New Line announced today that the official website for His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass is now online at www.goldencompassmovie.com. The site features never-before-seen images from the set, concept art, an alethiometer feature (certain symbol combinations will unlock extra concept art–see the solution), and more information about the upcoming film. Read the Full Press Release
Update: Photos of Eva Green as Serafina Pekkala–without blonde hair–have been added to the site. (Thanks to J for the tip)
A few things we've learnt about the film from the site:
- Armored bears to be called 'ice bears'; although still panserbjorne.
- Daemon to be pronounced 'day-mon' instead of 'dee-mon'.
- Concept art gives Lyra's world a curious mix of high- and old-technology.
- Magisterium increasingly looking like plain political fascists.
- Fra Pavel, instead of the Master, apparently to poison Lord Asriel.
- Serafina not blonde after all!
NEW LINE CINEMA LAUNCHES OFFICIAL WEBSITE FOR
UPCOMING FANTASY EPIC THE GOLDEN COMPASS
Site Debuts Exactly One Year Before Film’s Worldwide Release
LOS ANGELES (Dec. 7, 2006) – New Line Cinema will launch the official website for its upcoming fantasy epic The Golden Compass (www.goldencompassmovie.com) on December 7th, a year to the date of the film’s scheduled worldwide release, it was announced today by New Line’s President and COO of Worldwide Distribution and Marketing Rolf Mittweg.
“The Golden Compass already has a remarkable following thanks to the success of the books and there’s a great deal of anticipation for this film,†says Mittweg. “We’re excited to share some of these first images from the production with fans all over the world, and to introduce this story to people who may not be familiar with the books.â€Â
Producer Deborah Forte adds, “Philip Pullman created an amazing world in his books, and this website gives fans the opportunity to explore that world in an interactive way.â€Â
At launch, The Golden Compass website will feature exclusive content about the film’s production including more than a dozen first-look images from the set as well as striking concept art. The content will be available in 11 languages and will include:
– The Alethiometer: Derived from the Greek words for “truth†and “measure,†the Alethiometer is a virtual re-creation of the device used in the film to decipher the truth. Users are able to select and examine its arcane symbols – and to unlock hidden website content if they choose the right ones.
– The World of The Golden Compass: A unique look at the characters and locations in the film including photos of the acclaimed cast (which includes Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Sam Elliot, Ian McShane and newcomer Dakota Blue Richards) in character as well as production concept art which offers a sneak peek at some scenes in the film.
Based on author Philip Pullman’s bestselling and award-winning novel, The Golden Compass tells the first story in Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy. The Golden Compass is an exciting fantasy adventure, set in an alternative world where people’s souls manifest themselves as animals, talking bears fight wars, and Gyptians and witches co-exist. At the center of the story is Lyra (played by newcomer Dakota Blue Richards), a 12-year-old girl who starts out trying to rescue a friend who’s been kidnapped by a mysterious organization known as the Gobblers – and winds up on an epic quest to save not only her world, but ours as well. The Golden Compass stars an ensemble cast that includes Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Sam Elliott, and Ian McShane. The film is written and directed by Chris Weitz (About A Boy, Antz) and produced by Deborah Forte and Bill Carraro (Frequency). It is executive produced by Andrew Miano and Paul Weitz (In Good Company). The Golden Compass is scheduled for a Dec. 7, 2007 release.
About New Line Cinema Corporation:
Founded almost 40 years ago, New Line Cinema is the most successful independent film company in the world. Its mission is to produce innovative, popular and profitable entertainment in the best creative environment. In addition to the production, marketing and distribution of theatrical motion pictures, the fully-integrated studio has divisions devoted to home entertainment, television, music, theater, merchandising and an international unit. In 2005, New Line partnered with HBO to form Picturehouse, a new theatrical distribution company to release independent films. A pioneer in franchise filmmaking, New Line’s Oscar-winning The Lord of the Rings trilogy is one of the most successful film franchises in history. New Line is a division of Time Warner, Inc. (TWX).
For the solution to the alethiometer puzzle to unlock hidden concept art, highlight the following white text: “Symbols: Cauldron, Thunderbolt, Horse “
It's awesome!
