As many members of fandom are well aware, Comic Con 2009 has just passed. Golden Compass director Chris Weitz participated in Summit Entertainment’s Thursday panel to promote Twilight sequel New Moon. While answering questions regarding his new work, Weitz referenced his work on the film adaptation of the Golden Compass and confirmed what many fans have believed, “The last film that I made was recut by the studio, and my experience with it ended being quite a terrible one.” (Source: Cinema Blend)
The director described his work with Summit Entertainment as rejuvenating, in comparison to his previous work with New Line, and remarked, “I now remember how much fun it can be to make a film.” (Source: Ropes of Silicon) However, it was not a complete loss, as the director found the process to be a rather instructive for him with regards to the use of CGI. (Source: Time) Thanks to Haku from our French community partner Cittàgazze for pointing this out to us. The discussion continues here.
At last he’s speaking about it.
Well, I dislike Twilight and I think it’s a shame that Chris Weitz is working on it instead of His Dark Materials. I have never blamed him, anyway. He made a great screenplayand a pretty good job directing, and New Line messed it up in the cutting.
But I still have some little hopes that we may have a proper cut of Compass someday. I’d like to know what should Weitz be thinking about it nowdays, if he’s still interested anyhow in HDM.
By the way, I’ve written something on this subject, defending Chris Weitz’s version and looking on the diferences from his original cut to the theatrical version.
http://sphynx-sn.deviantart.com/art/quot-The-Golden-Compass-quot-Essay-123187223
I got to get a petition going so that New Line will hopefully put out a directors cut of the Golden Compass film. Maybe since Weitz express disgust at them, they might be reluctant, but since the movie did lots of business outside of North America, it is at least likely to be profitable.
It’s a matter of opening their eyes. I don’t understant how on earth they didn’t just REALIZE that their theatrical cut was dull when they decided to recut the movie. And the blame fell on Chris Weitz, I remember the reviews at time.
This confirms exactly what I thought. At the time of release, he was very careful to say “we decided…” to make it seem as though he was in on it, although I just knew instinctively that the studio pressured him to make those changes, or perhaps didn’t include him at all. The final cut certainly wasn’t a horrible film, but not his original vision by a long shot.
Part of me wants a reboot of the series. That someone else buy the rights and make it all again from the beginning.
But in other hand, I think “The Golden Compass” had such a heavy cast, a perfect art direction, an incredible cinematography, an amazing soundtrack, the script and direction were good.
The movie had everything it needed, and with quality. So much quality that the lame and incoherent theatrical cut is still enjoyable.
I’m dying to see which movie Weitz’s version would be.
Yeah, we all knew this was New Line’s fault. Sad thing is, the movie could have been amazing, the way Chris Weitz was doing it, but the cuts killed it. I really wish Weitz would push for a director’s cut, but the way they treated him, I’m not sure he would even try.
Now that he’s openly commented on what it was like to work for them, I hope someone would go after him for a more detailed interview; I wonder if there’s any more “dirt” on New Line he could share with the fans. A lot happened behind closed doors; I’d like to know more details.
I’d rather have a director’s cut DVD than an interview! 🙂
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Does anyone know when new fanart will be posted? I sent emails ages ago and they haven’t been posted…
Oh great, so it would seem the New Line basically messed it up. Well done New Line, now were not going to get the other films cus you screwed up. I still think they need to release a proper directors cut.