“His Dark Materials”: the film
Two summers ago, I read all three books – a total of 1,300 pages – in the trilogy “His Dark Materials” by Philip Pullman: “Northern Lights” (my review here), “The Subtle Knife” (my review here) and “The Amber Spyglass” (my review here). I enjoyed the works enormously and subsequently saw the two-part stage production at London’s National Theatre.
So I’m delighted that the project to film the books is finally off the ground and that shooting starts today on the first segment “The Golden Compass”. The central role of Lyra Belacqua will be played by an unknown 12 year old British schoolgirl called Dakota Blue Richards. The James Bond actor Daniel Craig will be Lord Asriel (another James Bond, Timothy Dalton, played this role in the theatre production) and Nicole Kidman – who, as we know from the film “The Hours”, can do an excellent English accent -will be Mrs Coulter
The movie is written and directed by Chris Weitz and is due to be released in December 2008.