The Golden Compass (aka Northern Lights)

HeX · 24 Oct 2007 at 14:05

Havn't seen a thread about this film yet, but its one i've been looking forward to greatly.

Its the first of a trilogy of films based on the 'His Dark Materials' books by Philip Pullman.

Its all about a girl called Lyra who comes from an alternate reality where your soul is a physical manifestation (an animal) called a Daemon that follows you everywhere. After her friend is kidnapped she heads into the North to save him and so begins her adventure.

The books have an intresting mix of fantasy, philosophy, theology, and physics to create one great big epic storyline spanning multiple dimensions.

Plot sunmmary can be read here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0385752/plotsummary

If you want it to be a supprise then I wouldn't read it.

Poster:

Extended trailer:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=NwUaao-Cihs

From the trailer I can already see some changes they've made from the books, but its nothing plotline or story breaking, and on the whole it looks like they've done a good job.

Anyway, just thought i'd bring it to peoples attention!

Also, if you havn't read the books, i'd strongly suggest that you do, as personally I think they are excellent

DanH84 · 24 Oct 2007 at 14:22

the books are excellent so far (only on book 2) hope the film lives up to it.

Dano · 24 Oct 2007 at 14:26

I saw the trailer for this yesterday while seeing Stardust, it did indeed look pretty good.

The Dread Pirate · 24 Oct 2007 at 14:39

I thought they were gonna cut all of the god stuff out of it as there was a massive outcry from the church

HeX · 24 Oct 2007 at 14:51

$qu!ff said:
I thought they were gonna cut all of the god stuff out of it as there was a massive outcry from the church

Think they 'renamed' God to 'The Magisterian' or something instead.

Shame really, as it does loose some of its punch without it being God, but hey ho, I expected some artistic licence and the politically correct people to stick their oar in.

Raikiri · 24 Oct 2007 at 14:54

DanH84 said:
the books are excellent so far (only on book 2) hope the film lives up to it.

They get better and better as they go on

P.S Ignore anything Gilly says regarding them.

Gilly · 24 Oct 2007 at 17:27

DanH84 said:
the books are excellent so far (only on book 2)

Yeah, book two finishes badly and book three is awful.

Its a real shame.

JohnnyG · 24 Oct 2007 at 17:41

I watched them filming some of this in Holland Park a few months ago and they used the back of Paul Allen's (MS) house for some scenes, I hung around for a while to see if I could get a sniff of Miss Kidman, no joy though

Meridian · 24 Oct 2007 at 17:48

JohnnyG said:
get a sniff of Miss Kidman,

That would get you arrested. Be worth it though...

M

Curiousalien · 24 Oct 2007 at 19:36

A making of book came into work today (a bookshop almost obvious) but as much as I loved the books the film looks really bad. looks cheap but I will wait for the final product.

I hope it was just the book though as some of it looked quite good.

Sirrel Squirrel · 24 Oct 2007 at 19:42

Been doing bits and bobs on this at work, looks pretty good, could be an epic up there with LOTR.

daven1986 · 24 Oct 2007 at 20:22

best books ever tbh

Helium_Junkie · 26 Oct 2007 at 11:44

Gilly said:
Yeah, book two finishes badly and book three is awful.

Crazy talk.
Loved the trilogy, and am excited about the movie

Sweetloaf · 26 Oct 2007 at 13:08

Looking forward to this, I have to agree with Gilly (first time for everything

) although not entirely awful, those creatures that rode around using nuts just seemed like a daft idea and ruined things a bit for me.

Helium_Junkie · 26 Oct 2007 at 16:21

You're right, why cant fantasy authors just stick to time honoured races such as elves and orcs eh?
Bloody originality, makes me sick it does!

Sweetloaf · 26 Oct 2007 at 17:42

Helium_Junkie said:
You're right, why cant fantasy authors just stick to time honoured races such as elves and orcs eh?
Bloody originality, makes me sick it does!

Nothing wrong with originality, I just protest at plain stupid and comedic in an otherwise serious trilogy. To me they fit in about as well as The Wombles would have in LOTR.

Actually.....bad analogy

molinari · 26 Oct 2007 at 19:45

so is this definately part 1 of a film trilogy of the books?? From watching the trailer, I thought it looked like they'd stripped out most of the story to shrink it into 1 film, and that was a big downer. The fact that they've changed it because the church complain is very sad

.

OneWingedAngel · 26 Oct 2007 at 20:22

I saw the trailer before stardust yesterday, and have to say I didn't like the look of it - but thats what you get for having read and enjoyed the books - it just wasn't the northern lights that I expected or wanted.

Irish_Tom · 26 Oct 2007 at 20:25

Really looking forward to this. It's where my on-line pseudonym derives from.

I don't think the nut-riders were a comedic/stupid race but I think too much emphasis was put on that section of the book. It could have been made a fair bit shorter if it wasn't for all of that. Will be interesting to see how they manage it in the 3rd film.

Molinari I disagree, there's nothing really from that trailer that alludes to either of the final two books.

Panzer

molinari · 26 Oct 2007 at 20:44

Panzerbjorn said:
Molinari I disagree, there's nothing really from that trailer that alludes to either of the final two books.
Panzer

I've only just seen the extended trailer, had only seen the short version. It will make me happy if they make all 3 films, but sad that they've made big changes to the story (darn religourisers!).