The first of the open auditions for Lyra was held today, at Cambridge. Thousands of young hopefuls turned up and queuing started very early, with CBBC putting an estimate of some 1200 girls there. The auditions at Kendal have also taken place, this Thursday (the 6th).
From reports from those girls who contacted us, it seems as though the casting directors simply dismissed those girls that they felt did not look the part – which is disappointing as this rather ignores any acting talents they may have.
Those girls left were asked simple questions such as “what would your daemon look like?” Those further selected from the group were sent to have their photograph taken, to potentially be called back after all the auditions have taken place. Remember there are still two seperate days of auditions left: see here for all the details.
There's a good gallery of images on the CBBC website now, but to read full experiences of girls who were there, head here. This will expand as more people get back to us. If you went, please do email us with how it went – or simply comment here.
Dark Horizons claims that the film adaptation of Northern Lights/The Golden Compass has been brought forward several weeks from its previously scheduled release date, to November 16th, 2007 – although their source is not named.
In The Courier Mail today, four Australian fantasy writers discuss the His Dark Materials trilogy in a roundtable, going into quite some depth. The authors talk of Pullman's role in the trend in fantasy away from the Tolkein-style Norse and Celtic worlds and into more, “The Romantic Age plus the Industrial Age, a hellish kind of poetry.” They do however agree that they find the latter two novels somewhat inferior to The Golden Compass and disparage Pullman's slide into polemic in The Amber Spyglass. The four raise many interesting points throughout the piece and it's well worth taking the time to read through. Read the article.
The Guardian writes: “Several of Britain's leading authors reacted with dismay yesterday after the way was cleared for HMV, the books and music group which owns the high street chain Waterstone's, to take over Ottakar's, the specialist books company. … Philip Pullman said he 'lamented the loss of a genuine bookseller like Ottakar's … Little bookshops in country towns rely on bestsellers at Christmas and other exciting times to pay their rent.'” Read more.
We've a pair of tickets for Playbox's stage production of His Dark Materials to give away, courtesy of the group. The first staging of the play outside of the National Theatre's incredibly successful run, Playbox's imagining of HDM will star young people and seek to tell the story through “movement [and] aerial artistry.”
If you want to go, simply email us with the best backronym you can think of for a character or title in HDM. Anyone managing to do the entirety of H-I-S D-A-R-K M-A-T-E-R-I-A-L-S with anything intelligble would be very impressive. For an example, you might have:
Incredible Oversized Raging Enormous KingWe'll pick the best and send out the tickets to the winner. The performance is on Friday 21st April at 7.30pm, in Warick, England.
Please only enter if you can make it to there and on that date. Email here. Tickets for the play are still available to
buy directly.
Contest ends April 10th.
Contest now closed.
We also have up the second of Co-Director Stewart McGill's Thoughts from the Floor in which he discusses the play's current progression as it nears the premiere.
