His Dark Materials

[Liesje]

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0385752/

Is anyone else looking forward to this? I am, but on the other hand, it's always a concern to have books like these translated to film. I like the picks for Lord Asriel and Marisa Coulter - Daniel Craig and Nicole Kidman. I'm not a huge Kidman fan, but I think she'll fit this role well, and a name as big as hers hopefully indicates the caliber of this production.

 

[UberBeaver]

Sounds interesting. The book was realgood? I've never heard of it., but the title is enough to catch you. The description on IMDB is cool, I'm all about parallel universes.

Daniel Craig is awesome in Layer Cake, and I'm glad he's done well as Bond. I liked when he heard he got picked for that role, he's a good actor. Nicole Kidman can give a good performance in seemingly any role.

 

[Liesje]

The books are amazing! They're "kids books", like a lot of C.S Lewis' books, but the theology is almost the exact opposite. I'm a theology nerd and these three books contain some of the most challenging premises Christians can face, depending how you read them (if you read it thinking it's just a dumb kids fantasy book, you'll miss out on a lot).

There are three books, they're quite long in kid standards, and basically the first 2.5 books are just setting up a plot that eventually leads to his premise, which gets played out in the third book. That's why making them into movies makes me nervous. I wish move film makers would give more screen time when working with great literature. For example, the A&E series of Pride and Prejudice is one of my favorite films, even if it's 6 hours long.

 

[UberBeaver]

Sweet. I've been looking for some new books to read, I'll check these out. Just read the description on Amazon and realized I've heard of this series before. Nice.

 

[U2girl]

I liked the books a lot.

 

[meegannie]

I'm more excited about the BBC adaptation of Ruby in the Smoke (even if Billy Piper is a bit old to play Sally Lockhart...).

I thought the stage adaptation of HDM was very good, but I'm wary about the film, and afraid it'll be like the Narnia film. I liked the idea of Tom Stoppard doing the screenplay rather than Chris Weitz. The fact that Philip Pullman has waived his rights to any creative input into the film just further convinces me that the movie will just be a watered-down, overly sentimental, Hollywoodized version of the book.

Also, Mrs Coulter had black hair.

 

[Liesje]

I'm more excited about the BBC adaptation of Ruby in the Smoke (even if Billy Piper is a bit old to play Sally Lockhart...).

Another book! When is this coming out?

 

[meegannie]

Another book! When is this coming out?

Christmas this year. Then The Shadow in the North is set to air sometime next year. I've seen some of the names of people who will be in it other than Billie Piper [didn't mean to spell her name the man way above ], but don't know who they're playing, apart from J.J. Field who will be playing Fred apparently. I think it could be really good. It's a much more straight-forward book than any of the HDM books to adapt, and the BBC has a pretty good track record.

 

[Liesje]

Cool! I hope I can buy a DVD at some point...

 

[skjuls]

I read these books before they were cool!! They are awesome!!!!

I remember waiting for the 3rd book to come out. Actually have that in hardback

 

[Liesje]

Yeah, the wait for the third seemed to take a lifetime! I laugh when the Harry Potter fans complain.

 

[mabel]

I thought the stage adaptation of HDM was very good, but I'm wary about the film, and afraid it'll be like the Narnia film.

Meegannie, I'm so jealous! I've seen some little clips of the National's production of His Dark Materials and it looked like quite the show (plus I'm a big History Boys fan and would have loved to've seen Dominic Cooper and Co. in something else on stage). A visit to London will certainly involve a trip to the National to view the archived video of this!!

Anyway, back to the movie. I haven't read the books yet, but they've been on my to-read list for a while. I'm not a big Kidman fan, but it looks like it's shaping up to be a pretty interesting cast. And it'll be interesting to see what Stoppard does with the screenplay.

 

[UberBeaver]

Got the books today. Sweet!