The day following the first screening of the Cannes footage of the film, The Golden Compass team attended a photocall and press conference to promote the movie. Present were producers Deborah Forte, Bill Carraro and Andrew Miano; director Chris Weitz; and the stars of the film: Daniel Craig, Eva Green, Sam Elliot and Dakota Blue Richards. We’ve placed shots from the photoshoot throughout our report – click them to enlarge; or you can head straight here to view them (and some more) directly.

After photos, the cast and producers sat down to take some questions. We will have video of the event to come, but unfortunately we were unable to record the entire event. A lot of the questions asked by journalists covered things we already knew, but here are some choice answers which were given out. The answers given are all new, so don’t be distracted by the images and not read them!

Everyone

From left-to-right: Mark Ordesky, unknown, Chris Weitz, Dakota Blue Richards, Eva Green, Daniel Craig, Deborah Forte, Sam Elliot, Bill Carraro, Andrew Miano

Eva, Daniel, Dakota & Chris

Eva Green was asked about the challenges of acting opposite CGI and revealed that her daemon – Serafina Pekkala’s Kaisa – is unlikely to be in the film at all.

Deborah Forte confirmed that The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass would also be made into movies – New Line are now confident that The Golden Compass will be a success.

Weitz and his cast

Speaking of the book’s philosophy, Chris Weitz said roughly that it isn’t against religion, it’s against any form of forced dogma; it deals with human spirit, justice, free choice. He called the book’s version of the Magisterium “a version of the Catholic Church gone astray” and finished by saying that he feels they’ve really done service to Philip Pullman and that those who read the books for the philosophy won’t be disappointed with the film. The cast and producers spoke often at the conference of these themes.

Sam Elliot

Sam Elliot said Lee Scoresby was fun to play and that he felt like a “character I’ve already played in another world.” He noted that the CGI is out of the actors’ hands, that they’ve done their part and now it’s up to others – they’re just “cogs in a big wheel.”

Dakota Blue Richards

Dakota mentioned that her mother read her the books when she was nine and talked about seeing the National Theatre’s plays. She said she’s now living in “two different worlds”, school, and what she termed “all this stuff”, gesturing to the event.

Chris Weitz spoke again of his belief that audiences were becoming tired of flashy special effects and reiterated that his vision for the film is a more personal one and he tries not to let the CGI take over the movie. He said, “Almost anything can be done in terms of manipulating images, with talking animals, flying this and that, exploding things. There will be a backlash against that sort of thing. Audiences have been hit over the head with special effects in the last decade.”

Daniel Craig was asked what daemons are and what his would be. The Bond actor asked the journalist posing the question whether she had read the books – which she admitted she hadn’t – and he went on to say that in order to truly understand daemons you really have to read the books.

Another journalist questioned Chris Weitz about the popularity of Lord of the Rings and whether he wished to emulate it. Weitz joked “lord of the what?” and went on to say that he wasn’t seeking to emulate anything, rather create a story and do justice to the books. He added that the world of His Dark Materials is very different to the world of the Lord of the Rings – that it is unique.

Producers

.. And they’re off.