BridgeToTheStars.net

The His Dark Materials series has been deemed as having “the most perfect title” by a group of (bored, we can only presume) statisticians. The trilogy tied with Agatha Christies' Sleeping Murder, with a score of 83%. Read more.

Kyra from the forums spotted that some new crew members have joined the team working on the film adaptation of The Golden Compass. Nick Davis (of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Troy and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, among many other commercial successes) will be the visual effects supervisor; Monty L. Simons (Collateral, Spider-Man 2, Hellboy) joins as the stunt co-ordinator (for “pre-vis, motion capture sequence”, according to IMDB); and Sara Romilly (Monster-in-Law, Blade, The Cell) arrives as post-production supervisor. It's all looking interestingly commercial…

The New Yorker has a lengthy piece on Philip Pullman this month. It covers a large swathe of ground from Pullman's early years (featuring quotes from his step-brother and favourite school teacher), through his time at Oxford, to his recent criticisms of C.S. Lewis. There's several interesting new pieces on information on Pullman in there and it's well worth taking the time to read through. See it here.

[i]Free Expression Is No Offence[/i], a book of essays including contributions from Philip Pullman, is now available from Amazon.co.uk.

Philip Pullman was on Radio 4's arts programme yesterday, Front Row, to discuss Bach with the conductor Jophn Eliot Gardiner; with their musings on the relationship between music and literature goiing into a great deal of intellectual depth. Towards the end of the segment, Pullman seemed to confirm that he's thinking of writing a book about Jesus, which you can read (slightly) more about here. Alternatively, you can skip to about 16:30 on the listen again playback to hear that particular part. (more…)

BridgeToTheStars.net are (re)launching our His Dark Materials newsletter, Dark Matters. Subscribe and you'll receive a round-up of all the HDM and Philip Pullman news on a monthly basis (going out on the 1st). As news is somewhat slow at the moment, newsletters will go into more detail on that month's news, allowing us to look at events in more depth, from a step back. We will also be syndicating some of Ceres Wunderkind, Enitharmon and others' His Dark Materials fanfiction and showcasing the best of our fanart and site content. If you'd be interested in submitting anything at all for the newsletter, get in touch.

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We've added a slew of new items to our HDM store. There's a calendar for the coming year, a selection of posters, our coveted “where's your daemon?” t-shirt and a mighty cuddly bear who lacks armour. Take a look. We'd like to expand the store even further. What sort of things do people want to be able to purchase? Are UK-fans interested in a local store? You can comment here or on the boards.

Tiffany (juno on the boards) has been working on a custom-made replica of the alethiometer. It is a truly splendid work and is currently nearing completion. You can view her progress on the site here: see the alethiometer. The page will be updated as as she nears completion and we wish her every luck in it! (See her thread on the boards.)

Yale University Press writes, “if you would like to hear the story of 'A Little History of the World' [by E.H. Gombrich] first-hand, please join us at Blackwell's, Broad Street, Oxford to hear Philip Pullman in conversation with Leonie Gombrich (Gombrich's grand-daughter) and a reading by his grandson, Carl.” The YUP site has the event marked for Wednesday 15th December, while today's Oxford Mail anticipated it for the 14th. www.blackwells.co.uk, strangely, don't have anything at all to say about it.
Spotted by Townie.

Today's Guardian carries a long piece by regular columnist Polly Toynbee, in which she suggests that British children will be largely oblivious to the Christian message of The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe. But the iconography, which has been heavily touted by evangelical Christian groups on both side of the Atlantic, represents a muscular, macho Christianity 'that thinks might is proof of right.' And she invokes Philip Pullman in making her case: read more. (more…)