compass on January 23^rd 2007.

Read our original set report.

A big thanks to Samwise for helping out with the editing of the footage!

View the set visit footage.

The Sunday Times writes: The Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival starts on March 20. Among the highlights will be Philip Pullman introducing the first scenes from The Golden Compass, starring Nicole Kidman. Pullman reveals his feelings at the prospect of seeing His Dark Materials on screen.

Since the cinema first came into being 100 years ago, most novelists have written with the knowledge of how stories work on the screen. Many of them have written with the awareness, and sometimes the hope, that the novel they’re writing might be adapted for the cinema. Some even write the screenplay alongside the novel so they can sell it straight away.

Daily Mail columnist Baz Bamigboye mentions in an article about Nicole Kidman that the marketing campaign for The Golden Compass will be launched at the Cannes Film Festival in May. Daniel Craig and Nicole Kidman are announced to attend to the festival.

Although details have not yet been announced by New Line Cinema, this confirms earlier speculation that they are set to the launch the marketing campaign for the film at Cannes.

Variety.com spoke with Darren Epstein, executive Vice-President of toy company Corgi Intl., about his high expectations for the tie-in toy line for The Golden Compass, which will launch along with the movie in December 2007.

The stakes are just as high for his company as they are for New Line, Epstein says. He also adds that everyone on the set of the movie is very dedicated and that everyone is doing their best to make the franchise work.

Read the full article

Another set report of the press event that took place in London on the 23^td of January.

UGO writes: While set visits usually keep you within the confines of North America, it's always cool when a flight takes you across the pond. New Line Cinema extended an invitation to the online community to head to London, England, where the studio was filming two upcoming projects, The Golden Compass and Inkheart. As of late, New Line has been reveling in the aftermath of the Lord of the Rings trilogy and, with the hope that fans will love a three-part setup, the studio has taken to adapting the fantasy works of Philip Pullman and Cornelia Funke into two distinct trilogies. After touching down in England, the first set we explored was The Golden Compass, the first movie in the His Dark Materials trilogy by Pullman, starring newcomer Dakota Blue Richards, Academy Award winner Nicole Kidman and the new Bond, Daniel Craig, along with his Casino Royale co-star, Eva Green.

Philip Pullman and producer Deborah Forte will be discussing the transition of The Golden Compass from book to film. The discussion will be chaired by Mark Lawson, a presenter for BBC Arts.

The event will take place on Saturday the 24^th of March, in the Town Hall; starting at 2PM. Tickets are £16,00 for adults and £10,00 for children.

For more information please see the official website.

Figures.com has posted a series of images of the forthcoming The Golden Compass action figures and toys. In this article we take a look at the most interesting pictures.

First of all it worthy to note how accurately the toys match the movie material that we've already seen. Lee Scoresby's balloon looks just like the actual model that we saw at Shepperton. If you look closely you'll notice the circular designs on the balloon, in line with what production designer Dennis Gassner's told us at the set visit: