His Dark Media
Twilight Saga
SherlockChronicles.orgInterview Round Table: Room 2
Sundays press events included a number of roundtable interviews and scattered HisDarkMaterials.org staff members to three different rooms. Along with Cittagazze.com, HisDarkMaterials.org has transcribed full interviews for each room. Transcripts will be added as they are completed.
Round Table schedule, Room 2:
Sam Elliott
Q: Was this project... Why this particular piece and what was on the page that made you say yes?
Sam Elliott: Well I think it was, you know, the script was very intriguing and it was Philip Pullman's books that were very intriguing in their own right. That said and done, Chris Weitz laid a line of shit on me, for the lack of a better a word, because he wanted me to play this part and he laid it on pretty heavy. He called this character classic, iconic, laconic American cowboy, and that's all those things that have worked to get me to do a job for forty years. When I refer to the shit, I mean, it's a term for a endearment, you know, it's not a negative, it's not to be taken negatively. He laid it on heavy, he wanted me to play the part. I'm an actor, I've been doing this for forty years and to (inaudible) have somebody still wanting you to play a part is a great thing.
Q: Are you contractually obliged to do all [movies]?
Sam Elliott: Absolutely.
Q: But why does he (Chris Wetiz) want to? I mean...
Sam Elliott: We want to anyway. They're not going to make a deal with any actor and not tie them up for anything that's going to come after this.
Q: Were you familiar with the character? Because, in the books the character almost sounds like you.
Sam Elliott: I wasn't. I wasn't familiar with the character, I wasn't familiar with the books and I wasn't familiar with Pullman. I've become very familiar with Pullman and his work, and I have the greatest respect for him as a writer, and personally. I started a personal relationship with this guy and I have a lot of feelings for it.
Q: So obviously, you have read all the books...
Sam Elliott: I read all the books in, the first time through, a week, less than a week. And for me, that's huge. That's ferocious reading for me, because I'm not a ferocious reader, but I read these books when we were in negotiations to work this deal out, and I got into the second book and I remember sitting in my kitchen, and I was like, what happens to Lee Scoresby in the second books, this reduced me to tears. So I called my agent next morning and said, don't let this thing get away, don't play hardball with these guys because I want to do it.
Q: So have you seen a second script, or is there a second one in progress that you know about?
Sam Elliott: There is one.
Q: Have you read it yet?
Sam Elliott: No, no.
Q: But you know what happens...
Sam Elliott: I know what happens in the book, you know, and theoretically we're going to hold it, as they did for this, fairly close to the book.
Q: I've been told that they shot something at the end of this movie, that they did not use, were you involved in any of production...
Q2: The additional themes right? The reshoots.
Sam Elliott: Yeah.
Q: Do you know if they're going to be part of the next movie?
[Here's a mixup. The interviewer is talking about the moving of the ending sequences, Sam Elliot is talking about reshoots]
Sam Elliott: No, they didn't shoot something for this movie that they're going to put in the next.
Q: So what was cut out, is out?
Sam Elliott: Is out. That's the heartbreaking of it. That there's anything that has to be left behind... in any movie, but that's the nature of the beast.
Q: But this is a big scene... sequence
Sam Elliott: Yeah, but it was not a sequence I was involved in, so... [laughter] No I didn't mean... I can't voice an opinion about it. I never saw the scenes, so I don't know.
Q: Because they were cutting that though, they had to do additional scenes to have that make more sense continuity-wise. So you were involved with some of the reshoots they did, right?
Sam Elliott: I did an added scene.
Q: Right, the part where basically your character is being sent to go and help Lyra? Or was it that later on scene with the connecting-tissue kind of scene, or which scene was it?
Sam Elliott: It was a scene with me and Iorek... I'm trying to see why I want to tell you this, I don't know if it has any bearing on it. It was a scene with me and Iorek after Lyra was captured. You know the scene?
Q: Yeah, that's...
Sam Elliott: That's the scene, but I don't thinking of it as connecting tissue. It's an important piece. It says everything about these guys, where they talk about their history, how Scoresby felt about this girl. Initially it was the bear's fault to go that way, but that wasn't the case. Scoresby dropped the ball as well as the bear.
Q: Have you seen the movie?
Sam Elliott: I did, I saw it last week. For the second time, I've seen it seven, eight weeks ago in New York.
Q: How much did it kind of change?
Sam Elliott: It's like a different film. The first time I was, like, these guys still have got a lot of work to do. But fortunately they've got incredibly deep pockets, and a huge, huge band of people. And some incredibly talented studio people that were involved at that point. And you know, they pulled it off, I think they pulled it off. It's a shame, it can't just go like an oiled machine, where they ship the movie and it all just falls into place, but that's not the nature of the beast. Just not the nature of the beast.
Q: Do you find the CGI stuff frustrating?
Sam Elliott: No, it's work. Frustrating somewhat, yeah of course, you usually relate to somebody else that's there and not pretend that somebody is there. But we're in the pretend business and that's what we do.
Q: I try to remember, before this and Ghost Rider had you done any fantasy?
Sam Elliott: The Hulk had some greenscreen in it. But nothing else, really.
Q: How did Pullman help you develop your character? Did he talk about the backstory or anything?
Sam Elliott: Somebody talked about a book that he's writing or has written, recently. Like, the prequel to Scoresby and the bear, Iorek. But we didn't talk about much of that kind of stuff. Pullman just from the beginning got on my bandwagon, and encouraged me and said that I was the right guy and so forth. And that's kind of invaluable. You know, it's one thing to have a director getting you to a part, but to have a writer saying, Scoresby, you're the guy. You can take it as daunting, you don't want to let him down, but I don't go that way and I take it as total encouragement.
Q: Can you talk about your experience working with Dakota?
Sam Elliott: It is just an amazing experience down every road. She's an incredible kid. She's sweet, she's bright, she's not precocious, she's fearless in terms of an actress. I've worked with a couple of young girls in my career, in a movie called Off The Map and a movie called Prancer and there were two young girls and both were skilled and they were both fearless. Whatever it is, they'll try anything. If you're smart enough to communicate, and tell them what it is you want, they'll give it to you. There were two reasons why this movie will work for me and she's number one and then the dæmons were the other reason.
Q: Have you ever worked with with any boy or girl actors who actually were horrible? Because you never hear the stories of the kids that were not good, you always hear like "oh they were great".
Sam Elliott: W.C. Fields is a classical, and Kirsten Dunst or whoever it was and it's true, I've worked with precocious little pains in the ass. They're there. But I've worked with many older pains in the asses, there're actually more.
Q: What about Chris Weitz. How surprised were you that he's never made this kind of movie before?
Sam Elliott: I think Chris was in deep. In deep water. Deep water will ground you if you can't swim. Chris Weitz couldn't swim.
Q: Were you surprised he was able to...
Sam Elliott: Not surprised because he's a very bright guy. Chris was on and off and on again, on this project. He was going to do this movie, and he was going down to, who's the guy doing The Lord of the Rings?
Q: Peter Jackson
Sam Elliott: He came back and quit. Quit the movie. And they hired another director (Anand Tucker). They hired some guy who didn't see eye to eye with anybody, the studio didn't want him and they ended up, you know, went back to Chris, and Chris came back on again. I'm glad he did, I really like Chris, I like Chris personally a lot. He's a very nice man. You know, Chris's got a long way to go, he's got a long, long road ahead of him, I can't imagine.
Q: What're you doing at the moment?
Sam Elliott: Nothing, this is my life. It's my mom's 92nd birthday, she's all alone in Portland, Oregon and I'm here in London.
Q: Let me ask one more thing about Dakota... a lot of this movie is right on her shoulder because she's the main character. So did you sense any pressure from her?
Sam Elliott: No, she's totally clueless to it. I think her mom maybe knows... watching the evolution of both of them in terms of their savvy factor or quotion have changed like night and day. The thing is, here's this single mom raising this incredible kid. Their world is going to change, I've been telling them that for the last year long before I saw any of this, an inch of this thing, while we were working. They should just enjoy it while it lasted. What she's got, she's very much into school and her friends at school.
Q: How selective are you with what you take on?
Sam Elliott: I'm picky, very picky. I wanted to be an actor since I was nine years old and I figured that there was only one way to ever have any longevity and that's to be careful about what kind of work you do. You can work for money, do a lot of whatever comes your way and not have any kind of a yardstick to measure quality by, and people, you know you'll make a lot of money if you're lucky, and people will get fed up and sick of seeing you and that's it onto the next one.
Q: Would you like to see westerns to come back as a...
Sam Elliott: I have a lot of vicinity for that, I've always taken great offense to anybody in Hollywood have them tell me that there's no market for American western, I've always just said bullshit, get your head out of the sand and look around and see what has worked time and time again. If we start making good westerns, people are going to go see them. Unfortunately it's all about the dollars these days, it's not about making a good movie, it's about making movies that are making good money. [inaudible sentence: If they're doing the second movie, I'd love to do it]
Daniel Craig
Q: (inaudible question about making of the second movie)
Daniel Craig: Yes several of them were in the story, but you'll notice if you've read the books that there were missing parts of the story in the first one. We shot it and it didn't make the movie, but it was because the timing wasn't good, so it wasn't right. So it'll have to be in the second movie because it's actually how the universes are breaking apart, and how the story actually starts and how Lyra's journey starts.
Q: Have you read the second script yet, because I understand there was one,
Daniel Craig: There an outline, a pretty good outline. I haven't looked at it but I've seen bits of it.
Q: Why were you interested to do another franchise?
Daniel Craig: It didn't really cross my mind, I genuinely was just such a fan of the books that I wanted to, when I heard they were making, that this was on the cards, I've got to do this, I've got to get involved with this. I'm such a Philip Pullman fan and actually his philosophies and his morals and the way he looks at the world, and the lessons and the stories. He does what he does brilliantly as a writer. He writes children's stories with major adult themes and major ideas about making the right choices.
Q: Were you surprised that there were certain controversies about the story's attitude about the religion today...
Daniel Craig: I'm not surprised, no, I mean I get that. Philip is being very vocal about it. For me the story has always, I don't think the story isn't at all anti-religious in any way, I think what it's more against is the control and the misuse of power that any organised religion, or any political sort of, um, organisation exercises over the people they're supposed to represent. I think that's, for me, what's important in the movie, and the character I play has all this revolutionary idea, which if you think about it is really revolutionary, of splitting all the universes up so that all these ideas are floating apart and the whole part gets turned up his head so that they can move in. I think the classic thing is that the majority people who are criticising it probably have never read the books, and need to. And I'm sure that the Catholic church, which is being directed as you know, sort of, it's said it's an attack on the Catholic Church, can handle it.
Q: As a fan of the books, what did you feel the film had to have in it to capture the essence of the books?
Daniel Craig: Well, the key element for the film is Dakota. She had to be right, she had convey strength, she had to be a little girl that someone that we wanted to follow, and she's done that, brilliantly I think. She's so engaging. She's got a quality about her that I felt is important to the role, and if you want to follow her into the world Philip Pullman created then it's icing on the cake.
Q: What did you think of her being able to handle the pressure? Did you sense that she was under any pressure, in terms of, you know, because obviously she had to be the right person for this. Did you sense she felt any pressure to that or...?
Daniel Craig: I don't know, I mean, if she did then it was her own pressure because she wanted to get it right but I think that's kind of back to normal. Certainly, in a situation like this, you have to remember she's a little girl and she needs to be protected. That is the first and foremost in this situation, and this whole thing we're doing now is sort of crazy. My advice to her has always been enjoy it, enjoy what's happening here. It's crazy and it's wonderful, but it's fun.
Q: Is that how you've been able to cope with the post-Bond thing?
Daniel Craig: I run away. Having a sense of humour is really key. You have to have a sense of humour with these things and I’ve just tried to remain who I am. Just getting, my life has changed. It's changed in the fact that I don't have the freedoms I did before, but I’ve also got a huge amount of other freedoms that came along with it.
(Loads of James Bond-related questions)
Q: So assuming that The Golden Compass is a big hit, and obviously you got scheduled for the next Bond, do you already look ahead the next year and look like maybe we can pick The Golden Compass in here...
Daniel Craig: That will be the plan, but it will obviously depend on how well we do here. I try not to count chickens, and I really do because there's no point because you go crazy. I'm very happy with the way this is working out, I'd love to get involved. If they do another movie I'd love to do, and we'll fit in it. It's not my job to make that work but I've got to pay people fortunes to make them do that.
(More questions drifting off The Golden Compass subject again)
Q: Back to this one [The Golden Compass] for a moment, how did you feel about this character?
Daniel Craig: I like the fact that he's a bit of revolutionary. Basically, he wants to mix everything up. Knowledge is the most important thing for him, the only way you're going to find knowledge, you've got to go out and explore, you need to go and find that. It's always going to change things and change is always good, and that is, I think, where his passion comes from.
Q: I was so intrigued by the dæmons in the movie, that I was curious, do you have a dæmon?
Daniel Craig: Well the thing is, once you have a snow leopard it's difficult to go back. Everything is going to be slightly disappointing. It's very telling of your... it's very telling what your choice would be. Because that's probably how you see yourself. We used to play that games as kids and you'd say if you were animal what would you be and it'd usually be the opposite of what it should be. But animal would be could, any animals have got their virtues. You know, cockroaches got virtues...
Q: Like what?
Daniel Craig: Well, they'll be around when we're all gone.
Q: There's talk about these scenes that have been deleted. Tell us a bit more?
Daniel Craig: It's was the storyline... the situation is that we have only so much time to tell the story in the movie. Literally, the piece at the end which is where the universe is cracked apart, it's a big moment. Basically, they, the filmmakers, have directed the story earlier in the book. It happens, it's called adapting a book, you have to make decisions about things. It's not unusual having to cut out scenes.
Q: As for as you know are those scenes going to be the opening scenes in the next one or are they going on an extended DVD of this one?
