HisDarkMaterials.org

The Oxford Mail reports: Philip Pullman's new book [Once Upon A Time In The North] will be given its world launch at the 12th Oxford Literary Festival next month.

The Golden Compass has won an award from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) in the category of "Special Visual Effects." The visual effects team was led by Michael Fink, Bill Westenhofer, Ben Morris, and Trevor Wood.

Javno reports:

In recognition of Japan's upcoming premiere of The Golden Compass, Japanese jeweler, Tanaka Kikinzoku, revealed a one-year seven person project: a genuine 18-carat gold replica alethiometer.

View the picture

New Wales News reports:

Philip Pullman, internationally known author of the His Dark Materials novels, one of which has just been filmed as The Golden Compass, will be joining other writers and academics at Bangor University, 9 February, for a celebration of literature at Bangor, entitled Upon My Word! This will be Philip Pullman's first engagement at Bangor since his recent appointment as an Honorary Professor at the University.

It has been announced that The Golden Compass will be released on DVD and Blu-ray on April 29th. There will be standard DVD version and a special two disc edition on both DVD and Blu-ray. This special edition will have two hours of extra footage including Behind The Scenes look and a Lyra’s world feature.

The DVD will feature the standard cut as seen in cinemas, and unfortunately there’s no word of an extended or director’s cut yet.

Our Italian friends over at QuesteOscureMaterie.it alerted us of the DVD covers and promo poster. Check them out over here.

The International Film Music Critics Association have announced their nominees for the film and television music awards 2007. Alexandre Desplat is nominated a total of seven times with his scores for The Golden Compass and Lust, Caution: Film score of the year (for both The Golden Compass and Lust, Caution), Film score composer of the year and Best original score - fantasy/science fiction (The Golden Compass) and several more.

It’s very good to see that Alexandre’s excellent work is finally recognised by critics.

Check out the full list of nominees.

The Golden Compass film has been nominated for two Academy Awards, in Best Art Direction, and Best Visual Effects.

Full list of nominees

Telegraph.co.uk holds an engaging interview with Philip Pullman regarding the interaction between environmentalism and storytelling.

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts today announced the nominees for the annual BAFTA awards. The Golden Compass was nominated in the category Best Special Visual Effects to the credit of Michael Fink, Bill Westenhofer, Ben Morris and Trevor Woods. The movie is competing for the award with Spider-Man 3, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and The Bourne Ultimatum.

Love drama Atonement was nominated no less than fourteen times, There Will Be Blood and No Country For Old Men both nine times.

The BAFTA award ceremony will take place in London February 10th.

Most of the Golden Compass reviews that rated the movie negatively remarked that it was a shallow effort suffering from a terribly confusing plot.

In The Times, critic James Christopher complained that:

[The Golden Compass] works like an Ouija board. It can reveal all sorts of hidden truths, but it 's hopeless when it comes to directions. You need proper charts, a year’s supply of baked beans, and Sir Ernest Shackleton if you’ve got any hope of finding the plot. Unless you have read the books, you will have little idea of what’s going on.

What led to this confusing movie? A lot of people were eager to point the finger at director Chris Weitz. As Kyle Smith stated in The New York Post:

Chris Weitz [..] has been swamped by the task of condensing a densely imaginative 430-page book. It's as if, given the task of setting up a display of animals that would fit in his living room, he went to the city zoo and cut off a 6-inch portion of every beast, then tossed the bloody chunks in a pile.

Variety reports The Golden Compass on the international success of The Golden Compass, with non-domestic earnings outdoing the US domestic boxoffice three times over.

On behalf of the HisDarkMaterials.org’s team, I’d like to wish all His Dark Materials fans a happy and prosper 2008!

This past year has been a very interesting and exciting year for all of us, with the release of The Golden Compass and everything surrounding that. The release of The Golden Compass teaser trailer was the best viewed news article, followed closely by Chris Weitz’ message to the fans about the cut ending, and our The Golden Compass reviews. We welcomed over 3.700 new members this year, breaking the 10.000 members mark, and all of those people posted over 120.000 messages and comments!

Thanks to everyone who’s been involved with HisDarkMaterials.org in any way. We are confident that 2008 will bring a lot of new exciting things for us His Dark Materials fans.

As always, you’ll be the first to know here on HisDarkMaterials.org!

Australian newspaper Herald Sun reports The Golden Compass has had a formidable boxing day opening, bringing in approximately US$1.4 million. The Golden Compass topped the charts on Australia’s busiest movie day of the year, beating its nearest competitors Alien vs Predator: Requiem and Disney’s Enchanted by a long shot.

Reuters writes: The Vatican on Wednesday condemned the film "The Golden Compass," which some have called anti-Christian, saying it promotes a cold and hopeless world without God.

In a long editorial, the Vatican newspaper l'Osservatore Romano, also slammed Philip Pullman, the bestselling author of the book on which the family fantasy movie is based.

It was the Vatican's most stinging broadside against an author and a film since it roundly condemned "The Da Vinci Code" in 2005 and 2006.

"In Pullman's world, hope simply does not exist, because there is no salvation but only personal, individualistic capacity to control the situation and dominate events," the editorial said.

Last night The Golden Compass fans had the opportunity to chat live with Dakota Blue Richards, who stars as Lyra in The Golden Compass movie. The chat was held by publisher Scholastic USA. The chatroom was filled with fans, and many of HisDarkMaterials.org members were spotted at the scene.

The fans asked questions about the The Golden Compass, being Lyra, doing stunts and working with famous actors and more general questions about her hobbies, favourite music, movies and food. Dakota also talked about what it's like being famous, combining acting with a normal life, and her future.

Thanks to Connor B. for providing this transcript.