thats london?? holy crap. it looks like a kingdom that's somehow a factory. oooo.....weird. laugh.....//L.

cool but a little over dramatic and unrealistic but good designs on buildings just not so extravagant

i dont really like it. they're making it look WAY too futuristic. i always imagined lyra's world to be kinda behind our world in technology and stuff...

its its its ...........................................................................................
wierd.

It kind of looks like it's fromt the future....

But it still is cool!!

*form not fromt


Sorry!

i think its good but yeah, not how i imagined it, i saw it as just like our london 'bout 100 years ago perhaps.

Gorgeous, stunning, amazing. Yay for New Line for (apparently) not screwing up the film like we all feared!

I also imagined it would be more Victorianesque....

Agh! it's too futurstic! I imagined the city more old fashioned. No, I don't like it

This really makes me think of Star Trek for some reason.
But still, interesting...

Its just as I imagined it. For those of you who know it, it reminds me alot of the steampunk genre.

Oh WOW! That's awsome! It's otherworldly but still has the look of London there.

I was under the impression that even though some aspects of Lyra's world's science (in the Dust sense) were more advanced, that the general world was more Victorian? Hmm, maybe it'll turn out better on the screen anyway :)

Hmm.... Cool! Its all i can say... But, its willy fictions agtigt!!!!
I better like Londons this way it is now!!!
Can wait to the film!!!!!!!!

Makes me wish London was really like that! Cant wait to see it on the big screen! :)

COOOOOOOOOOOL!!!!!!
I'm SO excited now!!!
Remember, Lyra's world is NOT our world... just thought some of you ought to remember that... ^_^

REALLY COOL!
Whoa!
Yes, Alex, looks like steampunk all right! :D
P.S. Lyra?Ǭ¥s world is not "behind" ours, its "parallel", as "different" from ours. I am willing to believe it may look like this. :)

It's perfect!!!!

Not futuristic....just has more glass and an arch/bridge between the two structures. Theres also a lot more gold but if this is Jordan College then it fits cause it's the greatest, most beautiful college in all Oxford.

nice

John Parry--- this is London not Oxford apparently so Jordan isn't there--- argh confused.

Hmm... I hope this looks a little less... contrived when it's moving.

Hmm...It looks sort of futuristic mixed with old fashioned...either it looks specctacular

It's just not how I imagined it to look.

Well i'm extremely impressed with the art work, but it looks like loads of Cathedrals (if thats how you spell it). It's a city for catholics. As far as i'm awear of no one in the book is catholic.

I know. Way too futuristic.

They have Zeppellins, so its not that underdeveloped.

Lyra's world was never described as undeveloped, it has just evolved in a different way to our own. Like the people who invented all the things in our world that make our world "superiorly developed" to Lyra's, like computers and T.V's, would not have existed in her world so therefore they would not have been invented. There was probably things in Lyra's world that we don't have in our world which just wasn't neccessary to the storyline so we didn't read about them. Anyway, after confusing myself and almost certainly everyone reading this now, I think this picture is breathtaking and this film looks set to be an amazing ADAPTATION.

Its going to be brilliant, its going to top harry potter by far! I'm waiting on the book of dust, i dont know about you Lyra at Heart but i wasnt that impressed with Lyra's Oxford, i hope this one is better :)

Sheesh, folks, it's absolutely gorgeous. Some of the same posters just go from page to page, bashing every single aspect of the movie. I don't get it. (If the movie looks that bad to you, just stay away and keep re-reading the books.)

This production design still is gorgeous -- it faithfully reimagines a believable alternate-London, and with a little more air and glass mixed into the architecture (fitting for a civilization obsessed with churches, magic, and delicate machines like zeppelins). And for those screaming about "why all the churches, I don't remember Catholics in HDM" (LOL) -- did you even read the books? The Church/Magistereum tightly controls pretty much everything in Lyra's world (it's one of the main reasons for Asriel to do what he does).

Sorry to rant. But I just wish people would chill out on the whole "Lyra looks wrong! Her face looks wrong in this picture! I hate pink tights! Mrs. Coulter has black hair! Asriel doesn't have a beard! Lee isn't old!" wah wah wah etc. The filmmakers are working very closely to get Philip Pullman's seal of approval on everything, from casting to set and production design, etc.

Personally, Sam Eliott wasn't what I pictured for Lee -- but now I love him in the role. Meanwhile, I always pictured Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig in their roles so I am unbelievably thrilled such talented actors will play those parts. I even love Mrs. Coulter blonde -- I realized she had black hair in the books, but kept stubbornly picturing her having golden hair, sort of mirroring her daemon. And Kidman looks gorgeous and very cold -- just like Coulter should.

Maybe everything won't look like what you personally pictured. That doesn't mean the movies are already doomed to failure. Do you know how lucky we are that this movie is being made so faithfully, and by people who love the books so passionately? Did anyone *see* how bad, for instance, "Eragon" turned out? Believe me, it could be worse!

I luuurve Lyra's London! It looks wonderful and pretty. .

Eragon turned out horrible. Mary_Malone, that was A LOT! Do your hands hurt? lol!

The film was OK for me but then again I havent read the book, i need to really.

I friend adores da film and she dragged me along with her, it was ok i guess......

looks too futuristic i imagined it as dirty daker flickering naptha lamps victoian style but with a twist

i like the wren-inspired architectural detail- it's a style from the 1600s, so it's even more antiquated than the victorian.

take a read on some of the architectural history of wren's concepts- his redesign of london after the 1666 fire...it makes sense to use his style as a possible map for a redesign of london for a world evolved seperately from ours.

