Weitz in talks to direct His Dark Materials

Posted by Sonic on May 25, 2004 8:43AM GMT

There was a barrage of reports today that Chris Weitz, who co-directed "About a Boy" (and "American Pie") with brother Paul Weitz, is in talks to helm "His Dark Materials," Tom Stoppard's adaptation of Philip Pullman's book series. According to Empire Online, "Weitz wrote a dissertation detailing how he would tackle the books [...] Weitz's treatment obviously impressed the studio executives as well as author Philip Pullman and screenwriter Tom Stoppard and he is now deep in negotiations for the job."

You can read the complete story, which we'll update as more info appears on the director for the His Dark Materials movies.

Update- Get inside their heads: check out an interview with the Weitz brothers from two years ago that captures a lot about their movie-making philosophy. [Beware expletives..] Read More.

Happy April Fools Day Everybody!

Posted by Merlyn on April 1, 2004 5:46PM EST

Hope not too many of you were worried by our April Fool's Day joke that New Line Cinema announced today that plans to film the His Dark Materials trilogy were scrapped due to large volumes of complaints from certain groups threatening to protest the release of the films. The groups said in a joint press release Tuesday that they would "do everything in our power to prevent children from seeing this moral wreck of a film." Toby Emmerich, president of New Line, said that the company decided it was not worth the financial risk to go ahead with the project. If you read the "Press Release", you realized that there was nothing to fear ;) Hope everybody had an enjoyable day!

Kidman in Chronicles of Narnia

Posted by Merlyn on March 8, 2004 5:55PM EST

Jendia alerts us to an article saying that Nicole Kidman, who many hoped would play Mrs. Coulter in the His Dark Materials movies, was in New Zealand touring locations for the film adaptation of the Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, due for release Christmas 2005. Rumors say that Kidman will take on the role of the White Witch (Update: ITV confirms this), meaning that she probably won't be available for a role in the His Dark Materials film. Read More. (Though Walden Media has now denied Kidman's involvement)

Lord of the Oscars

Posted by Merlyn on March 1, 2004 8:12PM EST

"Fantasy is the genre where the edges are being pushed by a feisty generation of storytellers ... But all of them for the most part are committed to the separation of good and evil that Tolkien and his Oxford friend, C.S. Lewis, adhered to. Not Philip Pullman. In His Dark Materials trilogy, now adapted for theatre and soon to be presented on the big screen, comes the most skillful critique of Tolkien and Lewis." Read More.

His Dark Materials Movie Mention

Posted by Blighty on January 29, 2004 6:05PM GMT

A brief mention of His Dark Materials here. Only notable thing to point out is that New Line has told us repeatedly that Ridley Scott is (unlike the article says) not directing these films - and for a glare at the sentence, 'The cast has yet to be announced, but the first installment of the series - due out in 2005 or 2006 - could usher in some new sci-fi stars.' More.

New Line "Running Scared"

Posted by eloquent on January 27, 2004 4:25PM GMT

An article in the Times mentions New Line and the upcoming His Dark Materials movie adaptation. It says that New Line "is running scared of how the Bible Belt will react to the books’ gay rebel angels and senile God." Mark Ordesky, New Line's vice president: "The real issue is not religion, it's authority. That's what really is the driving issue here." Read More.

Staging the Next Fantasy Blockbuster

Posted by Blighty on January 25, 2004 12:30AM GMT

The New York Times has a large article about both the His Dark Materials movie and stage play. They say that "A movie director will be hired in the next month or so and filming should start in about a year. With a skittish eye, perhaps, on the power of religious groups in the United States, New Line's executives say they will probably insist that the books' repudiation of religion be softened into more of a meditation on the corruption of power in general." Read more.

