WILL GOLDEN COMPASS BE THE NEXT LORD OF THE RINGS? - PART THREE

Pullman's trilogy is “not an atheistic work but a highly spiritual and reverent piece of writing . . . Those who attack it as an assault upon religion are mistaken,” Golden Compass director Chris Weitz claims. In a later interview with British SFX magazine he however admitted that “I think Pullman is naturally against any form of organized belief.”

Thus far Weitz seems to have done a better job at directing The Golden Compass than at PR. The movie looks like box office gold. The trailer is exciting and boasts some of the best special effects since Lord of the Rings. “We didn’t shoot real polar bears,” Weitz told SFX. “But we did a lot of research and our special effects team spent a lot of time with a polar bear that was in captivity. They are extraordinary creatures but there is no such thing as a trained polar bear — at least as far as I know. So, yes, you will be seeing a totally CG polar bear in The Golden Compass but it is shockingly life-like.”

The casting is also inspired. The movie stars Nicole Kidman and cleverly reunites the two Casino Royale stars, Daniel Craig and Eva Green. In the main role of the 12-year-old heroine is newcomer Dakota Blue Richards who, despite her name, was actually born in Brighton in the UK and was chosen out of 10 000 hopefuls.

Kidman however hasn’t been doing her bit when it comes to appeasing long-time fans of the books. A few months before the film’s release she told Entertainment Weekly that The Golden Compass is not “anti-church” and that some of the religious elements were removed from the movie script. “It has been watered down a little,” she told the magazine. “I was raised Catholic, the Catholic Church is part of my essence. I wouldn't be able to do this film if I thought it were at all anti-Catholic.”

Cynics might want to dredge up the star’s Scientology past when she was married to Tom Cruise. However according to Kidman's friends, the actress became disillusioned with Scientology — in which Cruise is so active and her desire to distance the couple's two adopted children from the church's teachings was cited as one of the main reasons behind their marriage break-up a few years back.

Kidman might be doing her bit in deflecting religious criticism against the movie, but the outspoken Pullman remains the proverbial loose cannon. He has for example produced a course on atheism for British schools called “Why Atheism?” along with fellow children's author Michael Rosen.

“What I fear and deplore in the faith school camp,” he told the British Independent newspaper, “is their desire to close argument down and put some things beyond question or debate. It's vital to get clear in young minds what is a faith position and what is not — so that, for instance, they won't be taken in by religious people claiming that science is a faith position no different in kind from Christianity.”