The first stop for the film production was naturally enough at Oxford, Philip Pullman's and His Dark Material's home. Much of the trilogy takes place here - in both Lyra's and our own existence of the city. Jordan College is situated here and is a key location for the first book - it roots Lyra in her home and sets her on her quest. Visualising the sprawling history and wealth of Jordan is integral to the introduction on film to Lyra's own little world, and all its differences to our own.
Philip Pullman's old college, Exeter, located in the heart of Oxford on Turl Street, seems to be standing in for Jordan in the film. Crews have been seen camped in force outside the college, with much filming going on there. One commentator on the site says that from an upstairs window at the Bodleian Library they saw "Lyra and Lord Asriel together - the scene was shot in the garden of Exeter College below and seemed to consist of the pair walking and having a solemn chat. Daniel Craig was dressed in a very fine greenish '30s style suit and looked somewhat like an English Indiana Jones (the academic Professor Jones that is, not the leather-jacketed Indy) whilst Lyra's costume consisted of a simple dress that looked like it could come from any era.Also scattered around were a few daemon props that were lying to the side rather than being used as stand-ins for future CGI or something."
Jordan is grander than our Exeter of course, so filming of additional colleges - All Souls especially it seems - may be to 'add' to Lyra's Jordan. (as indeed is the case at Greenwich)
Other Oxford locations were taken in too. The Radcliffe Camera seems to have been the object of some attention; one night the square was seen pumped full of smoke and lights in order to make it more atmospheric. The Randolph Hotel and the Pitt Rivers museum were also tipped as locations, though it's unknown if they were actually used. Our Pitt Rivers features in The Subtle Knife - Lyra looks at the trephined skulls there - so it's a little unclear how it'd fit in to The Golden Compass.
Photos: We've divided photos for Oxford into two galleries. There's one for actors in costume - which at this moment consists of Nicole Kidman, who was snapped arriving blonde haired and clad in a fur-edged coat. The other is of photographs of the film crews at work in Oxford. Kim has scored us some great close-up photos of filming - include a shot of stuffed daemons - whilst another Sraffie took some more general photos of the filming. View photos.
more on the other locations to come