New Line Cinema on His Dark Materials

Source: Los Angeles Times January 10, 2005

The Los Angeles Times reports that New Line will consider shooting the second and third novels of Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" simultaneously if the first film, The Golden Compass, strikes a chord with moviegoers. This is much like how Warner Bros. filmed "The Matrix" trilogy and New Line says the "Materials" trilogy would soar far beyond the $350 million the studio spent on "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy.

Based on the bestselling Pullman novels, "His Dark Materials" is comprised of "The Golden Compass," "The Subtle Knife" and "The Amber Spyglass". It revolves around a young girl who travels to the far north to save her best friend. Along the way she encounters shape-shifting creatures, witches, and a variety of otherworldly characters in parallel universes.

New Line has committed to producing only The Golden Compass, a special-effects-driven fantasy which could cost more than $150 million to bring to the screen.

The project has been on the drawing board for years. In 2002, New Line executives talked about wanting to complete The Golden Compass in time to have it in theaters last month. Now it looks like the release date will be Christmas 2006 at the earliest.

The studio is still on the hunt for a director. Chris Weitz (American Pie, About a Boy) recently dropped out of The Golden Compass. After spending six months researching the script - he rewrote Tom Stoppard's original adaptation of the novel -and meeting with design consultants and special-effects houses, Chris Weitz concluded that he didn't have the expertise to tackle such a technologically difficult movie.


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2002年底就聽說New Line要拍His Dark Materials trilogy,
那時FoTR才剛上映(美國),拍到現在三集魔戒都上映完畢,還沒看到第一集"黃金羅盤"...

之前又聽說劇本改編之後要把教會的戲給改掉?!(導演說法是指教會的角色可以用任何專制獨裁的權威體制來代替)過沒有多久, 連導演Chris Weitz都辭職了. 據New Line的說法是最快2006年才能看到第一集"黃金羅盤"的上映. 真是蠻多災多難的...

不過沒關係, 想當初LOTR也是花了7,8年才拍完. 只希望New Line可以照這樣堅持下去...:P