M: what about an animated His Dark Materials?

[tiki rox]

Hi,

I love His Dark Materials, but honestly i'm terrified of it becoming a live action film.

I guess many people think, that because of the profound success of Lord of the Rings and the upcoming Chronicles of Narnia films coming out, under the same distributor no less (New line,) that making His Dark Materials into a live action movie is the natural thing to do.

However, I really think His Dark Materials would be an excellent animated film. Particularly if it was tackled by master animation director Hayao Miyazaki whoose wonderful film Howls Moving Castle just released a few weeks ago.

A good film of his that would be a nice comparison to HDM would be Laputa: Castle in the sky which is about a boy named pazu and a girl named sheeta who is the owner of a levitation stone. The whole film is a whirlwind of adventure- lots of zeppelins and flying machines, robots and...you guessed it...flying castles.

I really think Philip pullman might be really interested in this if he knew miyazakis work.

-Nels

[Haku]

The topic about an anime HDM is debated here :
http://www.bridgetothestars.net/forum/v ... p?t=200872 !!!!

But, that's true, I've always found there were many links between Miyazaki's and Pullman's work and that Miyazaki would be the best one for this huge task... (In fact I'm as fan of Miyazaki as I'm of Pullman )

[666%angel]

i think HDM would be so cute as a cartoon!do you mean like anime?

[kyrabelacqua]

But the question is - do we want it to be cute? I certainly don't.
Make it cute and it'll lose all it's seriousness in a second.

[666%angel]

I suppose, it'd be cute which is good but it's not supposed to be cute, and i think however a cartoon version turned out it'd probebly end up cute so i think un-cartoon(is that a word) is the way to go.Can't wait to see it!

[kyrabelacqua]

I think live-action is the way to go, because when you watch the movie version of a book, you usually think of the actors the next time you read it.
Would you really want to remember Lyra as a cartoon?
It's bad enough that our image of the characters is destroyed, let alone starting to imagine them as animation. Personally, I'd rather remember them as real people. That is the end of my rant.

[Blacksmith]

I remember me and a friend, both agreeing that the fight between Iroek and Iufor would be just awesome as an over the top anime style. With the snow falling and the huge bears smacking each other and blood flying, etc. Truely only one for the unlimated physics of drawings.

[Jahoga]

A good idea for if sequels arent happening, is to animate them. That would be pretty cool. Have all the actors provide the voices and such.

[Energy]

A good idea for if sequels arent happening, is to animate them. That would be pretty cool. Have all the actors provide the voices and such.

you ever see the animated version of Lord of the Rings? ahhh that's so bad it's funny

[Bellerophon]

A good idea for if sequels arent happening, is to animate them. That would be pretty cool. Have all the actors provide the voices and such.

I think they should have done this in the first place. Remember The Secret of NIMH? Revolutionized the art and grossed twice its budget in the domestic box office. If I were a billionaire, I would buy the rights to HDM and start over from scratch. With Don Bluth on board it would be a slam dunk sensation. There's a thread about the sad decline of animated film around here somewhere . . .

[jasman71]

Yeah I saw the animated LOTR, and it was considered - at the time - to be a groundbreaking new method of animation; using real live action and then tracing over the top to give the animated appearance. Just a pity they didn't actually finish that first part, let alone the trilogy; the film kind of grinds to a halt.. (I meant that as a sarcastic "pity" too!)

It has crossed my mind a few times that it could be animated using the same techniques and technology as used in Beowulf, where that animation looked pretty stunning. And with £90m to play with, just think of what the finished result could've been! Ah well...

Yes, buy dvds. Buy merch. Kidnap relatives and get them to buy them too. There is life in HDM movie franchise, if only the bigwigs can realise that, and see past their wallets..

I wonder if an Online Petition would hold any sway?

[sfsraffie]

It has crossed my mind a few times that it could be animated using the same techniques and technology as used in Beowulf, where that animation looked pretty stunning.

I haven't seen Beowulf, but I did see The Polar Express, and can't imagine that HDM movies done that way would be anything but unwatchable.

