There has been further filming going on in Oxford. Townie on the forums says: “They were filming in Ship Street, between the Turl (where Exeter/Jordan is) and Cornmarket. There were lots of people in nice costumes and a fair few dons and riff-raffy looking people and some little street urchins. There was a real live cat and they were getting it to jump up on its hind legs using a clicking thing, then they got it to jump over what looked like trip wire close to the ground. I'm taking it to be somebody's dæmon.”
There have also been reports that there has been filming of scenes within “our” world. This would suggest that New Line may be taking the film away from the plot of the Golden Compass as we know it.
More exciting, Kirusato from the forums, managed to shoot some film on his mobile phone of the filming. You can watch it here.
could they have possibly decided to start shooting subtle knife too? LOTR style?
if they have started to shoot subtle knife as well, that scene in the video clip may be part of that filming, the cat could be moxie.
I doubt they are 'straying away' from the plot of the Golden Compass, as anything that happens in our world would not effect Lyra until TSK.
The more likely explanation is that they are filming our world so that at some point they can show the audience that it is part of the story. Of course there is always the off chance they are filming Will's first scene which would come at the end of the film.
The filming in oxford has been 2nd unit,
i think ,special effects filming.
The vehicles signs say filming 17th –
21st nov , but i have only witnessed
them in Ship St on Sunday morning and
Monday and they appear to be filming a
cat going through a portal from Lyras
world into contemperary Oxford.
on Sunday they were filming the cat
going around the corner into Ship st.
on Monday they filmed the cat jumping
over a perspexs screen with extras dressed in Lyras world costumes and then
filmed the same with extras dressed in
modern dress.
As I mentioned in the forum post this is from, I did hear members of the crew filming parts one and two together. Though this struck me as strange since I have only heard an announcement for The Golden Compass.
I hope you all enjoyed the video – sorry I couldn't get more for you. ^^;;
thanks a lot for the video! the cat's acting was great, it looks so natural the way it glances around before making the jump.
Maybe they're sticking the beginning of TSK to the end of the movie? That would be really anticlimactic though.
Maybe they're just filming it for a trailer to introduce the story as being about parallel Oxfords.
If they change it then I'm not watching it – I'm already not happy about Nicole Kidman as Mrs. Coulter.
In response to the suggestion that the cat is Moxie, unless they've changed Will's home town, it's far more likely to be the cat Will follows through the window – the one he saves from Angelica and co.
Stoppard's script introduced Will at the end of NL, maybe Weitz's does too.
Will isn't introduced at the end of the movie.
However the movie, as it currently is, starts with a voiceover explanation (possibly by Serafina) of the existance of several worlds. It follows a cat walking in our Oxford, through a window to Lyra's Oxford.
Like Homer said, I think the scene will explain the existence of several words. But I think that, instead of showing a windov (That would be a spoiler) they simply show the cat in our world, and then the narrator says something like 'but there are other worlds, similar to ours' and we see the same cat, in the same place, in Lyra's universe. How cool would be that?
i don't think that's the cat Will sees pass through the window! that window was supposed to be in the grass… that's not grass!
but if it is, I hope that means they're already starting to film some scenes for TSK and not that they will bring Will to the first movie, it doesn't make any sense… :wassat:
I hope Homer doesn't mind being asked how he knows this… how?
Kirusato: Thank you very much! You did loads!
Nope, sorry.
And the way I understand it, the camera follows the cat all the way through the window.
I think an introduction of Will and the link to our world at the end of the movie is most likely (Homer needs to give some proof).
And Em2, there are going to be changes. There always are. If you don't watch them, how will you know whether it's for the better or worse?
I can't watch it… It says there's an error in Firefox, then in IE there's a question mark over the quicktime symbol. Is anyone else having this problem? Perhaps it could be posted in a different format?
Skye, do you have the newest version of Quicktime? Have you tried downloading the file, and then playing it?
I like the idea of this being used for a trailer. 😀 The use of Will's plotline being introduced at the end of the first movie would be unnecessary: walking into the sky should be cliffhanger enough. Unless, unless it's like in Pirates of the Caribbean, how after the 'official' end of the movie, at the very end of the credits, there appears the shot of the cat discovering the window.
Whether or not the window is on grass is irrelevant.
I hate the idea of a voice over explaining the existence of several worlds – a sentence would do – like 'A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away' provided sufficient context for the Star Wars movies. One of the things I loved most about the 'His Dark Materials ' trilogy was Pullman's failure to patronise his audience by constantly explaining everything. We were thrown into Lyra's world at the beggining of 'Northern Lights' and such was Pullman's craft that we were able to suspend disbelief and accept the story and its narrative as is. I understand that changes need to be made in order to turn a book into a film, but unless its going to imporove upon the storyline – which explaining everything to the audience won't – I don't see the point in bothering at all. I'm happy to let the trilogy live on in my imagination – at least here I'm not treated like a moron.
for everyone talking about Will being introduced at the end of TGC/NL-
The play version part 1 ended with Will and Lyra meeting. Yes, it was also only in 2 parts, but it didn't make the cliffhanger any worse.
In response to Em2, see that's the thing…as much as we would LOVE to not have this "introduction" to explain everything because we already understand, we are not the only ones watching. We must take into consideration that there are many other people who will come watch the movie, not having read the books. We must also take into consideration that even though Pullman wrote the books, he did not write the script.
Really, a voice-over intro is not a big deal and won't make or break the movie. I think it would be good for people who would be confused without it because they haven't read the books, especially with all the inaccurate press about the story describing daemons as 'shape-shifting friends' and such. *shudder*
HEY!!!!HEY!!! I just thought of what they might do!!!they MIGHT do all the books in one movie and go back and forth between the books.its maybe a bit silly but we can think they might do it. please dont be mean if you think its silly or/and stupid.
Well, it'd make sense to introduce Will in the first movie I suppose, get the audience familiar with him, and then have the main events from the trilogy happen in the next 2 movies…
Well, I do hope that you're not right in your theory, mysterygal, only because if they did decide to pull the books together into one film, there's a lot that would have to be cut off to fit it into a workable 3 or less hour time frame. Like with the Lord of the Rings, there is so much that happens in each one that it's not fair to put them all together. We're probably looking at 2.5-3 hour length movies as it is! My only hope is that they don't decide to do the "Extended Editions" like LOTR did; I lost respect for the films when they did that cause it just showed how much they were out for the profit, not for the books themselves.
i think introducing will at the end of TGC film wouldnt RUIN the film, i think it might even add to it 🙂