HisDarkMaterials.org

Yesterday evening saw New Line celebrating not only the true start of their promotional efforts for The Golden Compass, but also their 40^th birthday.

The event was held at the lovely Villa Rothschild near Cannes, and featured amonst other things a huge statue of Iorek, a bar carved of ice with ice statues of Ragnar, a chocolate fountain, and a photo corner where visitors got the chance to be edited into the movie poster.

We received new promo stills at the press conference in Cannes. Apart from stills from movie footage they also include shots of the crew working on set.

They've all been added to our image gallery for your enjoyment.

Worthplaying.com also posted three more screenshots of Sega's upcoming The Golden Compass videogame.

Check them out in our image gallery.

Accesshollywood.com have posted a great video with a lot of behind the scenes footage on their website. It contains a lot of dialogue and scenes that were not seen in the teaser trailer and interestingly a few other takes of scenes that we've seen in the press screening in Cannes.

Most notably is the scene where Lyra escapes from Mrs. Coulter's apartment by climbing out of the window. The expression on Mrs. Coulter face was quite different, and in my opinion much more convincing, in the footage we've seen at the press screening than it is in this footage.

Nonetheless, it's a very interesting thing to see, and it does have similarities with the press screening, except for the fact that the CGI is missing.

Watch the behind-the-scenes footage

The Guardian writes: The Golden Compass, the Hollywood adaptation of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, launched in Cannes yesterday with a sneak preview of the film, which will hit UK cinemas at Christmas.

Chris Weitz, its screenwriter and director, used the event to address speculation about whether the books' firmly anti-religious message would be retained.

Referring to the Magisterium - the all-powerful religious body that wields total political power in the world of Lyra, the heroine - he said: "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."

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.

The International Herald Tribune writes: Move over, Gandalf and Frodo. After "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy, New Line Cinema is betting that armored polar bears and flying witches will be the next big thing.

Reporters at the Cannes Film Festival watched a preview of 10 vivid minutes of footage from "The Golden Compass," a US$180 million (€133 million) digital fantasy to be released worldwide on Dec. 7. The studio used the same sneak peek strategy at Cannes with the first "Lord of the Rings" installment in 2001.

We attended the photo call for The Golden Compass today, with Robert Shaye, Michael Lynne, Deborah Forte, Bill Carraro, Andrew Miano, Chris Weitz, Dakota Blue Richards, Sam Elliot, Eva Green, and Daniel Craig participating.

View our photos.

If you wish to reproduce any of these images, please request permission first.

Metro reports: Movie audiences have become "jaded" by special effects, the director of the forthcoming film based on Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials has said.

Chris Weitz spoke as Bond stars Daniel Craig, 39, and Eva Green, 26, were reunited in Cannes to show off a short segment of the film version of The Golden Compass, the first in Pullman's best-selling trilogy.

Reuters writes: First came Harry Potter, then The Lord of the Rings and the Chronicles of Narnia.

Now young audiences have "The Golden Compass" to look forward to, a big budget adaptation of the first of British author Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" trilogy which is likely to be followed by two more.

U.S. film maker Chris Weitz is directing the $180 million (91.4 million pound) picture, based on "The Golden Compass" (known as "Northern Lights" in Britain), which stars Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig and Derek Jacobi among others.

Today New Line launced the first teaser trailer for The Golden Compass. This trailer will also be shown in cinemas together with Pirates of the Caribbean 3.

It is interesting to note that various scenes from the trailer were also shown at the press screening.

Note: The material in this trailer isn't finished yet! There is still an incredibly amount of CGI and post processing that needs to be done.

View the official teaser trailer.

View high-resolution screen captures in our image gallery.

Screen Daily writes: New Line Cinema has set the release schedule for its epic $150m adventure movie The Golden Compass, almost exactly duplicating the rollout of The Fellowship Of The Ring in 2001.

The film is having a major promotional launch today, just as Fellowship did at Cannes 2001, with a press conference and photo call as well as a screening of 20 minutes [sic] of footage.

The word screening is misleading, especially when you're at Cannes. If you tell people that you'll be attending the Golden Compass press screening people assume that you're going to see the complete movie. Just to clarify, we only saw 10 minutes of material, essentially a selection of scenes which are already completed to such an extent that New Line dares place them before the critics. By no means does this mean that the scenes are all done. The light effects on the CGI models for one are incomplete, and there is a distinct lack of fancy explosions for the time being.

LA Times writes: There's no denying that Hollywood worships sequels. New Line Cinema has taken the love affair one step further: It's cloning not a movie, but a movie launch.

For the second time in six years, the studio has come to the Cannes Film Festival with a few minutes of an unfinished film in tow. It's to prove, yet again, that New Line not only hasn't trampled a beloved piece of fantasy literature, but also has turned out an impressive epic. The drill turned out beautifully with 2001's sneak peek at "Lord of the Rings" footage. But can lightning strike twice with "The Golden Compass"?

First we thought it was a reshoot, then we realised that was a completely new scene, and now finally we know what scene it is.

In the book it is mentioned that Lord Asriel has been imprisoned in Svalbard by the Panserbjørne, however, we never actually read how he is captured. It’s a scene that Philip Pullman, like many other, leaves to our imagination.

As Chris Weitz remarked this is in contrast to Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, where every single footstep is written out. In The Golden Compass’s case, this meant that Chris was able to fill in the blanks with a completely original scene.

HisDarkMaterials.org is proud to present the first complete transcript of the press screening of selected Golden Compass scenes.

The screening took place at 7PM CET in Cannes, and as nobody was allowed to bring any recording equipment the transcript that follows is based upon hastily scratched notes in a pitch black cinema.

According to us this transcript is nearly perfect, but if you have any remarks or corrections please let us know.

Updated 21/05/07 after second viewing.