Daniel Craig: I don't know about that, I'm not involved with DVD. But they'd have to be [in the second movie], because they're fundamental to the story and you can't really avoid them. It certainly puts a different spin on my character, to being slightly kindly to rather evil. And that's what's so great about this story.
Q: You're first seen in the movie, full beard. The men caught you and you shaved it all away. Did you just shave it in between?
Daniel Craig: It was a choice. It went along with a scene that was lost so it may be a little confusing. What happens is that he's taken prisoner, and everybody thinks he's been taken prisoner and he's in a prison. But in fact what he does is that he builds himself a whole laboratory. I wanted to make it look like when Lyra comes across him that it's like, oh you're not here with a long beard being chained to the whole but he's got he valet there and all, so it was just a choice.
Chris Weitz
Q: How are you?
Chris: Fine, and you?
Q: (inaudible)
Chris: I have a five-month old who's here with me, and my wife of course. And between two and five o'clock, it was an interesting working period for both of us.
Q: This is a huge project for you, I know that last time we spoke we were talking about that you were going to be doing this. Why did you feel so passionate about (this) and you actually quit at one point and came back, right?
Chris: Yeah, I did. Well, I felt very passionate about it because I love the books. I mean I read the books for pleasure not with a mind towards making a movie in the first place. And they quickly became some of my favorite books. And Philip is kind of a literary hero to me. I think that they're some of the greatest works of the end of the last century. And so that's why I did it. Why I quit briefly, was because it was obvious. It was kind of a little knowledge of a dangerous thing. I went to New Zealand and checked out Peter Jackson's facilities there. And met all of his you know his prop master and the effects people and did some motion capture stuff. And I learned enough to know how little I knew and how for the next three years of my life I was going to be in this, this very unfamiliar world. And at the time I was single and I thought "well I'm just not going to have a life for three years and at the end of I'll be kind of spat out at the other end." And God knows what'll have happened by then. So I backed away. But a few months later the opportunity came again and I just couldn't turn it down.
Q: What did you learn from this process that surprised you?
Chris: I think the thing that surprises me most is that, you know, directors like myself who are used to directing actors walking around and sitting on their butts and talking can become very scornful about VFX. That they were just a bunch of computers and things blowing up and giant robots and that sort of stuff. But actually there's a tremendous amount of arts and artifice brought to these details. That the animators are like actors and the amount of attention paid to the aesthetic of this aspect of the film-making is really extraordinary and impressive.
Q: Let me ask you a question. The end credits, I was about to walk out at the end credits, they usually take the buzz you know, the buzz leaves right away. But I heard Kate Bush's voice and I had to stick around. Did you have talks with her or -
Chris: No, I just lucked out because she's a friend of Philip Pullman's and a fan of the book. In many cases in this film I lucked out completely because people love the books. Nicole and Daniel wanted to do the movie because of Philip, not because of me. (Laughs) I just, I'm along for the ride.
Q: That's sad.
Chris: No, at least I didn't frighten them off, let's put it that way. And so that, the books had held a fascination for a lot of people and drew a lot of talent and it's responsible for the extraordinary cast we were able to assemble.
Q: That could definitely be a huge possibility for disaster.
Chris: You think so? Oh that's good, it's great.
Q: Can you talk about the ending of the movie, the, first of all what's the story about the ending you shot and didn't use. Is it going to be in the next movie or is it out completely?
Chris: Yeah, no I intend for it to be used in the next film because I wanted to protect it, really. We shot the last three chapters of the book which are really quite ambiguous in their ending and quite harsh and dark. It became clear that audiences who weren't familiar with the books were both confused and a bit appalled by the end of this movie and in order to protect the character of these last three chapters I thought well it can work at the beginning of the second movie, but I'm going to get a lot of pressure to kind of pretty it up for the ending of the first movie. So in a way, deciding to kind of leave it as a cliffhanger was a way of kind of protecting the spirit of the book. And anyway, to me Pullman would say he's telling one story, it's Lyra's story throughout the whole thing. It didn't particularly matter where one movie ended or where the other one goes, it's disappointing to fans because they want to see as much as possible. They want to think of it in terms of one movie per book but, you know, having spoken to Pullman about it I don't think he was terribly concerned.
Q: How big a gamble is that there in the event of the film doesn't do well you have the most expensive DVD extra ever made - you know what, well, what's the risk?
Chris: Well it's not like we're going to loose any less money if people don't go see the movie. So yes, that's a gamble but the whole undertaking has been a huge gamble on the part of New Line's: the most expensive film they've ever made because things have become so much more expensive between the making of Lord of The Rings and this one that I felt that this was the ending that provided the best kind of financial framework on which to shoot the next two.
Q: You have and you cut the film with the ending that's in the book -
Chris: Correct -
Q: And you screened that and the reaction that you took in, the reaction that the audience gave you, and then you re-cut.
Chris: Yes, yeah. The audience members who haven't - I mean, reactionary would be the ideal audience who was filmed has to be larger than the amount of people who are familiar with the books. And the audience members who hadn't read the books were often confused by the ending, you know "Did Lyra go to Heaven?" Or, you know, and I think that the difference between the media also accounts for it. That a novelistic ending to a novel can be quite lovely and kind of plangent and beautiful. And the last sentence of the first book is absolutely beautiful. But there is no last sentence per se in the movie, you know, it's a last image and what you show in there could be either very confusing and avant-garde or it can be a person walking off into nothingness or you show where she goes to which then makes it quite sort of specific and fully realised. And so, you know, yeah it was a challenging decision to make but I'll stand by it.
Q: Are you free to give a budget?
Chris: Am I free? It's, you know, to be completely honest with you I don't know the final budget of the film. At one point I did when it was all about getting the budget down to size but eventually you have to consider that, you know, special effects guys are being flown in from Los Angeles to be put to work twenty-four hours a day and stuff. Around two hundred million would be a fair estimate.
Q: For the simplest movie (sarcasm).
Chris: Yeah.
Q: Now can you - setting aside your director's hat for a moment - how much of a challenge was the adaptation and how tricky was the exposition?
Chris: Good questions, both of them. Yeah, it's a big challenge. It's a bigger challenge to adapt something that you care about than something that you don't. And it's a bigger challenge to adapt a good book than a bad book because in a good book you want to preserve as much as possible. In a bad book, you know exactly what to throw out. (Laughter) So as a fan as well, you know, there are all these wonderful scenes in the book that didn't necessarily move the plot forward in a cinematic sort of way and so deciding which of those would have to go and what kind of allusions and composition to make is very tough. And in terms of exposition you've got a world of incredible sort of complexity with rules that are very complicated and I hate expositional writing and so in order, the key is to try and be as elegant as possible about expressing the rules of this world. And yes we had a prologue but we tried to make it as short as possible in terms of explaining as few things as possible for an audience that wasn't familiar with the books.
Q: In your head, the one major art forms - the director, the writer, and how helpful was it that you were both?
