Archive for the 'books' Category

His Dark Materials

Friday, July 28th, 2006

his dark materials, by philip pullman

I cannot stress how much I love this series, it has consumed my past 2 days and I love it. I am concerned, however, because this is being made into a $150 million movie by New Line Cinema, the most they have spent on any movie since Lord of the Rings, and Nicole Kidman is playing Mrs. Coulter. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Mrs. Coulter, I really don’t think that Nicole Kidman is right. First of all, Mrs. Coulter is a dark-haired, impeccably sweet yet deceitful woman; in my mind I pictured someone similar to Angelina Jolie (based on Pullman’s descriptions).

Not only that, but I am more concerned with the filter the cinema is bound to place on the story. Much of His Dark Materials is written about religion, and God. Without that, it is merely a children’s book, another Harry Potter. I cannot imagine New Line Cinema supporting a film that portrays God as evil, and more (you should read the book). There has been enough backlash against the book from conservative Christians, so I can only imagine that if they kept the storyline intact, this film would have the same result.

As far as I know, this movie is being released in November 2007. All I can do is hope that at the very least, the story remains intact, for it would be a shame to dumb down such a breathtaking book.