Fresh footage from The Golden Compass was shown at Cannes today and here’s our report from our man on the ground, Duncan. We’ll have more detailed thoughts on the new footage in the days to come.

”The footage was to be aired at the Olympia 1 theatre. I of course arrived early, expecting the place to be besieged. It was quite the opposite however; a modest A4 with the title ‘Golden Compass’ in black marker was pegged to the door, indicating the small line, where I took second place.”

”Everyone was frisked for electronic devices, then sat in the main theatre. As I waited and watched, I recognised many people. For example, none other than Lizo from Newsround sat behind me. Whilst I contained my glee, Chris Weitz swiftly introduced the footage, mentioning that the CGI was still being worked on by around 500 artists. At this point I’d like to state that this is from memory, my cunning plan to note things down backfired when the lights went off. Suffice to say when I came to write this report, my notepad read only ‘NL, London, Dinner, Holy and Gibble.’ ”

”Even more to the point, when Chris finished, the theatre darkened and an anticipating silence fell on the audience. The New Line icon glimmered on screen joined by a sweeping score (unsure if it was the soundtrack by Desplat, the film’s composer). Then suddenly we were in Lyra’s World.”

”What followed was a comprehensive 10 minute run-through of the plot, in spectacular and dramatic form. It began with a sweeping view of London with a voice over explaining the world, the Magisterium and so fourth. Then we met Lyra, and Pan fully animated and voiced, hiding in the wardrobe as Asriel confronted the Scholars in the Retiring room. Dakota is in all respects Lyra. Her acting was exemplary in each appearance. She even boasts the lively accent.”

”Then we were in the expansive dining hall of Jordan College, sitting with Lyra at the Masters Table as she spoke to Marisa. Kidman presents Coulter with flawless malign beauty, as she should be. Pullman was not misinformed when he conceived her to play his villain. We are also shown inside her lustrous Romanesque abode, where we see her try to domesticate Lyra, and the confrontation between them.”

”Then there was the matter of a certain armoured bear. Iorek is … large. Although not quite as expansive as previously thought. For example, you may remember the promo trailer showed Lyra riding him across the horizon – a shot created to convince New Line to make the film. We were now presented with the actual shot where he is considerably smaller. He is also voiced, gruff and deep. We were shown Lyra calming him outside the priests house after regaining his armour (although notably missing one bloodied guard).”

”One worry of mine was the witches, whom from what I saw, did not use Cloudpine. Instead they glided in a graceful windswept way. This does raise questions however, as there has been images of Cloudpine released by New Line. It is plausible that they will be added digitally later, but we shall have to wait and see.”

”The scenes that I saw were taken directly from the books, as was a decent part of the dialogue. There were a great deal of new scenes, such as Marisa interacting with Fra Pavel and other members of the Magisterium, and a scene showing Rogers abduction. Elliot is cracking as Lee of course. Daemons, as some will be pleased to know, do lip-sync. I imagine I have forgotten something, but no matter, I will be seeing it again!”

”Plenty more to come, stay tuned over the next few days.”