Chris: Oh, uh, gosh that's a mind-bending question. I suppose that there's a give-and-take because the director has to win some arguments because the writer can write some things which aren't filmable. You know, there's a thousand Indians coming over a hill and there is the visual effects equivalent of that. You know, there's the creation of the universe which one would like to start the movie with in some ways and you're constantly balancing the visual form that I'd like to have with what is really the best use of your resources. So for instance, any scene with a thousand people, each of them with a daemon, is, you know, extraordinarily costly so you have to be careful about when you do that sort of thing.
Q: Were you there when Mr. Pullman saw the film?
Chris: I wasn't present when Philip saw the film. That probably would've been bad for my heart (Laughter) but -
Q: And so when did you speak to him, I mean you must've been very anxious to hear what he thought of it.
Chris: Yeah, and he likes it very much - at least that's what he told me. (Laughs)
Q: (Inaudible) Very good for him
Chris: Oh, good. Well I'm glad, I'm glad. You know he's a very gracious guy. The reason I say "That's what he said to me" is the next door neighbor is this fellow and I'm sure you would find something nice to say to me even if you were between -
Q: It's very possible.
Chris: It's excellent.
Q: How much time were you committing yourself to for this - if it all goes ahead and you -
Chris: Right. Well, I would imagine, I think the best way to shoot the rest of it - we'll find out pretty much whether it's a going concern, right it depends on how the first one does. Although we're reasonably confident -
Q: Would you object to then try and do the next two simultaneous?
Chris: I think that would be the way to do it, yeah, absolutely. There would be no point in stopping between the two productions, you'd do it as one massive -
Q: And also (Inaudible - regarding filming before the children grow up too much)
Chris: Right. Well I think it's rather good that Dakota will have grown up a bit between this first film and the second because there's sort of a love story that's introduced and I think it doesn't hurt us that she'll become a bit more mature in the meanwhile. But yes, I think that the events of the second and third book kind of take place in a single (Inaudible - says time frame).
Q: How've you found her, Dakota?
Chris: Well, literally there was an open casting call in several cities and they went between, I mean I knew that we wanted an English girl and that we'd probably be using an unknown. And she emerged out of the thousands of girls who went on tape. She was just very strong.
Q: To me Derek Jacobi and Tom Courtenay* look like officials (inaudible) sanctum of the Vatican (Laughter). Now we've been told that there were attempts to water down the relates to the Roman Catholic Church, I'm not sure that you really succeeded -
Chris: In watering it down? (Laughing)
Q: So can you talk about that aspect?
Chris: Yeah, well I always sort of knew that I'd be stuck between a rock and a hard place. Between fans worried about the books being watered down and religious people worried that the books are a sort of recruiting poster for atheism, which I don't think that they are. Philip is an atheist but I don't think that His Dark Materials are an aggressive attack on either the Catholic Church or religion, I do think that -
Q: What about C.S. Lewis and the Narnia chronicles?
Chris: He doesn't like C.S. Lewis (Laughter). But, you know I mean he's spoken to that. I wasn't a big fan of Narnia because even when I was a child I thought I was being sold something. I thought something curious was going on, that something was a bit fishy. Which is exactly why I wouldn't really want to make this movie as any kind of "hidden message" film. Now I did take out, you know, the use of the word "Church" as the bad guy because even though in Pullman's alternate universe they used the word "Church" to define the Magisterium, to me in the condensation of a movie and of its message, it would unnecessarily offend religious people who might go and see the film. I think the film, just like the books, still has an issue with religion or God abused in order to gain political power. But to me the closest thing to that is the theocracy in Iran, not any of the Churches that exist in today's world. That's kind of my feeling on that.
Q: Your brother is working on Cirque du Freak, what is your role going to be on there? And has he learned anything you think from watching you work on "Golden Compass?"
Chris: (Laughing) He does ask me about special effects, like what are they. (Laughter) Yeah, I think my role on that will be to try to help him as much as I can in the very sort of steep learning curve of being a non special effects director entering into that world and to try to give him the benefit of my occasionally painful experience learning about all this stuff.
Q: He's writing or are you?
Chris: Yeah, if he lets me. No he's written the script so I won't be a co-writer. I think my best function would be as a visual effects advisor. I mean all degrees of special effects, I'm now like I guess one of the twenty or so people who've been through this kind of insane process and learned at the feet of some really great special effects people like Mike Fink who's an extraordinarily talented and experienced special effects supervisor.
Q: Did you enjoy the experience or would you, do miss that sort of days of -
Chris: It's so much easier to just shoot a scene with actors in a room, so much easier. But the experience of being able to manipulate the frame as much as you can with digital tools is a really wonderful feeling.
Q: Chris, I just wanted to ask you do you still have the rights to the (Element?) book?
Chris: Yes, I do. We still have the rights to the (Element?) book. I think that now I know enough to know how to get it made. I'm very excited about doing that because Michael's been very patient with us and we're going to do it for him.
Q: It'll be - when do you think you're going to work it into your schedule?
Chris: Well, I mean as soon as I get back to LA we're going to look for a director for it, yeah.
Q: Great, well good.
Chris: Yeah.
Q: So you're with (someone's name)
Chris: Yeah.
*[note: Tom Courtenay played Farder Coram, a Gyptian, not a member of the Magisterium]
Eva Green
(Inaudible)
Q: What were the, you spent most of your time in the air - you were flying around in this movie a lot of the time. Was that something that you enjoyed? Dealing with all this, special effects and stuff
Eva: It was not special effects I was really in the air, wires and traveling very fast and I had to land very sharply and I felt like I was in a plane crash sometimes. That was -
Q: It had to be scary for you
Eva: Scary. That's not my best, my favorite thing I would say. But I'd learned a lot (inaudible)
Q: How tricky is it to do that and act at the same time, did it get easier as you went along -
Eva: No, not really acting, you know. In the air it's not really. My acting scenes are with the child and Lee Scoresby. Flying is a small challenge I would say to fight and fly.
Q: Why did you want to do this? As your follow-up to your previous...
Eva: What do you mean?
Q: After Bond, James Bond. Why this particular?
Eva: Because it's a witch, first of all I mean it's quite cool, you know, this little girl's dream. And I love the books. The books are very rich, very complex and it's not like a typical fantasy adventure. It's very clever, very spiritual, very philosophical, and it's full of magic so it's just fun and clever.
Q: Does your character have a prominent point in the next two books?
Eva: Yeah, my character is much more important in the second one because you go into her world and the relationship that she has with Lee Scoresby is also more, you know, important and it's very moving. We'll see what they do with it, but she becomes much more important, yeah.
Q: So Daniel said that he'd seen the outline for the next movie, have you seen it yet, are they talking about it?
Eva: More or less, yeah. I mean, yeah.
Q: Don't you want to share?
Eva: I mean you never know, you never know.
Q: Right.
Eva: It's not completely written. We'll see, but yeah.
Q: And were you in that, as far as -
Eva: Yeah, absolutely.
Q: And can you talk about working with Dakota?
