The Golden Compass
News

As it roars into theaters - and creates a bit of controversy in the process - here are a series of interesting tidbits regarding The Golden Compass:

• It follows an orphan girl named Lyra who goes in search of her missing friend Roger and learns that all sorts of children are being spirited away to become the subject of nefarious experiments aimed at determining the source of original sin.

• Some otherworldly things about Lyra's otherworldly world: daemons (pronounced demons), animals who follow people around throughout their lives (and represent their souls); Gobblers, baddies who, legend has it, gobble up children; and talking polar bears who wear armor.

• Dakota Blue Richards (pictured) beat out 10,000 girls to score the part of Lyra. The newcomer, now 13, was spotted at an open casting call in Oxford, England

• Sir Ian McKellen, who ruled as Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, lends his authority as the voice of Lyra's trusty polar-bear friend and protector, Iorek Byrnison.

Dakota Blue Richards stars in The Golden Compass. She recently spoke with Movie Web about the movie:

Q: Did you read the books? Were you a fan before you did this?
Dakota Blue Richards: Yes, I was. My mum had read the books to me when I was about nine. I really loved Lyra.

Q: As a fan of the books, what did you want the movie to capture?
Dakota Blue Richard: Philip Pullman had the way of making them feel real. I mean, armoured bears? I think it was very important that the film kind of captured the realistic-ness of it all.

Q: Did you find the green screen work difficult? How did you act opposite a daemon that isn't there?
Dakota Blue Richards: I found the green screen work to be very, very hard. I think that was the hardest bit. And the less green screen there was, the easier it became. Working with people like Daniel and Nicole was so much easier than working with Iorek. Because of course, he wasn't there. And doing green screen work really makes you have to think about everything twice.

You have to firstly imagine that everything's there. And you have to think about other people before you can think about yourself. That's really hard and really confusing and you can get very lost. Especially when I didn't know what the animators were going to make it look like.

Click here to read the full interview.

Here's your opportunity to watch the opening scenes of The Golden Compass, starring Daniel Craig and Nicole Kidman.

Watch the first five minutes of nowat Yahoo! Movies.

Doesn't Eva Green looks gorgeous as Serafina Pekkala, the Queen of the Witches of Lake Enara? She recently commented on the role:

"First of all the books are just really amazing and very rich. I had to read them because they gave me the script and it's quite difficult in script to understand what's going on. And it's a trilogy and I read the books. I discovered a masterpiece. It's really clever.

Very spiritual, philosophical, extremely moving and quite dark for a fantasy adventure."

Daniel Craig is a busy man these days.

With The Golden Compass hitting theaters in two weeks - and filming set to begin on Bond 22 - the actor found time to speak with Comingsoon.net about the pair of projects:

CS: I read somewhere you're going to inject a bit more humor into the next movie.
Craig: I was lying. I said, "Yes, it's going to be funny." I don't remember saying that, but if I did, I'm not going to shy away from the fact the occasionally there should be humor. I just don't like gags. I don't like written gags. That's not the way I've ever liked working and I don't think that's funny myself.

CS: "Casino Royale" marked a welcome return to the style and sensibilities of the earlier Bond movies, rather than the jokey more recent movies.
Craig: The idea of having jokes in Bond I don't think is completely wrong, but I think the jokes to need to come out tension. There needs to be moments of humor because we've all been sitting on the edge of our seat. I don't think you should write gags in Bond.

CS: I understand there's already a script for a sequel to "The Golden Compass." Have you read it yet?
Craig: There's an outline. It's a pretty good outline. I haven't looked at it. I've seen bits of it, but haven't looked at it.

CS: Assuming Golden Compass is a hit and they make a second film, and you're already signed up to do the next Bond, are you looking ahead to work both into your schedule?
Craig: That will be the plan, but it just depends on how well we do here. I try not to count chickens. I really do because there's no point. You'd go crazy. We're in good shape and I'm very happy with the way this is working out. I'd love to get involved with it. If they do another movie, I'd love to do it. We'll fit it in. It's not my job to make that work. I pay people fortunes to make that.

Click here to read the full interview.

Chris Weitz. director of The Golden Compass, was kind enough to answer a handful of fan questions sent in to MTV's Movie Blog.

Here's a sample:

Q: Some changes were made in the adapting process â€" taking out talk of religion, original sin, beating death, etc. â€" to avoid controversy. And yet, some religious groups are still upset. If you can't please everybody either way, if it's not possible to avoid controversy by taking religion out, do you feel more or less emboldened to put it back in the rest of the films?

A: It's very important that people understand that nobody just hands you a couple hundred million dollars and says "Go ahead, knock yourself out!" What you have is a dynamic â€" you could call it a debate â€" between me, the filmmaker, and them, the studio â€" that, one hopes, results in a good film. Sometimes I win, sometimes I lose.

It is my job to fight, by hook or by crook, for the best adaptation of the book possible. It is their job to get the movie to pay back its investors. Even Peter Jackson had to deal with this dynamic, which is why there were shorter theater releases and longer DVD releases of the LOTR movies. But also consider that there was practically nothing that might be deemed controversial in LOTR (other than what you might consider some reflexive racism on Tolkien's part).

So, how does one go about adapting a book that has controversial elements into a film that a very wide variety of people can enjoy, without betraying the original? One tries to be clever about it. I realized that the overt stating of some of the themes in "The Northern Lights"/"The Golden Compass" would never â€" this is important to make clear â€" never EVER get across the goal line. There isn't a wide enough audience for that â€" yet.

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It's a good thing we'll have a lot of vacation time at work this winter. Look at all the movies we can't wait to watch!

We already showed the movie trailer for I Am Legend. Now, here's a look at Daniel Craig and Nicole Kidman from The Golden Compass: