His Dark Materials... the movies

[ollie182]

i love these books. i read them all about a year ago and i always thought "i think these could potentially make a great movie" and today i find there is one being made. i got confused earlier in the thread so please someone answer this: what are they trying to change to "the golden compass"? the alethiometer or the actual film title?

[Fierce_LiNk]

i love these books. i read them all about a year ago and i always thought "i think these could potentially make a great movie" and today i find there is one being made. i got confused earlier in the thread so please someone answer this: what are they trying to change to "the golden compass"? the alethiometer or the actual film title?

 

You know...thats actually a good point. I thought it would just be the film title, but now you mention it, surely they'd have to change the alethiometer, too?

[ollie182]

i hope they dont because that would ruin everything.

[Supergrunch]

You know...thats actually a good point. I thought it would just be the film title, but now you mention it, surely they'd have to change the alethiometer, too?

No, as far as I know it's still called the alethiometer in the American book. Making it all the more stupid.

[Rummy]

No, as far as I know it's still called the alethiometer in the American book. Making it all the more stupid.

 

EXACTLY!

 

Although I was reading up, and the book came from an idea involving golden compasses(which you'll notice still made it onto the alethiometer and is mentioned in the text as such) or something like such, something to do with the thing where most of his inspiration came from. By compasses here, I'm talking the ones you draw circles with. I'd love to be a bit more specific but I...erm...have to...go...do...

 

 

EDIT:Just remembered, there was a girl on Junior Mastermind today whose specialist subject was HDM trilogy, I was quite pleased with my own ability to answer the questions given that I've only read them through twice(thrice for Northern Lights as of roughly 24 hours ago, damn insomnia!).

[Fierce_LiNk]

No, as far as I know it's still called the alethiometer in the American book. Making it all the more stupid.

 

Gah, talk about making a mess of things.

 

Another thing, how are daemons actually going to be shown in the movie? Cgi seems the most obvious way, but when I read the book, I really can't imagine them as "real" animals. When I'm reading it, it seems more like cartoon animals, because of the fact that they talk, and the facial expressions. I really can't imagine how "the golden monkey" is going to turn out in Cgi. :/

 

I explained the idea of having cartoon daemons in the film, and the rest being live action. She liked it, what do you guys think?

[Supergrunch]

I think that would make it look a bit cheesy... but then there's no failsafe way of doing daemons.

[Dan_Dare]

I reckon CGI is the only way. I never imagined them as having facial expressions though- more like a telepathic conversation with the humans. Dunno why

 

who's voicing the bear?

[ollie182]

Hello everyone. All of you, as was I, were extremely disappointed and angry at the news of the film being called "The Golden Compass" as opposed to "Northern Lights" and complaining that it is due to americans illiteracy. I will now quite happily tell you all to shut the hell up! I just found out that Northern Lights used to be called The Golden Compass so it is not americans but Pullman himself who has named it this, and in fact if you're a hardcore fan of him, then this new name should be a good thing. If you don't believe me about this I would have happily posted a picture of the book with this original title because my mom just happens to have owned a copy (this is how i found out this information lol) but she gave it away apparently so i shall have to prove it with this link instead: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Golden-Compass-Dark-Materials-Paperback/dp/0440238137/sr=1-8/qid=1168460058/ref=sr_1_8/203-4374955-3055120?ie=UTF8&s=books. Just thought i'd clear up this mistake and hopefully this can be my grand entry into the n-europe forums as an informative member etc.

[KKOB]

Hello everyone. All of you, as was I, were extremely disappointed and angry at the news of the film being called "The Golden Compass" as opposed to "Northern Lights" and complaining that it is due to americans illiteracy. I will now quite happily tell you all to shut the hell up! I just found out that Northern Lights used to be called The Golden Compass so it is not americans but Pullman himself who has named it this, and in fact if you're a hardcore fan of him, then this new name should be a good thing. If you don't believe me about this I would have happily posted a picture of the book with this original title because my mom just happens to have owned a copy (this is how i found out this information lol) but she gave it away apparently so i shall have to prove it with this link instead: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Golden-Compass-Dark-Materials-Paperback/dp/0440238137/sr=1-8/qid=1168460058/ref=sr_1_8/203-4374955-3055120?ie=UTF8&s=books. Just thought i'd clear up this mistake and hopefully this can be my grand entry into the n-europe forums as an informative member etc.

His Dark Materials: Northern Lights also known in the US as The Golden Compass

^Wiki^

 

No, it's just the American name, Pullman meant it to be called Northen Lights thats why in the uk, his home country it is called that. It's just because its a Hollywood film now that it's under gone a name change to match the book. This happened to a similar extent with the first Harry Potter film which was called the sorcerer's stone in the US but maintained the UK name for its release here.