Wee… movement…
Damn I thought this might happen… they are calling them DAEMONS.
Magda Subanski as Mrs. Lonsdale?! Good lord. I still can't get the image of her pashing Heath Ledger at last night's AFI's out of my head. :tongue:
Interesting choice. I can see it now… "Lyra, forget the zepplins, fly JetStar!"
The only thing I don't like are the images of the "ice bears". I really hope they don't turn out looking that fake in the movie. Other than that it's looking wicked.
Ok, everything looks amazing and all but I just have to say…HOW FREAKING GORGEOUS is Nicole Kidman in that photo on the site?!?!? I mean wow. Coulter is alive.
dude, they ARE called daemons
Hey, it calls Daemons 'Daymons' not demons :angry: apart from that cool!!
Fra Pavel wasnt he just the Churchs Althiometer reader, now hes an main character…..
The characters look perfect!!!!! Kidman, Richards, Craig….everyone!
Ugh, I am so pumped for this!!! And I have to suffer a whole year. :angry:
Please oh please oh please don't let the bear's armour look like that. It looks like a papier maché project. And it's supposed to protect him from bullets, so he'd need some on his legs. And his helmet hardly provides any coverage! I could rant for ages about this. (Everything else on the site looks great though).
Just responding to crazy stunt girl, the pictures of the ice bears are just conceptual art. They are definitely not finished yet. And yeah, the rest of it looks pretty damn nice. 🙂
clearly the bears armour is just concept art. and i agree, it should not be spelt 'daemons' but 'dæmons'. i like the look of the gyptians the most, but i still feel weitz is just going to give this film the wrong feeling. lyra's world should have a tim burton sort of feeling about it. creaky, weird and wonderful. not lord of the rings esque.
Grrr… They stole our alethiometer!
_Whose_ alethiometer ..?
It's just perfect! Maybe only our 007 Asriel isn't working well… Nicole is awesome with her golden dress. Tell us more ways to get more concept art.
Fra Pavel poisoning the wine? *raises eyebrow*
hmmm…pix of everyone except the witches…they not even mentioned in the cast list or anything.
Beautiful, just beautiful.
In regards to Ioreks armour, it is close enough to how it should be. It is rusted, and bears the marks from where he beated it into shape.
I am not sure why Iofur's name was changed. Perhaps it was to avoid the audience confusing the two bears names, but that is only guesswork. Perhaps they will give us an answer later.
It still lists Ian McShane as playing Ragnar… I thought we'd decided that they hadn't changed the character's name?
On the alethiometer's description, it says that no one can read it anymore, except maybe Lyra. This definitely sounds like Fra Pavel isn't going to be what he was before.
as a concept, does anybody actually understand the alethiometer? where does its idea come from? can pullman read the alethiometer?
hoobits\’ point was that they\’re pronouncing daemon as \’day-mon\’. Having an anti-religion (not that it will be anymore) film and having demons would be too much it seems.
PS: Do they really expect us to figure out the other alethiometer combinations for getting the concept art on our own? My math skills bite, but I'm pretty sure there are millions (or at least hundreds of thousands) of combinations of three you can make from 36 individual pictures, or however many are on the alethiometer. We can't possibly just keep trying until we stumble across one that works.
i wish i could see some more film pictures. Yeah they got in a right fuss over the Harry Potter films because it had witch-craft. This book has the genesis story altered so some religious person will come and sue the director or something. I wish they'd just leave it.
Awesome. Can't wait. Love the music on the site. This is exciting. It reminds me of how I felt when the Lord of the Rings site launched. Well, not quite that exciting, but exciting enough.
Feel free for the powers that be to edit this… however they're hiding the witches… The data is there as part of the site, however it's all commented out. I wander why…
Am I allowed to post the descriptions that the site gives? Or would I get in trouble?
You are allowed!!
Wow!
Awesome!
i'm sooooo exited!
i just can't wait!
and i want to see the witches!! x3
Nicole Kidman looks drop dead gorgeous in that golden sparkly dress, just stunning. And I am estatic that the site is already up!!!!
Early Christmas present, indeed!
i love the way lee looks, it's perfect to me.
and seriously, where are the witches?