Eva: Dakota is a beautiful person, very good actress, I mean (inaudible) big part and she was very professional, very calm, and she was really enjoying every minute. You know, it's such a pleasure to see somebody who is passionate and very excited and sometimes you forget as an actor that it's just playing, you know. So it was nice to see that, she's very sweet.
Q: What does doing something like this (inaudible) does it allow you to choose stuff that you want to do, I mean what do you get out of this film?
Eva: You are, you become more famous I would say.
Q: Is that what you enjoy?
(Pause)
Q: No?
Eva: Yeah it gives you more opportunities, more scripts. But still I think quite hard to get (inaudible) and I still have a lot to prove as an actress, I think. I don't want to be typecast, you know as (inaudible), femme fatales, you know that kind of thing. I just finished a movie called "Franklyn" and, which is very different from what I've done before -
Q: What is that [Franklyn]?
Eva: It's a crazy movie, it's a first time director, Gerald McMorrow (inaudible) and it's about three people who are literally schizophrenic and lost. And I play two characters -
Q: Is it because you're schizophrenic you play two characters? Or are they...
Eva: It is impossible to explain right. (Laughs)
Q: It's a science fiction futuristic type of thing, isn't it?
Eva: Right, absolutely. It's in a parallel world. And then, we all live in parallel, a bit like His Dark Materials. But one of my characters is quite, she's a tormented artist she's a bit like Sophie Calle, Tracey Emin, and then the other one is very light, full of life, very witty, and big sense of humour. She's the opposite of the other one.
Q: And do you ever interact with each other?
Eva: No.
Q: So what would be your dæmon?
Eva: Hmm...A frog
Q: Frog? Why?
Eva: Because they're French.
(Laughter)
Q: Very clever, very clever.
Q: How do you deal with this fame sort of thing, Daniel told that he runs away to avoid it, what do you do?
Eva: I'm not really followed on the streets or...I live a normal life and I'm not - people don't really recognize me.
Q: Really?
Eva: No.
Q: (Inaudible)
Eva: Boring life, you know.
Q: Would you ever consider not wearing the coal (eyeliner), makeup?
Eva: Pardon?
Q: Your signature makeup?
Eva: Yeah...sorry?
Q: Would you ever consider not wearing?
Eva: Uh, well, uh, I'm...when I'm doing press I wear it, when I wake up in the morning, I'm not wearing it. (Laughter) No, you know, I like, kind of makeup, you know.
Q: I was just going to ask you a little bit more about the flying. Were there particular I mean were you good, I mean being on ropes and things like that things like harnesses and things like that when you're flying? Are you cool with being up in the air and that kind of thing?
Eva: Not really but you know, I had to do it.
Q: How do you psych yourself up for a day when you know you're going to go in and you're going to be on wires all day long?
Eva: I was surrounded by very patient people and it's all in the head, you really have to be calm and I learned a lot from it actually.
Q: What did you learn?
Eva: To concentrate "I'm going to land, I'm going to land" (laughs) and then I -
Q: (Inaudible laughter) Any good incidents where, as a practical joke they kind of let you hang in the air too long or -
Eva: No, everything went fine.
Q: Well that's good (More laughter)
Q: Eva when we talked to at the time of Kingdom of Heaven, you made it very clear that your character in the theatrical release made no sense it was, she was very incomprehensible and would we please wait until the DVD where she would hopefully be in some context. Well the DVD has come out and I actually, that version's a lot better than the theatrical -
Eva: Oh, thank you.
Q: I mean did you see, did you look at the DVD version?
Eva: Yes, I had a look. I mean, big shame that it was cut and people were quite nasty when it came out and I think everything makes more sense for, not just only for me but the other characters of the film. It's more complex, it's more moving, it's not black and white. The producers, you know, made a big mistake.
Q: Were you involved in any of the scenes that were cut from this movie?
Eva: Um...
Q: There were a couple scenes cut, apparently they're being saved for the -
Eva: Yeah, yeah I know -
Q: For the next one, so you were involved in those?
Eva: Uh, no.
Q: The cutting out, then?
Eva: Yes they added some stuff and then they, it's, it's not the same ending as in the book. So I don't know why they're going to do that. They're going to start with the ending of the first book. You know, I don't know.
Q: When do you think they're going to start shooting this next movie? Do you have a date yet?
Eva: September 2008.
Q: So you've got a while to worry about that.
Eva: (Lightly) Yeah.
Q: Do you know what you're going to do next, or anything planned?
Eva: I didn't find anything yet, no.
Q: Are you looking for something else?
Eva: I just want to lie down on the beach right now.
(Laughter)
Q: (Inaudible - asks what beach)
Eva: I'm going to Australia.
Q: Oh you are?
Eva: Yeah.
Q: Oh! Which part of Australia (Press laughs, it seems like Eva is getting hit on) Hey look, I'm Australian, you know...
Eva: (Eva continues to be questioned about going on holiday) (Eva laughs and responds)
Q: Your character has a very maternal kind of [bond] with Lyra. And I'm just wondering on the set did you feel a little protective of her because she was new -
Eva: Yeah
Q: Did you kind of have sort of a protective instinct over her?
Eva: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Q: Did you guys go to lunch or anything like that together?
Eva: Yeah, yeah, yeah. We got on very well actually. Yeah, yeah. I really like her but she's not like a child she's very intuitive, I mean. (Inaudible) She's very clever, I mean, I don't know if you interviewed her?
Q: She's last.
Eva: You'll see she's quite amazing.
Q: Did you give her any advise because she's such a newcomer to the industry?
Eva: No, I mean she's very talented and I'm not going to say you know...I mean it's quite hard with all the attention right now and publicity, it's all new. But she's learning very quickly and she has a very good mother who is very down-to-earth and doesn't buy into all the bullshit. (Laughter)
Q: How long are you going to be away for? (Same guy from earlier - press continues to laugh) Do you have friends in Australia or why have you chosen to travel that far away?
Eva: (Inaudible response)
Q: When you made your entrance in the movie, it's very dramatic, announcing your name and all that how did you complete that scene?
Eva: I don't know, I mean it's quite a simple scene. She's very regal, you know and I don't know I wanted her to be a bit scary in the beginning not like "Oh I'm a good witch!" you know? And actually, each time Lyra meets new characters they all are a bit dangerous you don't know who they are. And she's thirsting now she wants to know if she's the child of the prophecy. So, yeah it was not too difficult.
Q: That particular scene though, is it in the book the same way or they changed it, I mean your dæmon -
Eva: Goes on the boat and, talking to the child.
Q: Right, so I mean when you were looking at the books, have you been, I mean were you kind of surprised and like "Wait they're actually having my character do this instead of -" I mean she's not the one who does the test. She's, you know the test originally involves the cloud pine. So your character actually got more developed for this. Were you...
Eva: Yeah, I mean, yeah it's...In the book for example she has a longer scene on the balloon with Lee Scoresby so that was a bit cut and shorter. But, yeah I think it's interesting that she is the one testing the child.
Q: (Inaudible, talks a little about the witch) Did you work with Ruth Myers in terms of the costume?