 

. . . ANYWHO, any more pictures from the film?!?!

 

Edit:

 

*cums*

[ollie182]

^Wiki^

 

No, it's just the American name, Pullman meant it to be called Northen Lights thats why in the uk, his home country it is called that. It's just because its a Hollywood film now that it's under gone a name change to match the book. This happened to a similar extent with the first Harry Potter film which was called the sorcerer's stone in the US but maintained the UK name for its release here.

 

. . . ANYWHO, any more pictures from the film?!?!

 

oh cool. i dont know how my mum got a hold of the american version of the book then i live in the uk and so i have the northern lights version so i just hope they keep the name for the uk. it'll be easier for this than harry potter as this is just the title of the film and not actually mentioned in the film like the philosophers/sorcerers stone is.

[The Bard]

Yes yes...I'll get on it:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ollie182]

nice pics bard, and that one before of mrs coulter (i presume)

[ShadowV7]

Awesome,I loved these books even though i've yet to finish the Amber Spyglass.I'm halfway through it,and I started reading it a couple of years ago

 

This has made me want to finish it off.Hope they don't mess up the film.

[Rummy]

Just one major problem I have with these pictures I'm seeing of Nicole Kidman as Mrs Coulter.

Isn't she supposed to have sleek, dark hair? Rather than bright golden blonde hair like that? The book says dark, and I actually imagine her with black hair, I'm fairly sure she's sposed to have dark near to black hair.

[The Bard]

Just one major problem I have with these pictures I'm seeing of Nicole Kidman as Mrs Coulter.

Isn't she supposed to have sleek, dark hair? Rather than bright golden blonde hair like that? The book says dark, and I actually imagine her with black hair, I'm fairly sure she's sposed to have dark near to black hair.

 

Yeah thats how I imagined her too. Perhaps thats just Kidman being a bit of a diva though.

[Rummy]

Pfft, screw you kidman! You aren't above HDM! HDM is above you! It's so basic, but because it's so basic I don't understand why they can't stay true to it!

 

^Wiki^

 

No, it's just the American name, Pullman meant it to be called Northen Lights thats why in the uk, his home country it is called that.

 

I'm fairly sure I read somewhere, if not Wiki itself, that it was originally based around being The Golden Compass, but in the sense of my last post as in a pair of compasses(a compass) for drawing circles. It's to do with where he got most of his inspiration and that, I'll try and find it.

 

EDIT: Got it here.

The superficial resemblance of protagonist Lyra Belacqua's alethiometer (depicted on the book's cover) to a large compass caused the North American publishers of Northern Lights to retitle the book The Golden Compass. In fact, The Golden Compasses was an early proposal for the name of the trilogy (instead of His Dark Materials), taken from Milton's Paradise Lost, where it refers to a drawing instrument, rather than a navigation instrument.

 

I hear that again the reasoning was that the title was dumbed down for americans, like the philosopher's stone, because they wouldn't know what the Northern Lights were(or Philosopher in the previous case). I think it's utterly fucking stupid, and I hate this too. Damn americans! I bet alot of british readers(myself included) didn't know what the Northern Lights were when they first started reading, or the exact definition of a Philosopher, although in that case it had less bearing on the novel.

[ollie182]

from what ive seen of the film so far it looks ok. i cant even hope that it will capture the magic of the books, but i hope it doesnt fuck up the books like with harry potter. the only complaint i have so far is that asriel looks NOTHING how i imagined him from the books. i always imagined him to be much taller, with some kind of large hat type thing. il draw a picture for you some time lol

[Supergrunch]

Was the magesterium in the book? It's so long since I've read it, but I can't remember anything about the magesterium. Also, according to the official site, the daemons are puppets...

[ollie182]

yes the magesterium is in the book

[Fierce_LiNk]

When I was reading the first book, I did imagine Mrs Coulter as a Nicole Kidman type character. You can imagine my delight when I saw she was casted as Mrs Coulter!

 

My, these pics look great so far. I'm starting to think that Daniel Craig may suit the role of Lord Azriel quite well now.

[Dan_Dare]

Daniel Craig is the shit. I'm sure he'll be great.

 

 

should i feel bad about wanting to see this? It's a kids movie but the pull of nostalgia is frankly reaching epic proportions.

[KKOB]

Daniel Craig is the shit. I'm sure he'll be great.

 

 

should i feel bad about wanting to see this? It's a kids movie but the pull of nostalgia is frankly reaching epic proportions.

 

its a "Family Film"

[The Bard]

I hope it isn't orientated that way, I want it to fell like a retelling of the books, not some shitty kids film.

[Dan_Dare]

If the polar bears in this movie disappoint, I'm going to personally hunt down and destroy those responsible.

Hopefully it will hold up. the baloon pilot type looks particularly accurate.