BridgeToTheStars.Net: What attracted you to this story when you first read it, and why were you interested in directing the film adaptation?

Chris Weitz: I first read The Golden Compass (or, to be precise, The Northern Lights) when I was shooting About a Boy in London in 2000.  I had heard from friends of mine about a fantastic and life-changing British fantasy series that was "written for children but really for adults" or something like that.  I was absolutely stunned by the imagination, daring, and intelligence of the book, and quickly gobbled down The Subtle Knife as well (The Amber Spyglass was yet to come out).  To me, it was and is one of the great works of imagination of the twentieth century.  I had grown up on Tolkien but this, to be honest, left him in the dust as far as ambition and philosophical depth.  At least, that is how I feel, and that is how anyone attempting the books as films should feel – utter commitment.

After About a Boy, I knew that I wanted to mount a large-scale film and to wait until there was the possibility of doing something one degree of magnitude more complex, in terms of scope and meaning.  Nothing came close until I heard that New Line was going to make HDM.  I have never been attached to more than one film, so there was nothing competing for time or attention with this one.  As for why someone would want to direct HDM, it seems that it offers everything a film maker would be interested in – a compelling story, fascinating characters, psychological and philosophical depth, wonder, the chance to make a beautiful film.  When you are directing a movie, you have to give all of your time and attention to it, and I knew that I would happily do that for HDM.

BridgeToTheStars.Net: Are there any films or filmmakers that have inspired how you plan to adapt HDM?

Chris Weitz: Yes, though not the obvious ones.  Lord of the Rings is of course an amazing achievement in terms of logistics, the sheer scope and size of the production, the attention to detail, the immersiveness of the piece; but I think HDM requires different elements in addition.  It must be a beautiful and touching film about human beings and their souls (not to say that LOTR doesn’t deal with these matters, but I believe they are less front and center).  I think that the film would owe something to David Lean and Akira Kurosawa; which is to say, both of those directors shot on location a great deal, and worked with wide formats, live crowds; they dealt painstakingly with the psychology of the individual; they composed for wide lenses and large canvases. 

I believe that there will be very soon, if there isn’t already, a backlash against the CGI-heavy effects movie; which is not to say that HDM won’t rely a great deal on CGI artists – it will have to use the very best of all that the visual effects trades have to offer – but one mustn’t forget that the magic of the piece is as much in the relationships as in the potential for spectacle.  In terms of other films or film-makers, I could point to others, though with qualifications: The first Star Wars movie, for the wonder it conveyed, but not the more recent effects extravaganzas in the series, which I think have lost their way; Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon for the sheer physical beauty and for the attention Kubrick payed to every detail -- though not for the lugubrious pace.  Truffaut’s movies for their engagement with children as real people.

BridgeToTheStars.Net: There have been rumors for a long time that there might only be two films instead of three, with the story broken up differently than it is in the books. Do you plan on doing that, or will you film a movie for each book in the trilogy? If there are multiple movies, will you film them at the same time like Peter Jackson did for Lord of the Rings, or will they be filmed individually?

Chris Weitz: HDM is too complex and grand to confine to two films, if you ask me.  I have proposed a three-film series to New Line, and they are in favor of that.  The first film will be shot on its own and will correspond to The Golden Compass.  I believe it is right to open the series with Lyra as the heroine.  Introducing Will early would I think require rejigging the plot of TGC in a way dangerous to its integrity.  The second and third films will probably be shot at the same time, as was done for the second and third Matrix movies.

BridgeToTheStars.Net: Will the first film be titled 'The Golden Compass' in the US and 'Northern Lights' in the UK, or will they both have the same title?

Chris Weitz: I don’t know the answer to that; I don’t think that giving the film a different title in the UK and the USA would do any harm, though.

BridgeToTheStars.Net: Can you give us any insight into what was in the dissertation that Empire Online reported you had sent to New Line on how you planned to tackle the books?

