Comments on: Chris Weitz expresses disappointment with The Golden Compass film

By: gobblin

gobblin — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 06:15:23 +0000

I think that it is a shame that the true fans of the Phillip Pullman novels have been deprived of the sequels because of New Line Cinema and the likes of small minded people like Bill Donohue and Bill O`Reilly. This is a fantasy story, my god get a life. This film took $85 million dollars in the states alone,with retals of the film $11 million dollars i think this says it all. And all the Americans I have spoken to have said they loved it. I think the producers should not be dictated to and put two fingers up the the two smalled gents and fulfull your promise to the fans before Roger and Lyra get to old.

By: Serafina_tikklya

Serafina_tikklya — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 00:48:05 +0000

I like that Australis!I’d love to see the movies made simultaneously so as not to make Lyra too old when the final film is made.

By: Australis

Australis — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 06:06:49 +0000

A drover’s dog (sorry, that’s an Aussie expression) could have directed New Moon and it still would have made squillions. New Line may have ruined GC, but, having seen NM, I’m not sure that GC would have been much better if he had been given a completely free hand.

For the sake of the Twilight movie franchise, they should give the Breaking Dawn film(s) to somebody else. Wonder if Peter Jackson’s busy? Actually, I’d rather have him do a rebooted HDM trilogy – they did it with The Hulk and Batman (sort of), why not something worthwhile?

By: Caitlyn

Caitlyn — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 09:51:00 +0000

yknow… I have the feeling that the reason they gave Weitz so much freedom as a director for New Moon is that they were like “pffft, he can do whatever the f**k he wants, itll make mega bank no matter what.”
Wheras with Golden Compass, it was like “Aaah! New not-so-popular book series! Aaaah! Huge Budget! MAKE IT PERFECT DAMMIT” … which, of course, backfired entirely, but yknow. I understand the sentiment.

By: Grumman

Grumman — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 22:47:51 +0000

I never liked the idea of Weitz directing HDM, but I recognise he did a decent job, and certainly believe him. It always gave me the impression that the studio ended the movie the way they did because they had already decided there would be no sequels. I know the usual arguments… I don’t by them. The studio wouldn’t dare to tackle the ideological challenge the sequels meant.

By: Serafina_tikklya

Serafina_tikklya — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 17:54:37 +0000

I wholeheartedly agree with Grishha and Brian. That’s one reason I like foreign and independent films. They seem to have more substance.

It would have been nice if British company could have made the HDM films, but then, perhaps they haven’t the big budgets needed for the special effects.

By: Grissha

Grissha — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 15:22:00 +0000

Yeah, “Twilight” series is altogether frivolity and poor writing. The idea itself isn’t so stupid, but the development is so lame and the characters so flat that it’s unbearable to read.

I won’t watch New Moon even if it’s Chris Weitz’s. He’s not Midas to turn trash into gold.

By: Brian

Brian — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 08:19:02 +0000

It saddens me that philosophically and morally rich material like His Dark Materials cannot get fair treatment by Hollywood, but vapid, bland teen romance crap with shallow characters like Twilight makes millions. Just goes to show how bad the taste of average American audiences is.

By: Serafina_tikklya

Serafina_tikklya — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 18:29:43 +0000

I personally think the Twilight series was an interesting idea poorly written. Stephanie Meyers(sp?) is not a very good author and her editors are worse. However, that said, it gets teenagers and tweens reading, so that’s good.
And I agree there wasn’t much to work with.

By: Skye

Skye — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 04:02:40 +0000

What was your opinion on the book, Serafina? Personally I think there just wasn’t much happening in the source material… Not much to work with.