HisDarkMaterials.org

fbi_woman alerts us that a press kit from The Golden Compass movie adaptation has appeared on eBay.

From the seller's description:

"It contains 14 think gossy pages with beautiful color photos of scenes from the movie, its cast and artwork of scenes not yet filmed at time of printing."

The auction is worth a visit just to view the provided photographs.

I just got updated by phone by a very enthusiastic Lord Asriel. Our beloved admin has had a great day at Shepperton Studios today, meeting with Chris Weitz and Dakota Blue Richards, and he's seen a huge lot of things.

First of all, he stressed to me that he's now 100% behind Dakota Blue Richards in every way. According to him and I quote: "Dakota's a prodigy, she's simply a stunning actress”.

He's seen the shooting of a scene from the end of The Golden Compass where Lyra says goodbye to Iorek. Dakota was talking to a simple square block that was supposed to be Iorek but still it was "heart wrenching" to look at.

He's also met Dakota's stunt double who's a multi-times Karate champion and “simply amazing”. Overall, Lord Asriel is now completely behind Dakota Blue Richards and even stressed it by saying: "I will personally permaban anyone who still criticises DBR after this". You have been warned.

After the auditions, Philip Pullman received a DVD with samples from 40 girls and New Line Cinema expected that they’d need one week to pick the right one from them. However, Philip Pullman responded within 48 hours that Lyra had to be one of two girls he picked, one of them obviously being Dakota Blue Richards.

Dakota told Lord Asriel that she found out about the auditions watching BBC Newsround, and that she wouldn’t have gone to them if it had rained. When asked about how she felt about working with stars like Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig she didn’t seem to have an answer prepared. She responded rather neutrally, but she’s obviously used to it by now.

Chris Weitz said to Lord Asriel that he’d like his dæmon to be a hawk or another cool animal but that “in reality she’s a sloth”. When asked about working with kids he said that the trick is to treat them in the same way as adults. This obviously works because Dakota is acting brilliantly. Chris Weitz also said that His Dark Materials are his favourite books, that he’s been a long-time fan and the he thinks of Philip Pullman as a genius.

Lord Asriel also quizzed Weitz about the numerous screenwriter and director changes. Weitz said that he initially left the project because he was “afraid to land in a place like this”, referring to the enormous green screen area they were standing in at the moment. About Tom Stoppard’s script he said that he always writes his own scripts and that he only saw Stoppard’s after he had written his own. New Line representatives on the other hand said that Stoppard’s script “simply didn’t work”. Overall, the story is still not quite told yet and it’s going to be interesting to see if we can recognise some of Stoppard’s characteristic touches.

Filming is still in progress at the moment, but they’re going to wrap it up this week. One interesting thing to note is that after Dakota was finished with shooting the scene, she was quickly ushered into a waiting car to go to “school”.

The press were also presented with a 10 minutes long, raw and unprocessed teaser trailer with footage of when Lyra meets Iorek. All the CGI was still missing so Iorek was simply a dot on screen, and dæmons were no more than coloured patches. Still, Dakota’s acting was very convincing and it’s almost unbelievable that a young girl with no previous experience can be this good.

The costumes and Lyra’s world is fantastic and not over the top. The fighting is beautifully choreographed and very tense. New Line is going to promote the movie with a huge campaign. They’re planning one movie for every two years (The Golden Compass December 2007, The Subtle Knife December 2009, The Amber Spyglass December 2011) and Inkheart movies in between (December 2008, December 2010).

All in all, this movie has all the makings to become a brilliant movie with tremendous success!

Lastly I’d like to mention that even though there’s no official merchandise yet, the film crew has His Dark Materials coats and caps. Be sure to keep your eyes open for the opportunity to win one of these rare items!

Update

Just adding, New Line has filmed the whole event but I'm not quite sure if we'll get the footage. A huge amount of photographs have been shot by a camera crew, we'll probably receive those pictures in a week or two.

Lord Asriel was also picked to be strapped to some wired stunt installation, and fly around like the witches do!

We are pleased to announce that our very own administrator Lord Asriel will be attending New Line's press event in London this week, which will include a visit to the set of The Golden Compass and a visit to the set of upcoming fantasy movie Inkheart.

This will provide the fan community with novel insights as to how the His Dark Materials trilogy is being brought to life by New Line.

Lord Asriel, who will be in London from Monday through Thursday, will try to post daily summaries of his activities, so watch this space!

If there are any questions that you might have regarding the movie production please post them as comments to this article, LA will do his best to see them answered!

Update: Lord Asriel arrived safely. You can expect updates on Tuesday.