Eva: Yeah, no, no. We, I wanted to look a bit from the waterhouse painting. You know, quite Pre-Raphaelite. And also she's (inaudible), quite ethereal, the material's quite translucent and see through. Because witches don't feel the cold. Because, you know if they're going to wear heavy clothing it would prevent them from sensing the world around them. They're very close to nature and...
Q: What are your Christmas plans? (Same guy again)
Eva: Oh, dear. (Laughter)
Eva: (Quietly) I don't know. Do have holiday traditions. You know, like everybody in my family around the Christmas tree eating good food, foie-gras and -
Q: Oh, fois gras well of course, (inaudible)
Dakota Blue Richards
Q: How surprised are you by that (inaudible)
Dakota: It is a bit surprising, I mean, you do kind of well I find when I´m watching myself I always find it really crazy and really embarrassing. And I think it´s partly because I was there when they were shooting it and I know, you know, what it was like to kind of have to think about everything. And I mean, I would (inaudible) looks great, but I just find it really weird watching myself.
Q: Have you read the books, I mean were you a fan before you did this?
Dakota: Yes, I was. I, my mum had read the books to me when I was about nine and yeah, I really did (inaudible) and I really loved Lyra.
Q: As a fan of the books, what did you want this movie to capture?
Dakota: I think the kind of...the way the books are written it's so brilliant and I think it's very important that, I mean because Philip Pullman had the way of having the really (inaudible) ideas, I mean, armoured bears. Kidman exists, um, but he has a way of making them feel real. I think it was very important that the film kind of captured the realisticness of it all.
Q: Was it more difficult to do the scenes you're in a real context knowing that you also have to remember there's a daemon going around or just to do a big green screen scene where there's no polar bears at all and reacting to that.
Dakota: I found the green screen work to be very, very hard. I mean, I think that was the hardest bit. And the less green screen there was, the easier it became. So I mean, working with people like Daniel and Nicole was so much easier than working with Iorek. Because of course, I mean he wasn't there. And doing green screen work really makes you have to think about everything twice. You have to firstly imagine that everything's there. You know, you have to think about other people before you can think about yourself. And that's, you know, really hard and really confusing and you can get very lost. Especially when you, you know, I didn't know what the animators were going to make it look like.
Q: Nicole started her career as a child actress, did she give you any kind of advice at all about starting your career at such a young age and the kinds of pressures that are possible as a result of doing a movie like this?
Dakota: I don't think so. I remember that she did mention that she kind of started around my age. And, you know, I had a book, a hardback copy of the book. And she wrote in the book "Stay true to yourself" which I think is very important.
Q: How do you do that?
Dakota: Daniel Radcliffe told me once that you should always keep the people around you that you know are going to tell you the truth.
Q: When did you run into him?
Dakota: We did a kind of work experience type thing. Basically the studio just sent me to the Harry Potter set to speak to people who'd kind of been through the same kind of thing I had.
Q: Emma Watson's actually a huge fan of His Dark Materials, did you talk to her?
Dakota: Yeah, yes I did.
Q: (Inaudible question regarding comparing Dakota with Emma)
Dakota: Yeah, some people already have. I mean, but I think, I think, um, well there is like a big difference between us. I mean I don't know her very well, I mean I've met her once. I wouldn't say we were that similar.
Q: You enjoy school? (Question continues, inaudible)
Dakota: Yeah.
Q: How important is it to remain part of that world and keep your same friends at school?
Dakota: I think that's very important to me. If you don't have your friends and, you know, the people that around you every day, you know, around you, you start to go a bit mad. And that's why I don't like, that's why in the future I don't want to be constantly acting going from one film to another. Because I just think it would be so very lonely to be away from your friends and family for so long and, you know, no proper kind of routine.
Q: What would you want to do if you decide to give up the acting?
Dakota: I don't want to give up the acting completely, but I do want, I want to be a supply teacher in primary schools.
Q: Really, why?
Dakota: Well, partly because I want to be a teacher. I mean, I want to be - generally as a rule, children don't like their teachers -
Q: I'm a teacher so I know that.
Dakota: Um, and, I'm not saying that about everybody. But you know, generally. But I want to be one of the few teachers that kids are generally excited -
Q: You're saying that now!
Dakota: But yeah, I want to be one of the cool teachers. And then, and then the reason I want to be a supply teacher rather than a full time teacher is, you know, as a supply teacher you can take time off -
Q: A supply teacher, I just, for the benefit of people who don't know is the same as either a casual teacher or a substitute teacher -
Dakota: Yeah, (babble)
Q: What particular subject you would want to teach?
Dakota: Well, because I want to do it in primary schools, you know it's younger kids, you probably have to be a bit of an allrounder. But I like math. I enjoy math. It's my favorite subject. So, yeah I think math could be -
Q: What attributes of your character in this did you most like and did you feel were most in common with yourself?
Dakota: Well, "liked" and "did I find in common" they're very different things. Liked is probably her bravery and her courage and how she would go so far for her friends and what she thinks is right. And I think, you know, what I see in myself is probably more you know, the way that she kind of talks a bit more than she should.
Q: Outspoken?
Dakota: Yeah, and it's too inquisitive.
Q: You had a lot of scenes with Nicole Kidman in the film she becomes a parent, she becomes manipulative very closely, I mean very soon with your character. So how was your interaction with her off-set did you form a bond or did you feel like you kind of needed to have a tension with her because your character did?
Dakota: No, no, no, no, I - personally I don't think it's necessary to be the same with the actor as with the character. Because, I mean, you work with people who, really lovely people, that play people that you hate. And you don't want to go around estranging yourself from people who are nice people for the sake of preparing for an act.
Q: It seems like it would be hard enough to do your first movie period. But you're doing a CGI movie full of special effects. I'm wondering, like in scenes when you're hugging Iorek and you're actually hugging a stuffed bear, whatever, bear head, and you're being emotional and stuff: how was that for you and how did you get to that point, that kind of emotion for this little stuffed head?
Dakota: Well it was very hard, I mean as you can imagine doing green screen is the hardest part of shooting. But I think what made it a lot easier was having people like Nonso and Tommy who read the voices of the animated characters on set, and I really, I don't think I could've done it without them.
Q: Does it make a difference for you, I mean you heard Ian McKellan's voice (in the final movie, on set was Nonso Anozie) and then they swapped it out, they had the different actor in the floor when you were interacting?
Dakota: Yeah, it was a bit strange to hear his voice. Because I mean, of course I've been doing all the acting against Nonso. Yeah, I mean it was I will say strange to be doing of course these epic big animation scenes with Iorek and I've never met him. It's just a strange thought.
Q: Are you going to be at the premiere, will he be there Tuesday night?
Dakota: Um, probably. I wouldn't know.
Q: Next up for you is "Secret of Moonacre," right?
Dakota: We finished -
Q: Oh, so how was the experience, what excited you about the project?