It just looks so industrial. Okay we know it's a different world, you don't have to make it so wacky.

This doesn't look old- fashioned..

This is one futuristic and advance versions of how London could actually look like. It matches the concept of the "Sceptered Isles". However this is so much Gothic architecture which means this place is greatly in the grasps of the Church. This is like a dream or fantasy. No monarchy in this world, though would be view as the greater tyrants in Lyra's world.

You know what this looks like? You know that scene in Star Wars ( it's the more recent ones) when they chase that assassin in the bar with all the weird aliens doing a strip tease. When they do a view of the whole city this is exactlley what it looks like.

Nice. Imagine if Lyra had a lightsaber.

ehmm... the city is not like I was imagining it. I imagine it like the old Venecia. In the books the city is... different. Is fantastic,yeah, but is serious. It's not like Star Wars...

Yeah seriously, there is no need for that. God, there are young children who come on this site you know adn it's not fair that they have to put up with your attempt at trying to be superior coz you think you know all about this, and swearing for no reason whatsoever. Get the hell off this site you slimeball. Sorry kiddies if you read this. :)

There might be kids younger than 12 looking around on this site. How could you know?

Oh hell, it's great. The whole thing seems like, as the Church kept domain upon everything, including art, the architeture developed and became modern, but still with gothic and medieval stuff maintained because of the clerical aesthetics imposed.

Not everyone who sees this site writes a comment though I'm sure. And no I'm not younger than twelve.

Oooh! marisa has a foul mouth doesnt she! There was no need for that.
The church is hidding alot I think and one day its all going to come out.

These comments stay here for a long time and if some younger kids come on and those comments have been overlooked and not deleted, the new kids could get a bit of a shock for their young eyes. Btw I was joking when I used the term "kiddies". I thought that would have been clear. Obviously not for some.

I thought it would be far more Dickensian looking, dirty narrow streets, homeless people, pickpockets, all mixed together amidst medieval timbered buildings and victorian grandeur, this is far too CLEAN and unrealistic!

I agree with the Dickensian thing. That's how I imagined it too. :)

It's futuristic all right... I mean, London!! with that weather!!!, off the future completely ;) ...

I dunno, the designs of the whole movie look a bit ALL TOO MUCH (and too SHINY) to accompany a story which I figured opaque, dark and discrete props/buildings/costumes/skies/etc would suit it better... Not that I imagine that anyone would care for my opinion... But I think the fact is that the big overdeveloped stuff are only done in order to make the movie more appealing to the pedestrian fantasy film audience (which consists of the larger part of the paying public, and therefore, the ones the producers want to come to watch the movie on its opening weekend), and appearently, big sets/special effects/stars/etc is the only way, concerning a "family entertainment movie", "to get the jaded, video-sated public off their ******* arses and back in the ******* cinema" to quote the ever-wise Pythons.
What I'm trying to say is that I think ranting over the details of "Coulter had black hair"/"this is not how *I* pictured it" is useless....the problem is that we are talking about a fairly non-commercial children's book(s) (in the sense that there aren't many ones I read in those days which dealt with philosophy/psychology/religion/sex/physics/human psych?ɬ©/the primordial questions of life, the universe and everything else * ;) * in such depth and seriousness) being turned into a very commercial movie, which is more than likely to tell its story in a very commercial manner (that is, not only shoving all those interesting elements under the proverbial "subplot rug" in favor of your typical "children out on a big fantasy adventure" plot **and I SINCERELLY HOPE THEY WON'T**, but also filling the screen with big sets/special effects/etc which don't seem to fit the nature of such a story: remember, the magic is in not only in what you tell but also in HOW you tell it).
Of course, it was inevitable that a big hollywood studio would want to do a movie out of it since, commercially, IT WAS pretty succesful! Ok, you can argue that even if the movie turns out to be a complete rip off, the book is still there, and so is its "message" (hate the word); however, the more people such a movie reaches (and believe me, it will reach A LOT OF PEOPLE), the more diluted the "message" would get: more people would (well, people would *start to* anyway) think the book is just "kids rubbish", more people would buy the book believing to be "kids rubbish" and would be put off by finding out that IT ISN'T, more people would be fans "just because" (buying t-shirts/toys/costumes/Special Collector's Edition DVD's/going to conventions/etc) and let the "true essence" of the story slip away, plus other sad consequences.
So... what elements of this movie are there just for the sake of "profiting yet another miserable buck", and what is there that is truthful to the spirit of the story? Well, guess we'll have to wait and see...

Boy, do I write a lot when I get excited!...sorry to the ones who read the whole thing through and disagreed (A note: I certainly didn't mean that ALL of the fans who "buy stuff" let the "essence" of the story slip away; hope I didn't get misunderstood... and won't get flamed).

By the way, this is a FANTASTIC site (it has always been, it goes way back!). I have been checking news in here for a long time now, though this is the first time I post anything in it. I would just like to say thank you to everyone involved in it. (AND I'M NOT JUST SAYING IT BY MEANS OF KISSING-ARSES, MIND YOU).
There, finished.......you can flame me now...

I read it. And I agree with it. This person has some good reasons to worry about the movie (not silly reasons like what the characters look like, etc). But at least we can all hope that it will be good and hope that it will try to be something more than just another fantasy with children as the heroes.

Thats true, I hope so.

sexy