It is my pleasure to announce that the rights to Philip Pullman's The Butterfly Tattoo have been optioned by my friend Rik Visser, and his company Dynamic Enterprises. The plan is to produce the movie with the help of the His Dark Materials community.

Read the announcement on Cittàgazze.

Philip Pullman has written his not-so-monthly-message for January on his website. He writes about the difficulty to write regular items for his website, the weather and his plans of adapting to the Mediterranean climate in the UK.

Furthermore, he writes about his public appearances in the coming time and he responds to the Honorary Freedom of the City award that's been offered to him by the Oxford City Council.

Read Philip Pullman's January 2007 message

Oh and, don't skip the last paragraph! ;-)

We are very pleased to announce that the newest version of our His Dark Materials world map has been released!

The new version is even more accurate than the last one, and contains even more information.

Compliments to Phit who did an amazing job, and thanks to Dr. Laurie Frost for helping out!

Canada, the largest source of wood pulp for the UK paper industry, was the first nation to promote large-scale green publishing in 2003, when Rainforest Books in Vancouver printed J K Rowling's Harry Potter titles on 100 per cent recycled paper. Greenpeace is working on a campaign to persuade more publishers to do the same. Two hundred authors worldwide, including Helen Fielding, Philip Pullman and Ian Rankin, have signed up.  UK publishers with green paper initiatives include Random House, HarperCollins and Egmont Books.

It is the country that gave the literary world Margaret Atwood and Carol Shields. Now it is at the vanguard of green publishing, with big-hitting authors such as Alice Munro demanding that their books be printed on recycled paper.

Canada, the largest source of wood pulp for the UK paper industry, was the first nation to promote large-scale green publishing in 2003, when Rainforest Books in Vancouver printed J K Rowling's Harry Potter titles on 100 per cent recycled paper. Greenpeace is working on a campaign to persuade more publishers to do the same. Two hundred authors worldwide, including Helen Fielding, Philip Pullman and Ian Rankin, have signed up.

The poet and green campaigner Mandy Haggith writes in Mslexia magazine this spring that "pulp and paper mills produce ... some of the most toxic substances on Earth", and urges readers to look out for the Forest Stewardship Council logo on books.

UK publishers with green paper initiatives include Random House, HarperCollins and Egmont Books. The British writer John O'Farrell says: "I expect nothing less than recycled paper for the publication of all my recycled jokes."

Source

LONDON: The British Library has put on display the notebook in which William Blake wrote one of his most famous poems, "The Tyger," to mark the 250th anniversary year of the English poet and artist's birth.

The original notebook is on display at the library in London alongside work of modern writers inspired by his work, including part of Philip Pullman's manuscript for "The Amber Spyglass," whose main character was inspired by Blake's poem "The Little Girl Lost."

The Associated Press

Published: January 11, 2007

Philip Pullman is to be awarded with the rare Freedom of Oxford award.

Philip Pullman said: "I am delighted and honoured to receive the Freedom of Oxford, the city which has been the inspiration for a great deal of my work. Oxford is a city that is steeped in storytelling.

Philip Pullman is just one of five modern-day recipients of the honour.

Philip earns rare award

Author Philip Pullman, best known for the children's fantasy trilogy His Dark Materials, is to be awarded the Freedom of Oxford.

Mr Pullman, who lives in Cumnor and has published more than 20 books, will receive the rare honour for his literary work at a ceremony in Oxford Town Hall later this month.

Describing Oxford as his "inspiration", he joins a select list of just five modern-day recipients of the honour, which is purely honorary and carries no special privileges.

Mr Pullman said: "I am delighted and honoured to receive the Freedom of Oxford, the city which has been the inspiration for a great deal of my work.

"Oxford is a city that is steeped in storytelling.

"It's a place where the past and the present jostle each other on the pavement and while of course that's true of many cities in Britain, Oxford does seem to have a few extra dimensions in some strange way.

"I am immensely gratified the city I've made my home has found my work worth rewarding, and very proud to receive an honour whose history goes back to the craftsmen and merchants of the Middle Ages - and which is held by a few very distinguished people of today."

Mr Pullman cites John Milton's seminal novel Paradise Lost as a major influence on his work. The first volume of the Dark Materials trilogy, Northern Lights, won the Carnegie Medal for children's fiction in 1995 and The Amber Spyglass, the last volume, was awarded the 2001 Whitbread Book of the Year prize in 2002.

The trilogy has sold nine million copies worldwide and is being made into a film due for release later this year called The Golden Compass, starring James Bond actor Daniel Craig and Nicole Kidman.

Oxford Lord Mayor Jim Campbell, said: "Oxford has an astonishingly rich tradition of children's story telling and Philip Pullman is a worthy successor to Lewis Carroll and C S Lewis.