Chris Weitz: Yes, I can.  First, I ought to explain that it strikes me as well as everyone else that I am not the most likely first choice to direct the books.  The obvious choices would be people like Ridley Scott, Ang Lee, Peter Weir...all brilliant film-makers.  I am not regarded as belonging to the same category, in terms of the work I have done to date.  So, it was incumbent upon me to explain why I thought I was the person to make TGC.  I set this out in two documents – a treatment, which is to say a breakdown of the plot of the proposed film into sequences and scenes, and another document that was more of a personal statement regarding my feelings about the books.  For an undertaking of this kind you need to understand that the person who will be leading the charge has deep feeling for the piece, real commitment to make the personal sacrifices that need to be required, and an affinity for the material.  It has been pointed out – on your own bulletin boards in fact! – that there is not necessarily much in my previous work to indicate that I would be precisely aligned to Philip Pullman’s work.  I have opinions with regard to that view – I’ll put forward some of them in my answers to upcoming questions – but the final response to it will not be made plain until the film itself is complete.  Nonetheless, it was important to me and, I think, to New Line, that they appreciate my intent in making TGC.  If you were to combine the two documents into one, it would number about thirty pages, which is to say I had quite a bit on my mind.

BridgeToTheStars.Net: Some fans are worried about the lack of 'serious' films in your resume, which they see as a problem since His Dark Materials has quite a bit of depth. How do you plan on treating the darker aspects of His Dark Materials?

Chris Weitz: On the surface of it, as a fan of the books I would be terrified if I read that I was going to adapt HDM.  Let me try to put at ease anybody who is of a mind to be convinced at all...

Firstly let me address my own background.  It will require me to sound perhaps a tad defensive and to toot my own horn a little, but I hope it will illustrate that I am not the very last person who might bring an appreciative eye to these books.

Like Pullman, I attended an Oxbridge College – in this case, Trinity College, Cambridge, which was every bit as grand and arrogant as the confabulated Jordan, Oxford.  Although I was born in the U.S., I did the full three years at Cambridge (the standard course is three years, not four), as I went to “sixth form” (high school) in London.  I held both junior and senior scholarships in English Literature at Trinity.  My period was the seventeenth century.  I am a reasonably experienced Milton hand, and I flatter myself no slouch at Blake either (c18, I know...).  In addition, I am a lapsed- Catholic crypto-buddhist, which is I think appropriate for the piece...

As for the film background – I will not deny that the films I have worked on previously bear little relation to HDM, but I do humbly submit that I have some experience in bringing novels to the screen, having been nominated for an Academy Award for adapted screenplay for About a Boy.  I try to make every film I make as the best possible film of that sort.  I would ask my previous movies be judged on that standard.  Leaving them aside…I regard HDM as the most important work of my life, in part because it is one of the few books to have changed my life and in part because, as I have already stated, I think it is a great work of the imagination.

It is not, needless to say, a comedy.  It is an enormously well-conceived parallel-world fable with bearing on the world in which we live and the issues that affect our lives as children, parents, and individuals in society.  It is full of profound meanings, wisdom, and intellect.  It requires an approach that is at every point cognizant of those strengths.

Let me modify that somewhat by remarking that I have to think carefully even about my use of the term "fable", though I think that Pullman would not necessarily dissent.  Although the heroine is a child, there is nothing childish or silly about HDM.  It is often very dark in tone, even somber, though like all great novels it ranges to the ecstatic, the humorous, and the political as well.

The darker aspects – they must be preserved from any desire to sugar-coat them or water them down.  The villains of the piece wish to destroy children’s souls for their own good.  That is about as foul a crime as one can imagine in any book or film and it is necessary that severing, and its metaphorical connotations, be protected from focus-groups and marketers.  Lyra’s parentage, the suffering she fights her way through, the land of the dead, the oppressive power of the Magisterium…all must remain.  As for the manner in which they should be addressed, they must be done so with human sympathy, in terms of the emotions of the characters, without unnecessary bombast, without souping them up with sweeping violins.  They must be dealt with in light of an understanding that gulf in scale between the cosmic and the personal must be bridged as well as Pullman bridges it.

BridgeToTheStars.Net: Do you think any of the more controversial aspects of HDM (like the portrayl of religion) will be toned down or removed altogether?

Chris Weitz: Here we are at the heart of the matter.  This will certainly be the issue that will ignite the most controversy amongst fans and amongst the general public.

First let me say that I have visited with Pullman and spoken with him about this subject at great length.  His feeling, and I say this with absolute certainty that I am not unfairly paraphrasing him, is that the "Authority" in question could represent any arbitrary establishment that curtails the freedom of the individual, whether it be religious, political, totalitarian, fundamentalist, communist, what have you.  This gives me a certain amount of leeway in navigating the very treacherous issues that beset adapting HDM for the screen.