Dakota: I loved the story of that as well. I mean, to be honest in some ways I preferred working on that more than this, and in some ways I prefer this more than that. I mean, because we were out of the country shooting that and there was one other child on set at the time and she was Hungarian and she didn't speak any English and my Hungarian is terrible. And, you know it's just, it's very hard to be away from your friends for long.
Q: How different a character is she, Maria?
Dakota: Maria is, one of the main differences, Maria is very much a lady. Whereas Lyra is not and not wanting to be one.
Q: And are you leading the film?
Dakota: Depends who's judging (Laughter)
Q: What about in the next book there's a romantic sub plot in this. How nervous are you about doing that?
Dakota: Well, I mean, of course I'm nervous. But I'm trying not to think about it so much because I mean then that way at least it won't be as scary, just the thought of it. And I know my friends are going to it and (inaudible) and my friends will try to embarrass me as much as they possibly can.
Q: Will you get casting approval or at least be able to have some input with in terms of who you get?
Dakota: Um, I don't know. Generally it's not going to be my choice.
Q: Chemistry on screen?
Dakota: For "Secret of Moonacre" the other kind of main character, that we, after I'd got the part and they were auditioning for him I had to audition with them.
Q: What would you say the basic set up of "Moon Acre" is?
Dakota: It's basically, you know, there are the two families who are against each other: the Merryweathers and the Demonts. And, this is very, very basic and simple. One of the Merriweathers has to team up with one of the Demonts to kind of set something right.
Q: And in general how excited are you by the possibility of playing this role and working with these people for several films possibly, I'm talking about this one obviously.
Dakota: It's exciting. I mean, I love the role, I really do. And I love the people as well. And I'd be happy to be in -
Q: Were you involved in the end that was cut - you were involved - how disappointed were you that that was uh, cut, and I mean obviously we'll get to see it.
Dakota: I don't think it was so much of a disappointment as a bit of a shock. And I mean, they did explain it to me and I did understand it. And I think the new ending, although I haven't seen it, I'm sure it works. Because, I mean I understand their reasons for doing it and I think that it's probably for the best.
Q: If you had a daemon what would it be?
Dakota: It would be one of the, it would either be a ring-tailed lemur, or a white hare, or a hedgehog.
Q: And how many times have you been asked that question?
Dakota: I've lost count. (Laughter)
Q: And you're giving the same answer every time?
Dakota: Yeah, you can't change your daemon (Laughter) oh, actually no it's a giraffe.
Dakota: (Laughs)
Deborah Forte
(Inaudible)
Q: How much did you get this movie made and how, were you involved when Chris had left the project as well (inaudible, but repetitive)
Deborah: I was with it long before any of that happened.
Q: When the books were published?
Deborah: Yes, before the books were published. I read the manuscript for the original book, Northern Lights and was so impressed with the story, Philip is just the consumate story-teller. If you were to meet him you would be so engrossed immediately because he loves to tell any story. And I optioned the rights to the first book and then he told me it was going to be a trilogy. So I had to wait a few more years until he finished and then started thinking about the movie.
Q: Did he ask that you not proceed with the movie until after?
Deborah: He didn't, he didn't. But he did say he wasn't sure where he was going, he had an idea. And I think at that point I thought it was more prudent to wait and see where the story was going.
Q: How filmic did you see this story as being?
Deborah: I think it was so overtly cinematic in every way. It was big, and epic, it had scope. It had something that I think every producer looks for which is something that is entirely unique but completely relatable. And his invention of the daemons was just that. Every child, I think every adult dreams of having a soul mate. You know, someone who is so close to them never being alone. So that fantasy of having a person, a thing in your life who always understands you and loves you is, in fact, the daemon. But he did it in such an original and visual, visually interesting way, to pick animals to do it was great storytelling.
Q: How in the book does (inaudible) and why Chris, of your choice of directors?
Deborah: I think there were a lot of challenges. Fortunately the technology caught up to Philip's imagination. I think actually it was a great thing that it took a long time to make the movie because if the movie had been made six or eight years ago I don't think the technology could've lived up to some of the challenges we had in terms of the daemons and the bears and really making them credible in terms of the story-telling. Because they served as actors in the piece, they're not really CG, they're not CG, you're not aware of them as CG. I don't know how many have seen the movie -
Q: We've all seen the movie
Q: I just wondered if after you got into this that you had any idea that there was going to be this controversy surrounding, on the film as being anti-Catholic or atheistic or whatever. I mean "why did we pick this one?" I don't remember Lord of The Rings going through that kind of a -
Deborah: I think that what I thought about and I think that the studio thought about as well, although I don't want to speak for them, is that it is a great story. And when you ask a lot of the fans what they love about the story, 99% of them say they love the orginality of the world that Philip created, they love the characters. Oh I love Lyra, I love Iorek, I love Lee, whatever, Serafina. They don't ever say to me "I love it because it deals with this theme and has this point of view." It's rare that I hear that. So there was a very good reason to make this as a movie because it's great entertainment.
Q: Did you ever think, because I know that you kind of, changed some of the themes in the film where to kind of, downplay a little of the religion. But still getting the religious controversy even though it's not in the film, did you kind of think: "Maybe we should just have it in there, we're going to get the controversy anyway."
Deborah: I think it wasn't a conscious decision of having it or not having it. Philip, when I started this process, and I said do you have any words of wisdom for us, in terms of developing this as a script? He said, "Yes. Stick with Lyra." He said, "Don't get sidetracked with a lot of other things you could do or say in this movie, stick with Lyra. He said, "It's her story, if you stick with her, if you fully tell her story, if the audience understands her and appreciates her and her story, you'll do ok."
Q: In following those words of wisdom though, my question is as a producer, how nervous were you ahead of time in terms of finding the right Lyra and then, of course, going with an unknown.
Deborah: Well, we were all a little nervous about that. But if you understand her character from the books as a template, she goes from this very naive in her own way, character. Bold and naive like many kids whose universe is very small and they're very confident in their own universe, to this much larger universe and challenge. And she earns her mantle as hero, she basically beings to grow up. And I think when we understood that we thought, well Chris felt very strongly about the - I'm sure he spoke to you about this - that he wanted an unknown. And the studio supported us in that because we could get a child who could go through the same character arc so to speak.
Q: The ending of this movie assumes, of course that the film is not going to be commercially successful. And I really hope it is commercially successful, but you never know -
Deborah: That's true.
Q: And were you consciously aware of that and worried that any discussion with New Line and having an ending that would have us fly, audiences that would, that had never read the book, bring some closure to the book without spelling out the fact that you're doing another one?
Deborah: I think we just made the decision to after a lot of thought, to end the story where we thought the story should and could end in the movie. And we felt in discussion with Philip, interestingly as well, that you neither have to have a cliffhanger or you have to resolve things. And you have to know sort of the state of your hero. And I think we were able to achieve that ending the story where we ended it. What we wanted to make sure of was that we didn't really change the story, we just ended it earlier.
