December’s Empire will preview the Golden Compass and features the movie on the front cover of the magazine. The lengthy article inside reveals a slew of new facts about the film. There’s a selection of them here for you to read – purchase the magazine for more.
In response to the oddity of American Pie director Weitz being given the top job on this huge film, They say that after interviewing Weitz he is a remarkably focused director with surprising intellectual depth. They also add that he studied 17th century liturature at Cambridge. Weitz jokes that the tagline for the movie should be “from the guy who brought you pie *beep*” He says, ” I feel more qualified than I’ve been given credit for.”
While observing Weitz in the editing suite they describe him as calm and thoughtful, but at times he displays outright energy and boyish enthusiasm. After being impressed by the most recent completed FX shots he jumps up and cries out to the the Gathered VFX crew, “You guys rock”.
Weitz read the trilogy seven years ago and was stunned by its imagination, daring and intelligence. He connected with the material because at Cambridge he studied the work of poet John Milton, who had a major influence on Pullman’s books.
They clarify that after New line turned down Tom Stoppard’s script they were approached by Weitz who had heard they had plans to adapt the books. However, after Weitz turned in the script he got cold feet about the huge directing task and so he suggested to New Line that Anand Tucker could do a great job. New Line disagreed and they convinced Weitz to come back. He has been committed to the project ever since.
Weitz says he had meetings with Pullman on a regular basis to suss out whether what he had in mind made sense for his work. He says Pullman is very adaptable and gracious about his work being adapted; he can recognise the difference between vary media and genres; he’s not precious about the details but is very protective of the spirit. All the film makers and Pullman agreed that the key element to ensuring the movie kept the spirit of the book was the character of Lyra.
Pullman was very keen to know how the seach for Lyra was going, reveals producer Deborah Forte, and so they sent him a DVD of the the shortlisted forty girls they had picked. From that DVD is was Pullman who selected none other than Dakota Blue Richards as his personal favourite. After further more lengthy auditions with Richards, everyone agreed she was the perfect choice.
Empire’s tour of the Shepherton sets on that cold January day reveals a world vastly different from the misty, rough-hewn landscapes of Lord of the Rings, or even the crisp, preternaturally Christmas-y otherworld of Narnia. Weitz insist TGC couldn’t be more different to Rings or Narnia. Pullman’s vision is unique.
In terms of coming up with the visual style of the film, Weitz says that Pullman isn’t really about the visual specifics and details of his world – he’s not like Tolkein who probably had in his mind the design of what the elvish codpiece of the third age looked like, hence all the drawings throughout his book. Pullman did at first say that the look would probably be steampunk, but that has been done before in League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and Van Helsing. They wanted to take a more original approach and some of the elements are really quite sci-fi.
Weitz notes that the biggest challenge has been to imbue humanity and spirit into the digital daemons and polar bears. For the daemons it’s very important in the film that they represent each person’s soul and act in concert with what the human actors are doing. This proved a challenge for the actors too.
Weitz says that it is only natural for New Line to be protective of their investment. He is playing with $180 million [note – this figure is actually somewhere around $220 million] of their money. This is the reason for the deliberate marketing as the ‘follow up’ to Lord of the Rings which Weitz reveals was actually his idea. He says, ” Yes they’re totally different, but it’s obvious they operate on the same kind of scale, from the intimate to the cosmic – in fact HDM is even more cosmic than Rings.
He mentions once again that replacing Nonso Anozie (who played Iorek) was a studio decision and another example of them protecting their investment by hiring McKellen. But he stresses that he was consulted on the decision and that he had no worries for the quality of the film because McKellen is a great actor who can do anything. But it was unfortunate for Nonso because he also did a great job.
They then come to the religious elements of the story and question Weitz on the rumours that it has been very much toned down in the movie. He had this to say: “The pressure of the domestic market is really financial, in terms of actually just making a movie that enough people will want to go and see. My interest in the books is with all their wonderful intellectual content. The fans will want to kill me for two things: if I don’t capture the sense of the world, and if they feel I’ve betrayed the intellectual conceit of the books. New Line doesn’t want to make the biggest art film ever, and in some ways they’d be glad if the whole religious thing just never happened. But that’s not the way I want to do it. Here is my honet answer to watering down the religious elements: first I think the people who see Pullman’s work as a kind of atheist fantasy are wrong. I think that Pullman has major problems with ANY form of organised oppression, be it a religious hierarhcy or Soviet rule. The Magesterium in the movie does without a doubt represent an oppressive rule in Lyra’s world. I have taken great pains to interweave those elements so that the people who read the books for their philosophical content will be satisfied. Yes there are risks, but I dont think people are going to lose their minds over this quite as much as one might think.”