New Line is a company that makes films for economic returns.  You would hardly expect them to be anything else.  They have expressed worry about the possibility of HDM’s perceived antireligiosity making it an unviable project financially.  My job is to get the film made in such a way that the spirit of the piece is carried through to the screen, and to do that I must contend not only with the difficulties of the material but with the fears of the studio.  Needless to say, all my best efforts will be directed towards keeping HDM as liberating and iconoclastic an experience as I can.  But there may be some modification of terms.  You will probably not hear of the "Church" but you will hear of the Magisterium.  Those who will understand will understand.  I have no desire to change the nature or intentions of the villains of the piece, but they may appear in more subtle guises.

On the score of religion, let me say that I think HDM is, in fact, not an atheistic work but a highly spiritual and reverent piece of writing.  I think it is with the forms and hierarchies and imperatives of established religions that Pullman quarrels, not with the sense that there is something in the world other than, beyond us.  Those who attack it as an assault upon religion are mistaken.

I'm not entirely certain what other controversial aspects you are referring to – the love story maybe?  That must be handled with tact and sympathy.

BridgeToTheStars.Net: What age range will you be shooting for, and what rating do you hope to get from the MPAA?

Chris Weitz: Not to sound like a Milton Bradley game, but 8-80 seems an appropriate age range.  A PG or PG-13 rating seems right; R ratings are restrictive and I can't imagine what in the books would necessitate an R.  There are elements of violence and suffering that may push us past a PG, and I have no desire to soft-pedal them.  So perhaps a PG-13 makes the most sense.

BridgeToTheStars.Net: Most of the fans on our site seem to be more concerned that the films will capture the overall feeling of the books, as opposed to a word for word adaptation.  How will you work to capture that overall feeling?

Chris Weitz: I feel I may have already in some part answered this question above, but – the business of making a film is one of capturing the proper tone, at least that’s what I feel.  To do that every aspect of the production has to be geared towards executing, detail by detail and nuance by nuance, the version of the script that most exemplifies the feel of the piece.  In this case that means that everything, from casting to props to sets, costumes, camerawork, must exemplify the high seriousness and magic of HDM.  Part of this comes from hiring the right people – technicians with an understanding of and enthusiasm for the piece, actors who are wiling to commit their time and emotions to the characters, a composer who appreciates that the themes and subject matter distinguishes it from any other epic.  They all must be coordinated and overseen with great care, because a film is a vast undertaking, especially one like this, and inconsistency is the enemy.

As well, I have a tremendous resource in Philip Pullman.  Part of the reason that I am writing this now is that Philip saw my treatment for the film and liked it, and we’ve been in constant and very fruitful conversation, and I hope to continue that correspondence and collaboration.  This is possible in large part because he is a very amiable and reasonable man.  It takes a great deal of fortitude to watch someone adapt your work, but I believe he knows that I will do my very best to see his creation to the screen.  He also knows that I am the first person to go to if there is any aspect of the film that violates his sense of the work's meaning.

BridgeToTheStars.Net: When films are based on books, there's always the worry of what will have to be cut from the story in order to make the film a reasonable length. Can you give us any idea of what will be cut, changed, or added in the movies, and why you think those things should be done?

Chris Weitz: I can’t really speak to the second and third books yet as I haven't had a chance to turn my hand to them.  As for TGC, there may be some cosmetic changes, but no character is to date dropped from the script.  Sometimes events and distances are compacted – Asriel, for instance, is currently imprisoned in lavish quarters in Iofur Raknison’s palace at Svalbard, not further north.  The reason for that, for example, is that Lyra has made numerous jumps north and to make another one might slow the denouement.  I think the changes will mostly be of this sort of severity.

BridgeToTheStars.Net: How do you plan on handling the large amount of special effects that these movies will require?

Chris Weitz: I plan on working very hard on them!  And hiring the best people possible.  My main concern is that, with CGI technicians able to "make" practically "anything", there is a tendency to blow out the synapses and lose the sense of reality and the grasp on your emotions that real people and real things have.  I will lean more towards building sets and shooting on locations than to using 3D CGI environments; I will shoot as many daemon shots as possible using actually animals.  That having been said, there are logistical issues that would confound doing the piece completely "in camera"; obviously the very best CGI possible will have to be used in many instances.  Iorek Byrnison will be a largely CG character; there is no way around that.  The point is to hire the programmers and animators who have a fine sense of character and story, and leading them with as much care as you would show directing actors.