Q: But you didn't originally plan on it, you shot the three, last three chapter of the book
Q2: Two, two (The first questioner was right - it's three)
Deborah: But there was so much to get in there. There is so much cinematically that happens in those last two (three) chapters. And if you want to have the time, I mean what we saw, and Chris should speak to this because it was really his decision with a lot of involvement from Philip. But, in the end you just want to tell the story that you can tell best and still keep faithful to the material. And what we saw was that if we wanted to have any time in the film to be able to have the audience get to know Lyra, Lee. There are a lot of people in this film that we're introducing for the first time. And there's a fair amount of information for people that haven't read the books that we have to impart into the movie. You know, it's a big job to fill this four hundred pages of setting the stage for another six hundred and twenty pages to go. So, that was really big.
Q: How surprised were you that New Line was willing - my understanding was that the price tag on this is somewhere between a hundred seventy-five and two hundred million. With Harry Potter and some of the other (inaudible) event type movies is they're books that were popular world wide, particularly in, also in America. I have a twelve-year-old boy who's never heard of these books before and he's got all of this style book. I'm just trying to figure out, how surprised were you and how big of a gamble on that project is doing a movie like this? Were you gambling on the quality of the product or hoping people discover it in this case?
Deborah: We just think that it's surprising to me anyone who's read the book. I have maybe, I really know of one young person who didn't like the books. Almost every young person who reads these books really likes them. They're a different kind of story. And I just felt it was a question of the books now, the first book was published twelve yeras ago. And so Philip hasn't had a new book out in the states for a while. I mean here, everywhere in the world, even in the states, I mean the sales were really solid - the book was a best seller in the states. But there are degrees, as you note, of "best-sellerdom" and there's a pretty big spectrum. And I think that it was on the basis of the strength of the material, not necessarily the awareness of the material was the decision was made.
Q: Were you at all concerned about the National Theatre's decision to do a stage production?
Deborah: No. I thought that it was a great exercise that we could learn from because we knew that that was going to happen before the movie was done. And they had their own set of unique challenges and Philip was pretty involved with that. And we had a dialogue throughout. And first of all, it's the National Theatre so that was pretty great. And second it was playing to an audience who a large majority knew and loved the books. So it was a great test for us to see, they had the opposite challenge, they had the challenge of making this very small in terms of the physical nature of the story telling on a stage, you have a certain limitation when you're on the stage. And we had the opposite which was we had a blank canvas and with technology now we could do anything and our choices had to be to sort of narrow this to a good narrative train that moved forward, that everyone could get on and enjoy that ride.
Q: So what are your feelings about science fiction and fantasy films?
Deborah: I am personally not a fan of science fiction or fantasy in the terms that many of the things that I like end up being that, but I think that what I love about these books and what I don't like about science fiction and fantasy is I find that I can't relate to them. The feel so foreign to me in terms of the world and the experience I don't necessarily relate and I think the brilliance of the world that Philip creates is it's very relatable in many ways. You know there are moments you think you're in your world and then you realize you're not, there's than Pullmanesque twist.
Q: Will the writers strike and the impending SAG strike on the horizon as a producer, what are your biggest fears at this point in terms of your own project and the effect that this is having on the film industry?
Deborah: Well, I hope it gets settled really quickly.
Q: How worried, or is that an issue that you've got a big-budget fantasy film like the Lord of the Rings trilogy, but you've got a little girl and not a boy and traditionally the prime audience for this is twelve to sixteen year old boys.
Deborah: Well I think that it's been fascinating to see that I would say the slight majority, maybe even not so slight, of the fans of the books are male. So that's sort of interesting when think that there's a female heroine. But I think Philip, he likes to talk about she's surrounded by the magnificent - by his version of The Magnificent Seven. And so you see characters like Iorek and Lee and Serafina and I think that they are so appealing to a variety of ages and to both genders, clearly so I don't think that it was such an issue.
Q: But is she downplayed in the advertising of The Golden Compass?
Deborah: No, she's high right in the center on that bear. On most of the posters, no we haven't downplayed.
Q: At what point, though because you have the scenes that were cut from the movies, but they're in the trailer, so at what point did you cut them?
Deborah: That was sort of, that version. There are other versions of the trailer that are more current.
Q: But, I mean, did you find that kind of funny in a way that here you were giving this -
Deborah: We did, we did. Which is one of the reasons why because we've been really candid, you know, we wanted to be really straight-forward. Because we love our movie. We think it's great entertainment. And we made decisions that film makers make when they're doing something like this. But because of the visual effects for the film, the film was not going to be ready way in advance, I mean we would've loved to have been screening this movie a few months ago but we didn't want to screen this movie without elements like the bear fight in it. And I think it was just a couple weeks ago, Saturday night I was sitting in a room and we put our last shots for the bear fight in the film. I mean the music was already done and ready to go. But without those things it's just not the same experience to screen the film. So we made a decision to wait until it was complete to shoot it, I mean to film -
Q: And it's PG-13?
Deborah: Yes.
Q: Many of the fantasy films in the past decade have been a lot darker in tone than some of the ones, you know, maybe from our youth or in past decades. What does that say about sensibilities of younger movie-goers today?
Deborah: I think it's an interesting point that you make. I think that the world has changed. I think that audiences, particularly young people have gotten more sophisticated. I think that they're much more aware, maybe unfortunately, that the world is not as safe and happy a place as they might have hoped. However, I think at the same time that has increased the appetite for fantasy films. I just think that idea of being able to see someone else experience these challenges and drama in a way that for young people is definitely enjoyable because it is not, it is not personally threatening to them. But they can see a young person triumph. I think that it is cathartic sometimes to young people and it's motivating. I mean, they see this young girl who just, based on her strength of character is able to do wonderful things. But I do agree with you that it's changed a lot in the last decade.
Q: How easy was it to lure the likes of Ian McKellan and Ian McShane and Kathy Bates and company into this?
Deborah: I think the calling card was the material. Every single person from Nicole to Daniel to Ian, they all just said "Philip Pullman, Dark Materials?" That was it. The material was really the star that we used to attract our talent. Even to attract our crew, to attract Dennis Gassner, our art director. Who saw the movie, creating this world. You know, a great looking movie. It was just, it was the material that did it. Ruth Myers, for costumes.
Q: Did you try to get Philip to come do the junket?
Deborah: Philip is writing, I mean Philip is going to do some press, the night of the premiere.
Q: For the red carpet?
Deborah: For the red carpet, yes he'll be here. But he is trying to finish, he's writing a book, and he is trying to finish it. And I think we've distracted him for the last year and a half.
Q: Is there anything (inaudible) that you're doing anything else besides this material?
Deborah: I have a couple of other projects -
Q: But you can't talk about them?
Q2: Goosebumps
Deborah: (nods) One.
Q: How can, I mean, kids love the TV show?
Deborah: We're figuring that out.
Q: Can you tell me just a little bit about the Tom Stoppard script, and is there anything that remains of that?
Deborah: No, Chris really, when Chris sent in his, which I'm sure he spoke to you about - his forty page treatment, he sent in a forty page treatment, unsolicited, again, based on his love for the material. And it was brilliant and it was fabulous. And we knew at that point he had his own take. And he never read the Stoppard script.