HisDarkMaterials.org

Remember way back when wirework with witches filled sets and men dressed as Bolvangar guards could be seen on lunch breaks? When the days of filming styrofoam balls on sticks in front of green screens were at their peak and the calendar read 2007? To say that it has been a while is to say that the Earth still rotates; here we are nearly two years later.

There may not be a great deal happening right now to look at Philip Pullman, Chris Weitz, Dakota Blue Richards or any of the other hundreds of names we might think of when we think HDM and news, but luckily for book readers and story lovers, there are always more dark materials to create more worlds.

One of those dark materials with such potential is Inkheart, the bestselling first novel in the series by German author Cornelia Funke. Inkheart is a story about reading aloud in an age when the bedtime stories stop being fun far too early in life. Mortimer "Mo" Folchart and his twelve-year-old daughter Meggie, share a passion for books. Oddly enough, they also share the ability to "read" characters to life: to make actual living persons appear because of their reading aloud from a book. However, the gift isn't without consequences and we meet the pair living alone after Mo has read to life a slew of personalities from one particular book, while accidentally reading his wife into that same binding. The book is, of course, Inkheart.

And what good would a book called Inkheart be without a dark-hearted villain at its core? His name is Capricorn, and after meeting our world and making himself home here, he decides to use Mo and Meggie's talents to build even more comfort. Kidnapping Meggie, Capricorn demands that Mo bring more of his evil henchmen to life. Determined to rescue his daughter and send the fictional characters back where they belong, Mo assembles a unique group of friends and allies - some real, some magical - and embarks on a daring journey to set things right.

But Mo and his daughter aren't the only ones bringing fictional characters to life. Back in the days of polar bear stand-ins on stilts, we had a set visit to Shepperton Studios to see how The Golden Compass was coming along. Our visit didn't end there, and we moved on to see New Line's second project in filming: Inkheart, starring Brendan Fraser, Paul Bettany, Eliza Bennett, Andy Serkis, Jim Broadbent, and Helen Mirren.

Entering the studio set for Inkheart was a striking contrast from The Golden Compass. After all the green screens we stood in a set decorated with an ominous, enormous medieval church, a partial tower and staircase built of real stone - not the carved foam blocks of most movie sets, but the real organic stuff you'd expect to see from European architecture. The set wasn't entirely dressed, but it was still impressive to see.

We met with Executive Producer Diana Pokomy who spoke with us and introduced some of the other on set personalities. Costume Designer Verity Hawkes explained some of her direction choices in making costumes for the movie. Her pieces had to span from the modern clothing of our world to the somewhat medieval era clothing Mo inadvertently pulled from Inkheart on the characters he read to life.

Production Designer John Beard was up next to talk more about Inkheart and show off some of the movie's scenes and props. Our group looked over concept art, scene stills, and some of the character props. Beard explained some of the challenges in design, including the integration of the book's sequel into set dressing.

The film set also boasted a set of animal trainers. Apparently when the little ferret on an actor's shoulder doesn't need to change into a wildcat at will, it works just as well to have a real ferret. Or a dozen real ferrets. And if that ferret is actually a marten "read" to life from another world where martens have little horns on their heads, the creative production group seeks out the makeup department necessity: beard glue. Aside from the ferret actors, the character Dustfinger has an affinity for animals in general and the set animal trainers keep that respect mutual. We watched one of the trained dogs respond to their cues and rewarded them with treats for their good performances.

HisDarkMaterials.org also then the chance to watch a scene from Inkheart being filmed. To set the stage a little: Capricorn has kidnapped both Mo (Brendan Fraser) and Meggie (Eliza Bennett) and makes his confession that none of the characters will ever be returning to the pages of "Inkheart." He wickedly throws the last copy of the book into the fireplace to the complete destruction of Dustfinger (Paul Bettany), a character read to life whose only ambition was to return home. Andy Serkis (Lord of the Rings, The Prestige) plays the villain Capricorn with aplomb, delighting over his loves of the real world: "Duct tape, ah yes, duct tape," he gleams.

The scene cut and our group went off to cast interviews and lunch. But lunch never led to dinner, and the release of the Inkheart film got pushed back nearly two years after its filming. Cast interviews from the set visit are riddled with questions to Fraser on the filming start of The Mummy 3, in theatres this past summer. Author Cornelia Funke has brought to life the third book of the series and fans of her book have likely been disappointed once and again to see the Inkheart adaptation sent further down the production line.

Perhaps they've borrowed some of Capricorn's delightful duct tape, but reason regardless, Inkheart now has an official theatrical release date stuck to it. As Director Iain Sotfley told ComingSoon.net, "one of the things that appealed to me about the story was that it was this very sort of dysfunctional group of people who were fighting the good fight." With hope that Inkheart is one book-to-film translation that makes the good fight a great movie. The fight's been long.

Inkheart in UK theatres 12 December, 2008
US theatres 23 January, 2009
Wide Release Info

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