Eventually it comes down to a mixture of inspiration and logistics – I will have to ask myself of every single shot in the movie, how can this best be achieved?  The answer, in any given instance, may be a combination of techniques.

BridgeToTheStars.Net: Which scenes do you think will be the most difficult to translate to the screen?

Chris Weitz: Well, there will be two sorts of difficulty: technical and thematic.  Large crowd scenes, with multiple humans and multiple daemons, will offer the biggest challenges in terms of incorporating effects with live camerawork.  Scenes between Lyra and Iorek sort of bridge the gap between the two sorts of difficulty, as it is difficult for an actor to interact with something/someone "not there" and they must be directed with great care.  And, thematically, sometimes I am very concerned about the difficulties of conveying the idea of "severing" – the reason being that a severed child look like a normal child to us.  I don’t want to force the audience’s reactions by making the severed child look like a zombie; the power of the idea must come from our recognition of the spiritual horror of the act itself within the context of the world.  This is a challenge, although it is one I am looking forward to.

BridgeToTheStars.Net: Which scenes are you most looking forward to filming?

Chris Weitz: Well, I can hardly differentiate.  I suppose I look forward to filming the key emotional scenes with Lyra that will lend meaning to all the others; but there are so many wonderful scenes.  Lyra talking to Iorek behind Einarsson’s bar.  The Roping.  The duel between Iorek and Iofur…one could go on.

BridgeToTheStars.Net: Are there any plans for where the movies will be filmed? Will anything be done on location (in Oxford for example)?

Chris Weitz: I have been to Worcester College, Oxford to discuss the possibility of shooting there.  I think that would be important.  I would also like to shoot in the fens of East Anglia, where the Gyptians live, though they have drained them and they now look different.  Mostly I would like to shoot at least some of the film in the Arctic circle, which could mean anything from northern Canada to Iceland.  A couple of months ago I took a trip to Svalbard (the real place, 1,000 miles north of Oslo) to get a sense for myself of what it feels and looks like to be near the pole – it is quite spectacular, although quite difficult in terms of living and shooting conditions.  This all comes down to budget, eventually, and there is always a degree of compromise and horse-trading; but those are my intentions.

BridgeToTheStars.Net: Many of the people who see the movie probably won't have read the books; how will this affect the way you present the story?

Chris Weitz: It won’t affect the way I present the story very much.  I won’t be tempted to "dumb it down", if that’s what you mean.  Conveying background information is always a difficult undertaking in film, the point is not to be too obvious about it and not to underestimate the audience’s ability to get up to speed.

BridgeToTheStars.Net: Are there any plans yet for casting? Will there be open auditions for any of the roles, and if so, where will those auditions be held?

Chris Weitz: There is nothing concrete yet on the subject of casting.  I will have to cast a very wide net for Lyra, though when people say "Open Casting" they’re maybe not aware of the impossibility of seeing absolutely everyone on the face of the earth who might or might not be right for a part.  On the subject of finding a Lyra, I think it’s not just important that she be a good actress but that she (and her family) would be able to face the rigors of shooting a movie of this size and would be able to fit the experience within a healthy childhood.

BridgeToTheStars.Net: Can you give us a rough idea of when you think the first film will be released?

Chris Weitz: Oh, give me about two years or so.

BridgeToTheStars.Net: How closely will you work with Philip Pullman? Has he given you any ideas or suggestions about what he would like to see?

Chris Weitz: See my answers above, I think.  As closely as he would like.  He’s yet to see my first draft so I can’t really say what specific ideas or comments he’s come up with yet – although he did say that he had thought of Samuel L. Jackson for Lee Scoresby, which is not how I had imagined it at first!  Which just goes to show you that you can never precisely gauge the author’s intent, only try your best.

BridgeToTheStars.Net: How do you plan on dealing with fans while the film is being made, and how much impact do you think comments from the fan-base will influence what you do?

Chris Weitz: Well, I think that the fans are the ones who will make the film a success, if it is one.  They are my core constituency and I will deal with them as openly as possible.  There will certainly be a fan influence on the film, though I would point out that fans tend to disagree with one another.  You mustn't forget that I am a fan, one of the most fanatical... I just happen to be in a good position.