"His Dark Materials is one of the finest imaginative works in English.

"While it creates and explores new worlds and new systems its roots are in Oxford and we are pleased to be able to confer the Freedom of Oxford on someone who has given so much enjoyment to children, and adults, all over the world."

[© 12/01/07, Oxford Mail]

As you know HisDarkMaterials.org is dedicated to providing the His Dark Materials community with the most comprehensive information on the His Dark Materials books and movies. Amongst other means, this is accomplished through the Srafopedia, our interactive encyclopedia.

The Srafopedia is far from complete, but luckily for us there exists the wonderful reference guide The Elements of His Dark Materials by Laurie Frost. To celebrate the publication of this book we are giving away two copies of this comprehensive volume.

All you have to do is to contribute a piece of information related to the books which is not yet listed in the Srafopedia. You can submit as many entries as you like, but be sure to credit your sources.

You can submit your entry as a comment to this article. All entries must be received by February 1^st. Two winners will be selected out of all the entries received.

New Line has hired Hossein Amini (The Wings of the Dove, The Four Feathers) to pen The Subtle Knife, the second part of Phillip Pullman's "His Dark Materials."

Despite early reports that New Line would wait to see the success of The Golden Compass, it appears they're now confident enough of The Golden Compass to move ahead on the second movie.

The move comes as New Line is in the midst of a five-month shoot on Pullman's The Golden Compass at Shepperton Studios in London. Chris Weitz is directing the $150 million "Compass" -- to be released on December 7 -- from his own script.

Amini is currently penning Drive for Universal with Hugh Jackman attached to star and Marc Platt producing.

In "The Subtle Knife," Pullman introduces the character of a 12-year-old boy who has learned the art of invisibility and is seeking his missing father when he encounters a vanishing cat and joins forces with Lyra Belacqua.

Pullman's final book in the trilogy is "The Amber Spyglass."

ALSO:

Second His Dark Materials Planned

 New Line Cinema is apparently feeling pretty good about their upcoming movie adaptation of the first His Dark Materials trilogy. Even though The Golden Compass won't arrive until late-2007, they're already planning to make a movie out of the second book.

Variety reports that New Line has hired Hossein Amini to start work on a script for The Subtle Knife, based on book two in the His Dark Materials series. Amini's writing credits include the failed 2004 Heath Ledger movie The Four Feathers, and the 1996 Kate Winslet incest movie Jude. Bad though it was, The Four Feathers was at least an epic. Amini's not a total stranger to the genre.

Though they're working on a script, New Line's president Toby Emmerich insists that the second and third movies will not be made unless the first movie makes a big pile of money. That may explain why they're hiring someone like Amini to write His Dark Materials: The Subtle Knife, since he probably comes cheap they aren't investing all that much in a movie that may never get made. If they do decide to shoot it, expect rewrites.

While the first book is primarily about one character, a little girl from an alternate universe named Lyra, The Subtle Knife adds in a 12-year-old boy from our universe with the power to cut his way between different dimensions. It's actually a better book, and the third one is even better still. It's kind of a shame that their cinematic potential depends on the performance of a movie based on the weakest part of the series. Still, His Dark Materials fans shouldn't be worried. If a terrible fantasy movie like Eragon can make nearly $100 million worldwide, then His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass ought to be able to recoup it's $150 million price tag easily.

[© 05/01/07, CinemaBlend]

New Line have released new stills from The Golden Compass. They include close-up pictures of Nicole Kidman as Mrs. Coulter, Daniel Craig as Lord Asriel and Dakota Blue Richards as Lyra, as well as Lyra with Roger (Ben Walker) in polar conditions.

All the high-quality images are available in full size from our image gallery.

Open your favourite photo editor and start making wallpapers!

MTV.com creates some buzz about The Golden Compass by listing it 6th on the list of the most anticipated blockbusters for 2007, among big titles as Harry Potter, Pirates of the Caribbean and Spider-Man. Here's what they have to say about it:

"Not many popular children's stories claim inspiration from "Paradise Lost," but not many children's stories are as oppressively dark and despairing as "The Golden Compass," Philip Pullman's first book in the "His Dark Materials" trilogy. A condemnation of religion, "His Golden Compass" follows Lyra Belacqua, a young girl who ventures to rescue her uncle, the Lord Asriel (Daniel Craig), from the clutches of a band of war-mongering, anthropomorphic bears and the evil Mrs. Coulter (Nicole Kidman)

'Harry Potter,' 'Pirates,' 'Die Hard': Buzz On 2007's Biggest Flicks