More of the 'Rings' magic

Posted by AySz88 on January 20, 2004 12:10PM EST

USA Today again mentions His Dark Materials as a promising new fantasy adaptation. However, what is most worrisome is that the two-movies rumor has suddenly become probable: "The individual titles ... will likely be combined into two movies, to be shot back to back, with the first in theaters by late 2005 or early 2006, Emmerich [New Line production chief] says." Read More

Movie Trilogy Mania

Posted by Merlyn on January 2, 2004, 11:10AM EST

Brief mention of His Dark Materials in The Beacon Journal:
"It takes more than recurring characters and a serialized story to win fans' hearts. ... The kind of epic filmmaking required to create a "holy trilogy" comes with benefits and hazards. These successful three-film series have set off a flurry of trilogy developments. New Line Cinema, which released the Rings movies, is working on adaptations for Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials fantasy novels." Read More.

Fear not, O Fellow Sraffies...

Posted by Merlyn on December 17, 2003, 3:50PM EST

Bob from the Washington Post writes to allay the fears that Dust might be removed from the His Dark Materials movies: "I think what Stoppard meant was that he was intrigued by the REAL-LIFE physics behind Pullman's imaginary worlds... and my impression is that he'd played up this much narrower topic because of his own interest. I got no hint of any threat to the centrality of Dust in the story, and I doubt very much that Pullman -- who's read the screenplay -- would have been so positive about it if that concept had been mangled."

New Movie Section

Posted by Blighty on December 16, 2003, 8:50PM GMT

Spurred on by the info-heavy Washington Post article, I've created a new page to deal with all the deviations from the books in the script for NL as it stands. Expect this page to grow as we learn more, at the moment it's basically ramblings about the possible effects these changes will have and how they could be implemented. Read here.

Tom Stoppard talks about Dark Materials

Posted by Merlyn on December 15, 2003, 5:52PM EST

Tom Stoppard, the script writer for the His Dark Materials movies, was just interviewed by British Council Poland. He says: "I’d known about the Philip Pullman trilogy His Dark Materials, but I hadn’t read it. When I was approached about writing a film, of course the first thing I wanted to do was to start reading the books and I found the first one particularly deeply absorbing – a wonderful piece of invention, a really imaginative good book. And I was immediately enthusiastic about trying to write a film version." The article lists a release date for the first movie as Christmas 2004. Read More.

Times: 'The Blockbuster of the Future'

Posted by Blighty on December 15, 2003, 9:40PM GMT

The Times has also put up an article covering the Big Read, which more interestingly for us picks on His Dark Materials as the big winner in the poll. '...the work that had been considered a rank outsider, Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials, put in a storming finish to come third, behind Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. The significance of Pullman’s late burst is that it was achieved without the backing of film or DVD versions. Pullman sold the rights of his trilogy to New Line, producers of the Lord of the Rings films, early last year. Sir Tom Stoppard has completed the script of part one of the film trilogy, with which New Line intends to follow up its Lord of the Rings successes, and is starting work on part two.' Read more.

'Dark Materials,' Bright Promise

Posted by Merlyn on December 14, 2003, 12:38PM EST

The Washington Post writes on the His Dark Materials movies: "When's the next epic three-part fantasy dreamed up by a onetime Oxford academic going to hit the big screen? The answer: maybe in 2005, more likely in 2006. The heir apparent is Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" trilogy. ... "If you had asked me what totally sold me on making this movie," says New Line Productions President Toby Emmerich, "it was two words: Iorek Byrnison." ... "It has huge potential," says Mark Ordesky, New Line's Vice President. (Congrats to Adobe from DarkMaterials.com for being mentioned! :D ) Read More.

His Dark Materials Movie Casting Rumor

Posted by Merlyn on December 6, 2003, 4:30PM EST

The first rumor (although vague) of casting for the His Dark Materials film has arrived, with Paige writing: "My step dad works for New Line, and because of the length of the shoot, (16 months is probable) ... Lyra and Will will have to be 16 or over for legal reasons. No auditions have been done yet and this isn't totally definite, but it is almost certain. Children under 16 can only legally work a certain amount of hours a week and because of the scale of the movie it would take too long to film if a younger child was used."