For Situ
"SERAFINA PEKKALA is the Queen of the witches of Lake Enara. More than three hundred years old, she has the longevity and vigor of her kind, with the appearance and energy of a woman in her twenties. Like all witches, she has the power of flight and is privy to arcane knowledge that comes by way of the signs of the forest and tundra she inhabits and its proximity to the far North, where the barrier between worlds is thin."
"WITCHES live in the tundra and forests of the North. They are all female and possessed of an attunement to nature so seen as to be regarded as magic by other mortals. Witches live to a great age – centuries – but retain their compelling beauty and youth. Occasionally they take lovers from amongst he men of the lands beyond their own; often with tragic ends; for they invariably long outlive their mates."
Also worked out all the aleth symobols… The pictures are all good. Except the magisterium carriage, it looks like something out Minority Report. Wander why the witches are hidden from view?
ok, so i've spent the last 5 minutes playing with the alethiometer and i came to a decision:
let's make a pact that if anyone unlocks anything, they have to tell us the code
i agree to it!
you guys?
As said Alewyn, I've got them all. To prove I'm not joking I'll give you one. However doesn't it kind of ruin it if I just give them all to you? lol
I'm making it slightly cryptic for those who don't want to be told.
If the thunderbolt is 1, move the hands to 16,12,21. Enjoy
please, will you tell us the combinations?
how did you figure them out, did you open the file in flash or something? chheeeeaatttytyyyyyyyyyy
please i want a different wallpaper to those magiterium twats
i have been trying out different combinations for awhile. ALAS its not aving it. i want a boss wallpaper, soif could you email them to me at merseyrider@hotmail.co.uk i would be eternally grateful Energy. thanks
thanks alot if you choose to do Energy
Eva Green, who plays Serafina Pekkala, has just started filming last week, so probably they have no material for witch pictures at this moment, and they will include it soon. But I don't know.
With 36 symbols you should have 7776 combinations for the Athlethiometer: (36*36*36)/6 (you have to divide through six, because the row permutation doesn't matter).
Heh, I said that my math isn't the greatest.
Globe, Anchor, Compass
Another slide of Lord Asriel with his photograms of Svalbard …
Just checked out my math scripts and there I found another formular to compute this situation – so now we have 8436 computations, which are a few more. Mmmh, my math seems not to be the best, too. 😉 But the number should be around there.
Kieran Clarke – funny how that's the one I gave…..
Globe/Anchor/Compass doesn't work for me.
Energy, could you please post the rest of the combinations, even if you do them in the number code? I have no idea how you got them so quickly, but I do not have enough time in my life to put thousands of combinations into that thing… So, pretty please?
Oh my good golly gosh!
*keels over in peals of joyous laughter*
DBR is perfect. So is…everybody!
But we still have to wait a whole year…when do we start the countdown? 😉
I think I just wet myself. I'm so excited now! I can't believe they already have a website up! All of the pictures look amazing, especially Nicole Kidman in the gold dress.
Nicole Kidman and Dakota Blue Richards look bloody brilliant!
People who want the full list of combinations need to investigate the forums. 🙂
I can't get over Lyra's resemblance to Asriel! I'm so excited for the film to come out and for more content to be posted on the website!
🙂
This looks amazing. This speaks of a Lord of the Rings like epic, with them getting a polished site up so far in advance.
Just wonderful!
Everything is great but the Athlethiometer isn't really captured for me. I mean it is one of the most important things and I don't think it has the spark that Philip Pullman wrote it to have. Aside from that everything is perfect!
I really hope they change the whole "ice bear" thing. It makes absolutely no sense to change the name from Armored bear (which is a MUCH cooler name in my opinion and what they ARE)to ice bear. I suppose I can understand the whole Iofur to Ragnar busniess because Iorek and Iofer sound so alike but yeah, ice bears…that's just silly. There is a place where you can leave feedback on the new official website. Do you guys think we should email them and let them know that we think some of these changes are unnecessary? Perhaps I am just anal about leaving things the way they are…*sigh*
Ice bear is fine by me. To be honest I have always found the term "armoured bear" a bit ponderous and clumsy.