-- However --

Why not green-screened sequels, a la 300? They wouldn't need an actual abandoned Mediterranean town; they could cook one up digitally to look good but stylized (i.e. not photorealistic) on the cheap. Same with the Mulefa world and all the others; though I supppose the our world places would be all real, nothing terribly expensive happens here. Such a course might not be ideal, but since I thought TGC looked much too futuristic and shiny, it's not as though such sequels would be hugely disappointing. And with a smaller budget (300 only cost 65m, and twinned TSK/TASes would lower the overall price as previously discussed), they wouldn't need to worry nearly as much about the controversial stuff.

At this stage, this might be the most realistic best-case scenario.

[Energy]

Actually green screening everything sometimes costs more than finding locations. Animation isn't always that cheap

[Gabe]

Actually green screening everything sometimes costs more than finding locations. Animation isn't always that cheap

You need to move your entire production crew to a foreign location and hire the resources to support them. If you CG it, you just hire more people as you need them and they work in the comfort of their workspace, and are able to control every aspect of the situation on screen.

Now personally I like on-location better, but CGing is definitely cheaper as long as the filmmakers know what they're doing and it's all planned. This is assuming we're talking about relatively exotic locations, not fairly mundane and easy to shoot places.

The LotR films are definitely on the low end budget wise for films that had extensive on-location shots, and that was mostly due to it being filmed in one of the cheapest places to film at the time (New Zealand) as well as the movies being shot at the same time. Even given all that 300 still cost about 30 million less than any single LotR film.

[Energy]

Oh yeah - it depends on where you film etc... also depends on what you're animating etc...

In the end a movies like TSK & TAS are going to be expensive...

[Undestined]

I'd actually really like to see an animated version of the trilogy. Especially given how well the movie did overseas, Studio Ghibli could do a good job with it. I loved "Spirited Away," and that sort of style would fit in well with Pullman's writing.

[Blossom]

I'd actually really like to see an animated version of the trilogy. Especially given how well the movie did overseas, Studio Ghibli could do a good job with it. I loved "Spirited Away," and that sort of style would fit in well with Pullman's writing.

Gawd no. Studio Ghibli are not in the least bit arsed about any sort of faithful adaptation. Howl's Moving Castel turned out OK but Earthsea was utter crap. If they failed to make even that make sense, then they'd be at a complete loss with HDM.

[sfsraffie]

Actually green screening everything sometimes costs more than finding locations. Animation isn't always that cheap

There's a big difference between CG animation and green-screened backgrounds. A bear with armour is pretty expensive to render, especially with a real person riding it. I'm sure that the non-moving CG backdrops of the North, on the other hand, cost comparatively little.

[delta10]

I loved "Spirited Away," and that sort of style would fit in well with Pullman's writing.

I found 'Spirited Away' one of the most creepy, bizarre, and utterly incomprehensible movies I've ever seen, right up there with 'Mirrormask', ugh. Needless to say I would not like to see HDM filmed in that style.

No, HDM is a story that is not well suited to animation in any case. I mean, TGC as filmed is a spectacular movie, perfect casting, incredible effects, scenery, sets, wonderful music, etc. I want to see more of that, not animation.

Hopefully some day we'll get to see that movie (i.e. the a director's cut). Maybe we'll just have to be satisfied that one of the books, at least, was brought to life on film. (Better than none.)

I'm working on getting rich, and if successful, a full live action movie series of HDM would certainly be something I'd be interested in funding.

[LHK]

I loved "Spirited Away," and that sort of style would fit in well with Pullman's writing.

I found 'Spirited Away' one of the most creepy, bizarre, and utterly incomprehensible movies I've ever seen, right up there with 'Mirrormask', ugh. Needless to say I would not like to see HDM filmed in that style.

Spirited Away is very much a film bathed in its own culture. Perhaps it only makes sense to those that grew up watching some of the better anime out there, but it is a great film. Most of Miyazki's work is a throwback to the early days of Disney, when they created dark and somewhat dangerous films for younger audiences. It would fit something like HDM to a tee.