Pullman and the Big Screen Battle

Posted by Merlyn on December 6, 2003, 11:31AM EST

KidsNewsroom.org wrote about the upcoming His Dark Materials movies in Sept: "[We] phoned Rev. Doug Taylor, a prominent anti-Potter demonstrator, to ask if he was planning to speak out against His Dark Materials. He'd never heard of it. 'We are against all portrayals of magic in books intended for children.' When told that a movie version of His Dark Materials would be coming out, he took note. Movie versions are good for publicity, he explained." Read More.

Posted by Blighty on November 13, 2003, 8:30GMT

The Internet Movie Database (IMDB) has finally created a page for the upcoming His Dark Materials movie. Pullman is listed as the novel author and Tom Stoppard as the screenwriter - the given genre is fantasy. No other details forthcoming. See it here.

Related Topic | Related News | Related Images | Submit News

Posted by Blighty on November 10, 2003, 10:15PM GMT

The Times today featured an interview with Sir Tom Stoppard, the man currently screenwriting the HDM trilogy for film. You can try to read it here but, again, you may not be able to get through - so we've pulled some of the more interesting quotes out and placed them here.

Related Topic | Related News | Related Images | Submit News

Posted by Merlyn on November 9, 2003, 6:59PM EST

The Times put up an article an hour ago about Tom Stoppard, saying that "He’s finished the first of what may eventually be three film scripts of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials." You can try to read the article here, but some people have been getting error messages... we'll try to get more quotes on BTTS as soon as we can.

Posted by Blighty on October 27, 2003, 10:30 GMT

The Times article posted a few days ago now appears to be unlocked. You can try to read it here. Since the locking seems to be fairly capricious, we've pulled some of the more interesting quotes out and posted them in the appropriate movie and stage (small font down the left) sections.

Posted by Merlyn on October 25, 2003, 10:31AM EST

Hoobit alerted us to an article on AICN which says: "seems that Terry Jones didn't know what he was talking about on BBC Radio when he said Ridley Scott was directing HIS DARK MATERIALS... Currently, they only have a script for the first one, and they're apparently looking for a new writer." We'll keep you updated.

Posted by Merlyn on October 22, 2003, 4:15PM EST

Qu Klaani alerts us to an article on Comingsoon.net released today which claims that director Ridley Scott has been attached to direct the His Dark Materials movie (s), according to a quote from Terry Jones on BBC Radio 5. We'll try to confirm this, and let you know what we find out. This has since been reported to be FALSE, by AintItCoolNews.

Posted by Merlyn on October 10, 2003, 4:33PM EST

The Guardian reported today that "Philip Pullman's Whitbread-award winning His Dark Materials Trilogy was optioned by the US studio Miramax." We haven't heard yet from New Line or Scholastic about what this means for the movies... check back soon for more info.New Line says it was a typo by the Guardian... New Line and Scholastic still control the movies.

Posted by Merlyn on October 9, 2003, 4:48PM EST

The results from the Summer Cast Poll are now online, so be sure to check out who the winners are!

Posted by Blighty on August 19, 2003, 10:20PM GMT

I've penned (well, typed) a look at how the producers should go about translating His Dark Materials into celluloid form and the pitfalls that await them - Spirit or Literal?

Posted by Blighty on July 25, 2003, 7:35PM GMT

On the message-boards we've all been discussing who should play who in the upcoming HDM movies, but now's the time to pit our chosen ones against each other in a grand summer of voting. We're going to have four nominees for 20 roles of note in the books (a few more nominees for the hotly contested Asriel and Coulter roles) and then play them off each other in a huge knock-out tournament. Details are still being finalised and you can help out by swanning over to our topic.

Posted by Merlyn on June 29, 2003, 3:25PM EST

Superherohype.com ran an article today about New Line exec Toby Emmerich saying that "He's overseeing the development of a number of pics that have the potential to flutter balance sheets such as the His Dark Materials trilogy, "Shazam" and "Iron Man." All are earmarked for 2005 or later." Read it here.

