Guide Note: The film The Golden Compass adapts the first novel in author Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. Two other installments were initially planned, but after the failure of the first film at the American box office, the sequels were shelved indefinitely. The film won the Best Visual Effects Oscar at the 2008 ceremony.

Fast Facts:

1. Release Date: December 7th, 2007
2. Starring: Dakota Blue Richards, Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig and Eva Green
3. Directed By: Chris Weitz
4. Budget: $180 million
5. Oscar-nominated for best art direction
6. Singer Kate Bush contributed the song "Lyra" to the film
7. Kidman had been Pullman's first choice to play Mrs. Coulter
8. Length: 113 minutes

Background

The novel The Golden Compass was initially released in 1995 (under the name Northern Lights in Britain). New Line Cinema purchased the film rights in 2002, in the midst of the wild success of their Lord of the Rings fantasy series. The project was delayed for several years as New Line searched for a director, eventually choosing American Pie veteran Chris Weitz.

The film was troubled behind-the-scenes from the beginning. In 2005, British director Anand Tucker was brought on to replace Weitz, who felt Golden Compass was too large an undertaking for his first large-scale effects-heavy film, but Tucker walked off the project after a few months. Weitz was then brought back in, and started production on the film in the Fall of 2006.

Controversy

Many Christian groups protested the development of His Dark Materials into a series of family films, citing the books' hostile take on organized religion. (Pullman, a self-described agnostic, has confirmed that the books' evil authoritarian organization, The Magisterium, is a stand-in for the Catholic Church).

Weitz upset some of fans of the source material by leaving out any overt references to God or Christianity in the film, turning the Magisterium into a more general "Authority," but the film was still denounced by groups such as The Catholic League and the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

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