Weitz finally discusses the decision to move the ending of The Golden Compass to the beginning of The Subtle Knife. “It leaves us with a better cliffhanger and it also allows us to make the first books end the inciting incident of the second movie. That was a tough decision – the fans could crucify me – but I think it was the right one to make.”
The article concludes – “So it would seem that, assuming Pullman’s boldly singular vision doesn’t prove too perplexing for a mass audience, and the phantom flames of controversy don’t completey burn the profits, we are looking at a trilogy. But will Weitz return? “I have first shot at it if New Line wants me,” he says. “Frankly it’s up to them. They’re my employers. We’ll see if they enjoyed the experience of working with me or not. But first of all people have to decide whether they want to go and see THIS film” ”
Thanks to Mr-Subtle-Mouth at IMDB
*does the First Comment dance*
*forgets what she was going to say*
Great information, but there are spelling and capitalization errors throughout.
We don’t get EMPIRE in the U.S. (a shame, really), at at least not in the small corner that I call home (southeast Virginia). However, the web links at the official site, http://www.empireonline.com, allows you to click on the magazine and turn its pages, allowing you to read (so far) some of the coverage on THE GOLDEN COMPASS, which is better than not being able to read anything, unless you’re a subscriber or live in the U.K. or Australia.
It’s great to see such an enthusiastic piece about THE GOLDEN COMPASS movie. The naysayers who have carped about this film–well before its release–will wind up eating their words: not much of a meal, to be sure, but it’s just desserts, I say!
[quote=”BTTS”]There’s a selection of them here for you to read – purchase the magazine for more.[/quote]
Ahem, *points to barcode* it costs $59.99 USD
That’s a dollar sign, not a five. It’s $9.99.
Ah, so it is. I stand corrected.
Ursae Majoris, please get yourself a pair of glasses before you give the rest of us heart attacks, lol.
Alas, I spoke too soon! I went to the page and turned a few pages, and lo!, it was impossible to turn any more pages. With other magazines that I get online, like the international licensing magazine, I can turn the “pages” from cover to cover; but this one just gives you a teaser, hoping you’ll subscribe or pick it up at the local store.
Too bad, but there’s no way of knowing just how good the coverage is in the magazine. (To date, no U.S. magazine has given the movie more than a few pages of coverage–notably ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY.)
I imagine we’ll see a lot more coverage by Thanksgiving, as the international media ramps up and breathlessly talks about the movie.
George Beahm,
America does get Empire magazine. You can find one at Barnes and Noble or Borders.
It’s nice to see it talked about in such great length, but the article doesn’t really reveal anything new.
People in the UK, is it only avaliable for order or can i pick it up in a newsagent/bookshop?
why has the church replaced the magisterium? people cannot relate to the magesterium as they relate to the church!
*cries and vows to kick weitz*
why has the church replaced the magisterium? people cannot relate to the magesterium as they relate to the church!
*cries and vows to kick weitz.*
why has the church replaced the magisterium? people cannot relate to the magesterium as they relate to the church!
*cries and vows to kick weitz.*
o dear. this isn’t good. it’s scary.
Empire is available in all good UK newsagents. In fact I bought my copy at the weekend! If anyone wants me to get a copy and post it to them, or scan and e-mail the article, then let me know.
hi beckie
could u scan and email the article to me? i live in new zealand and there isn’t any other way 4 me to get a copy.
thanx my email is lana_7789@hotmail.com
The Magisterium IS the Church, Alanna:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magisterium
😛
i see.
but if they are trying to steer away from critiscising christianity they aren’t exactly going to portray the magesterium like this:
‘Magisterium (from the Latin magister, “teacher”) is a technical ecclesiastical term in Roman Catholic Church referring to the teaching authority of the church. This authority is understood to be embodied in the episcopacy, which is the aggregation of the current bishops of the church, led by the Bishop of Rome (the Pope) has authority over the bishops, individually and as a body, as well as over each and every Catholic directly. According to Catholic doctrine, the Magisterium is able to teach or interpret the truths of the Faith, and it does so either non-infallibly or infallibly’
He Guys, the Empire Magazine article on the Golden Compass was great the film looks as if it will be a Box hit. But the picture of Roger on page 126 does not look like him, but Roger appears on page 130, whooops, who made this mistake!!
If anyone’s interested I’ve scanned in the article and can mail it across to you 🙂