Posted by Merlyn on June 17, 2003, 9:27AM EST

Found this article on FT.com that briefly mentions Tom Stoppard as writing the screenplay for His Dark Materials. However, I've gotten word from New Line that "There is NOTHING that is confirmed or announced [...] it is just a draft and not a finished shooting script. This project will require time and care and I guarantee that New Line will give it both."

Posted by Merlyn on June 13, 2003, 7:37PM EST

Brett Ratner told About.com on June 3 that "I’d love to do Dark Materials. I’m begging for Dark Materials. It’s just a hard thing to tackle because it’s so much. It’s three great books. We’re trying to figure it out." Read the whole interview here... thanks to Whimsical Guy for the link.

Posted by Merlyn on June 9, 2003, 1:18PM EST

Adobe of Dark Materials.com found an article in the Times yesterday about Tom Stoppard that said "But, unusually for Stoppard, he does at the moment seem to have time to spare. He’s just completed the screenplay for the first part of what should be a trilogy of films of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials..." Read the article here.

Posted by Merlyn on May 20, 2003, 8:01PM EST

Like playing around with fake money? Visit the Hollywood Stock Exchange to buy pretend stocks in your favorite movies and stars, including the upcoming His Dark Materials movie. His Dark Materials is currently selling for $10.54 per share. Join in the fun! (Besides that, the site doesn't really have any new information, although it estimates a PG-13 rating for the movie)

Posted by Blighty on May 20,2003, 19:00GMT

Ben reports that:

"A few days ago I opened up a copy of the monthly Variety magazine and saw on the inside cover an advertisment for New line Cinema at the Cannes film festival 2003. They had a list of the films they would be releasing this year and in 2004. Now here's the interesting part- They then had "special event projects". And along with Iron Man was our very own His Dark Materials! Not exactly sure what this could mean and I have not found any other info to pass along, but nonetheless, it is indeed exciting to hear the buzz they are putting out in the industry."

Posted by Blighty on May 10, 2003, 4:34PM GMT

Added PP's thoughts on the film, his hands-off attitude and what he thinks of the releationship of books to movies, all to our movie section.

Posted by Merlyn on May 6, 2003, 4:03PM EST

Thezreview.co.uk has now put up a page for updates on the His Dark Materials movie trilogy. The only fan site they're linked to is (you guessed it!) Bridgetothestar.net :) ... check 'em out here.

Posted by Blighty on April 26th, 2003, 1:22PM GMT

Turns out that another screenwriter was interested in doing HDM - David Goyer of 'Blade' and 'Dark City' pedigree.

Posted by Blighty on April 25th, 2003, 6:25PM GMT

As part of the ongoing movie section expansion, I've added a look at the possible use of CGI in the upcoming movie(s). Take a look here Detailed Movie Thoughts

Posted by Blighty on April 24th, 2003, 8:55PM GMT

'Tis me again, I've added some more detailed thoughts on the movie featuring (amongst other things) the fantasy genre revival, the great HDM challenge and a certain religious minefield. See them here.

Movie Section Reformation

Posted by Blighty on April 23rd, 2003, 7:55PM GMT

I've made some pretty large changes to the movie section, fiddled with the order of things, rewritten parts and it should all be now generally much clearer. See it here.

Yahoo! Movies Page Mentions Directors

Posted by Merlyn on April 21st, 2003, 5:00PM EST

The Yahoo! Movies section on His Dark Materials has been updated to include the news that directors Brett Ratner and Sam Mendes are interested in the His Dark Materials movies (or at least the first one), and the credentials of both.

Second Director Interested

Posted by Merlyn on April 4th, 2003, 9:30PM EST

The article with the 4th book news also mentions that director Sam Mendes, who won an academy award for his work on American Beauty, and who recently directed Road to Perdition, is also showing an interest in the His Dark Materials movie.