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Costume designer for The Golden Compass, Ruth Myers, who is slated to win a Career Achievement Award from the Costume Designers Guild next year was interviewed by the LA Times:

The LA Times' Gina Piccalo wrote the following insightful article about The Golden compass and Chris Weitz quest to bring the novel to the silver screen.

"The Golden Compass," the first book in British author Philip Pullman's award-winning young adult trilogy, sets in motion a story that so smartly merges theology with quantum physics and Nietzschean pondering with fairy tale characters that it has inspired scores of scholarly essays, serious academic study, blockbuster book sales, a National Theatre play, a radio show and an international society of die-hard fans. Now -- Dec. 7, to be exact -- comes New Line Cinema's long-awaited $180-million movie "The Golden Compass," a fantasy-adventure directed by "About a Boy's" Chris Weitz, starring Nicole Kidman as the malevolent beauty Marisa Coulter, Daniel Craig as the mysterious Lord Asriel, Sam Elliott as cowboy adventurer Lee Scoresby and 12-year-old newcomer Dakota Blue Richards as the film's young protagonist, the wily urchin Lyra Belacqua. It is an epic story set in a parallel universe similar to Oxford, England, populated by flying witches, talking animals and warrior polar bears -- all locked in a battle with the authoritarian governing body the Magisterium over mystical particles known as Dust.

New Line Cinema and World Wildlife Fund (WWF) are launching a Global Warming awareness campaign to help educate the public about the impact global warming is having on animals throughout the world.

On the campaign website www.worldwildlife.org/goldencompass visitors can view a panoramic lineup of the animal spirits or "dæmons" featured in the film, many of which are the same species that WWF works to protect in the real world. Fans of the film can also show their support for WWF and its message of species protection by "adopting" a real-life animal whose species is featured in the film – including polar bears, snow leopards, and monkeys – through the site.

If you were unable to attend the October 9th Trailer Debut Party in New York City, you've not been forgotten. Contest winner and attendee Aimee has written a brief synopsis of the event and added some video featuring event host Sam Elliot on stage and the countdown to the trailer premiere.

Our friends at QuesteOscureMaterie.it have alerted us to a series of images scans from the tie-in book "The World of The Golden Compass." Notably, these scans feature some images from the now-misplaced ending of The Golden Compass, including an image of the city beyond the aurora, a map of Lyra's world, and scenes of Billy Costa with his mother.

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A columnist for FOX News, who has seen about half an hour of footage (Cannes preview and some production material) from The Golden Compass, expects that the film will "without a doubt be the big holiday smash hit for which Hollywood is so desperate". The columnist also mentions hearing the possibility that UK band Coldplay might contribute to the film's soundtrack. If true, then it would appear likely to be played over the closing credits of the film similar to the use of songs in the soundtracks to New Line's previous film trilogy, The Lord of the Rings.

MSN Video have added a new behind-the-scenes featurette on the witches of the Golden Compass universe similar to the earlier featurette on dæmons. Director Chris Weitz and Eva Green, who plays the witch Serafina Pekkala are interviewed with Eva talking about her experiences of portraying the witch in flight. A scene of her together with Tom Courtenay, who plays Serafina's ex-lover Farder Coram, is also shown.

The LA Times has published an extensive feature on the controversies surrounding the film adaptation of The Golden Compass: In adapting Philip Pullman's novel, New Line is in a tight spot between the book's true-believer following and those who find it anti-religious.

Earlier this week, HisDarkMaterials.org was invited to Los Angeles for a Visual Effects (VFX) event at Rhythm & Hues, a first-of-its-kind gathering for the studio. The 20 year old award-winning VFX studio came into prominence with its Best Effects award in Visual Effects for the 1995 movie Babe. Rhythm & Hues is also the genius behind the visual effects-charged 2005 Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe movie, and the upcoming Mummy 3 movie, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. For The Golden Compass, Rhythm & Hues created VFX for all the dæmon work, the spy-flys, and Dust itself. The Golden Compass is the largest project Rhythm & Hues has handled yet, with nearly 800 shots produced (about 600 of which made the final cut), and a studio effort of about 500 staff members in both Los Angeles and in India.

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Following up on the stir that Chris Weitz' statement regarding the ending of The Golden Compass has been causing, the book's author Philip Pullman had the following comforting words to say; reminding us that change is not always bad.

The final trailer of The Golden Compass has just been launched at a big event held at Rockfeller Center, NYC hosted by Sam Elliot. The trailer has just been shown on giant screens above the ice rink at 8:30 EST. Subsequentially, the trailer has been released online for the rest of us who aren't there at the party. Watch it here below.

While many fans are furious about the religious themes being removed from The Golden Compass, a religious group called The Catholic League has launched a boycott of the movie on the day the trailer for that movie is released.

The group acknowledges that the religious themes have been watered down, but it is still launching a boycott because the movie lures kids and their "unsuspecting parents" into reading the books.

In a talk with Empire Chris Weitz has confirmed that actors Kathy Bates will voice Hester, Ian McKellen has replaced Nonso Anozie as the voice of Iorek Byrnisson and also said that Kirsten Scott Thomas will voice Lord Asriel’s daemon Stelmaria.

Furthermore Chris Weitz confirms what many of us feared: Nonso Anozie’s replacement to the more high-profile Ian McKellen was New Line Cinema’s decision:

On the day of the trailer launch we have received a message from Chris Weitz – director of The Golden Compass – for you, the fans of His Dark Materials. In this message he reveals that he, together with Scholastic, New Line Cinema and Philip Pullman, has decided to move the final three chapters of The Golden Compass to the beginning of The Subtle Knife and he defends this choice to the fans. He also stresses that His Dark Materials is not made out of three stories, but about one – the story about Lyra.

Update: Read author Philip Pullman's response.

IGN Movies has released a short teaser for the official teaser trailer for The Golden Compass movie. The new footage includes Iorek Byrnison voiced by Ian McKellen, our first glance at the spyfly in action and additional scenes with Lee Scoresby and Serafina Pekkala.