January 29, 2008
New Line saga to continue?
We reported last week that it was rumoured that New Line Cinema was to be broken up and the founders sacked by owners Warner Brothers. Later in the week it was said that Warner Brothers had officially denied this in an email. However, in one of her latest blogs on Deadlinehollywood, Nikki Finke says that Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne are still on the way out and that their replacement is to be Terry Semel, former chairman of Yahoo. You can read the blog here.
Pullman to speak at University of Bangor
As a an honourary professor at the University of Bangor in north Wales, Philip Pullman is to speak at the establishment on February 9th along with several other speakers. The day is entitled ‘Upon My Word!’ and is a celebration of literature at Bangor. It’s an open event beginning at 9am and all are welcome. You can read about it here.
January 26, 2008
DVDs for sale 28th April
DVDActive indicates that The Golden Compass will see its DVD release at the end of April. “New Line Home Entertainment has announced a single ($28.98) and 2-disc special edition ($34.99)… the 2-disc will include over 2 and a half hours of extra material that look at the novel and its journey to the screen, production and casting, and featurettes on the armored bears, daemons, and the alethiometer.”
Read more.
January 23, 2008
New Line Cinema to be folded into Warner Brothers?
According to Nikki Finke in her Deadline Hollywood Daily Blog, a planned meeting took place earlier this week between New Line Cinema and the new chairman of their parent company, Warner Brothers. the result of this is that founders Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne are to lose their positions and New Line’s current projects, including ‘The Hobbit’, are to be folded into Warner Brothers. This is seen to be the result of a string of financial failures since the end of the Lord of the Rings franchise. There is no mention of The Golden Compass or His Dark Materials franchises and their future. Read about it here.
Addenum 24/1/08: Theonering.net reports that New Line have confirmed by email that there is no substance to the suggestion that Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne are about to lose their jobs and that all their projects would remain with the company. You can read about it here.
Addenum 24/1/08: Theonering.net reports that New Line have confirmed by email that there is no substance to the suggestion that Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne are about to lose their jobs and that all their projects would remain with the company. You can read about it here.
More Award Nominations for The Golden Compass
Nominees for the 80th Annual Academy Awards have been announced by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The Golden Compass has earned two nominations in technical categories: Best Art Direction (Direction: Dennis Gassner; Set Decoration: Anna Pinnock) and Best Visual Effects (Michael Fink, Bill Westenhofer, Ben Morris and Trevor Wood). You can view the entire list of nominations here.
Oscar ceremony scheduled for Feb. 24 at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood. However, there are still fears that the on-going writers’ strike could cause the ceremony to be cancelled, with awards announced in similar fashion to the recent Golden Globes.
Alexandre Desplat has also been nominated for two awards for the film’s soundtrack by the International Film Music Critics Association. The score is up for awards in the categories of Best Score of 2007 and Best Original Score for a Fantasy/Science Fiction Film. Desplat also has five other nominations, including Film Composer of The Year (a full list of the nominations can be viewed here). The winners will be announced on Friday, February 15.
Oscar ceremony scheduled for Feb. 24 at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood. However, there are still fears that the on-going writers’ strike could cause the ceremony to be cancelled, with awards announced in similar fashion to the recent Golden Globes.
Alexandre Desplat has also been nominated for two awards for the film’s soundtrack by the International Film Music Critics Association. The score is up for awards in the categories of Best Score of 2007 and Best Original Score for a Fantasy/Science Fiction Film. Desplat also has five other nominations, including Film Composer of The Year (a full list of the nominations can be viewed here). The winners will be announced on Friday, February 15.
January 22, 2008
Obsessed with Pullman?
The Bookwitch blog has recently featured a couple of interesting entries with a Pullman-related theme. Bookwitch firstly wrote about ‘What authors say‘ and an incident when a well known author had denied knowing who Philip Pullman was led to an interesting discussion in the comments section between a number of people (including several well known authors such as Meg Rosoff). In response to this the Bookwitch wrote a follow up article entitled ‘Obsessed- Moi?‘, and in particular how one can be obsessed with people and things, including Pullman. Just as before an interesting comments section follows. Certainly worth a read.
Philip Pullman’s New Brand of Environmentalism
Last Saturday’s Daily Telegraph newspaper featured an exclusive article about a conversation between Philip Pullman and journalist Andrew Simms about Pullman’s environmentalism. Amongst other things Pullman speaks of the first time he realised that there was a problem with the climate and environment. You can read the article in full here.
January 17, 2008
Production awards
The British Academy of Film and Television arts has nominated Michael Fink, Bill Westenhofer, Ben Morris, and Trevor Woods for the award Best Special Visual Arts for their work on The Golden Compass. In addition, the Costume Designers Guild has nominated costumer Ruth Myers for her work for dressing Best Fantasy Film. The BAFTA award ceremony will take place 10 February and the Costume Designers Guild Awards winners will be announced 19 February.
January 16, 2008
Golden Compass grosses $315 million
ComingSoon.net reports: Despite its lackluster performance in the North American box office, The Golden Compass has been doing quite well in the international market, reaching 315m USD since its premiere. “The fantasy epic has performed strongly in various foreign territories — including the United Kingdom, Spain, South Korea and Australia — where this genre continues to be popular.” The last remaining major box office territory awaiting the film’s release is Japan, where it screens beginning 1st March. Read more.