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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.

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.

The official movie blog writes that The Golden Compass fans will have the opportunity to chat with Dakota Blue Richards on December 19th at 6:30 PM New York Time on website Scholastic.com. Dakota Blue Richards stars as heroine Lyra in the film adaptation of The Golden Compass.

It appears that some of the last-minute changes New Line Cinema made to the movie didn't reach the game developers at SEGA and Shiny in time, Wired.com writes. Several scenes that have been deleted/moved from the movie are still featured in the the game. In fact, the scenes are in correct sequence following the book more closely with the Lyra crossing the ice shelf at Bolvanger appearing in the correct context in the storyline.

Wired also extracted one of those deleted scenes where Lyra brings Roger to Lord Asriel's laboratory. Of course, these are huge spoilers as these scenes might actually make it into The Subtle Knife. Daniel Craig is absolutely awesome though, so it's definitely worth the watch.

The first awards recognition of Dakota Blue Richard's talents in The Golden Compass comes with her being nominated for the Best Young Actress award in the 13th annual Critics' Choice Awards bestowed by the Broadcast Film Critics Association. The Golden Compass is also up for the Best Family Film award.

View the full list of nominees

New York magazine has gotten hold of both Sir Tom Stoppard's 2003 draft and Chris Weitz's original 2003 screenplay and reports that had "Stoppard's screenplay been filmed, the movie would have been ponderous, a bit dull, and far too long. Weitz's original script was actually great and makes us sad about the movie that could have been."

"Weitz's early draft, though still long — 156 pages and likely three hours of running time — is sharper, funnier, and more streamlined than Stoppard's. It's also more exciting, more coherent, and significantly better than the final product. It vividly and more clearly creates the various world Lyra inhabits: Jordan College, London society, the Gyptians' boats, the ice bears' palace. It includes wonderful scenes left out of the final film: Mrs. Coulter's great London party; the Gyptian spy Jacob's last words, spoken by his daemon; Lyra's meeting with the witch's consul in Trollesund; Lyra's talk with Iorek about loneliness; Lyra's discovery that the nurses at Bolvangar have gone through the intercision process; the ice bears, all so nervous about acting human."

MTV has its fourth and final round of questions with The Golden Compass director Chris Weitz. This round, Weitz answers questions on the possibilities of more His Dark Materials films, and some funny comments from the director.

See the previous rounds:
Round One
Round Two
Round Three

Early estimates of the US weekend box office results predict The Golden Compass topping the charts, beating movies like Enchanted and Beowulf with a US$26.1 million gross in its opening weekend.

This is considerably less than the $30-40 million New Line Cinema executives are hoping for, and it raises doubts if The Golden Compass will be able to just break even before other large holiday movies are released in theatres.

Fans will be following the box office results closely as a sign of whether The Golden Compass will be succeeded by The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass. We'll update you as soon as new and definite results are published!

Update

Rolf Mittweg, president and chief operating officer of New Line's worldwide distribution and marketing operations, admits in The Guardian that the early figures are "a little disappointing" however the article also reports that "New Line have sold off the foreign rights, with proceeds covering about 60 percent of the film's budget. Taking into account outside investors and tax breaks, (Mittweg) said New Line was covered for about 70 to 80 percent of the budget, and the film would be profitable for the studio."

The Guardian also reports that the film earned $55 million from 25 international territories, including No. 1 starts in Britain ($18 million), Spain ($10 million) and France ($5 million), all after five days of release.

MoviesOnline.ca interviewed director Chris Weitz at the Los Angeles premiere and touched some very interesting subjects. Chris Weitz talks about some of the missing scenes, the director's cut (about 2 and a half hours long!), the studio's role in the last minute changes and about what's about the happen next.

MTV reports that director Chris Weitz and cast members Daniel Craig and Eva Green are hoping that an extended version of the film will be made available on DVD. A couple of scenes cut out from the theatrical cut are mentioned including emphasis on the relationship between Serafina and Farder Coram and more time with the Gyptians. Weitz also suggests that a moment of the footage shot for the final three chapters of the books, which is to be destined to form the start of The Subtle Knife, could work as a teaser in the director's cut of The Golden Compass

Influential critic Roger Ebert has given The Golden Compass his highest rating of 4 stars calling the film a "darker, deeper fantasy epic than the "Rings" trilogy, "The Chronicles of Narnia" or the Potter films" and others like Harry Knowles, editor of the popular AintItCoolNews.com, have given the film positive reviews however many other American critics haven't been as kind as reflected by the current 44% rating on film review aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes.

Many of the reviews should be considered mixed or average (as reflected by the 53/100 metascore on metacritic.com and wholly negative reviews are rare. Kyle Smith of the New York Post is an exception and finds that the film "yields a clanking allegory (Church bad; secular skepticism good) that sucks all the fun away". Our report on the early film reviews last week, which were mostly British, contrast with the more mixed messages from American film critics and a small sample of some of those reviews by popular American print media follow.

Read the Reviews information page for an updated summary of film reviews.

Variety reports that The Golden Compass pulled in US$1.9 million from its opening day on Wednesday. The film looks likely to be on course for a successful "opening five-day take of between £6 million ($12.3 million) and £7 million ($14.3 million) and a final gross of £30 million ($61.4 million)." The official blog also reports that: "In addition to the UK debut of $1.9 million, out-grossing The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’s opening day in 2005, The Golden Compass ranked #1 in seven territories: U.K., Spain, France, Finland, Norway, Thailand and the Philippines. The Golden Compass will be featured on 11,000 screens in 30 territories worldwide."

MTV goes its third round of interview questions with Chris Weitz as they talk about casting, special effects, and Chris's own favorite scene. Next week will finish up the rounds of questions with the director.

See round one
See round two