See full version: After 17 Years, Philip Pullman Announces a Sequel to His Dark Materials
Dust, as the title suggests, is the thing that brought Pullman back to writing this world; the questions about it and the struggle between people who want to study it and those who want to repress knowledge of it interested Pullman enough to write more.
It’s a different story, but there are settings that readers of His Dark Materials will recognise, and characters they’ve met before. Also, of course, there are some characters who are new to us, including an ordinary boy (a boy we have seen in an earlier part of Lyra’s story, if we were paying attention) who, with Lyra, is caught up in a terrifying adventure that takes him into a new world.here
The first book doesn’t have a title, but the name of the trilogy is extremely suggestive to fans. In the world Pullman created, “dust” is a particle responsible for everything from thought to the truth-telling device (the Alethiometer) that protagonist Lyra carries. And, as far as the Church in Lyra’s parallel world is concerned, it’s also a manifestation of original sin, since it seems to be attracted to people. [links]
The announcement published on Pullman’s website proclaims that The Book of Dust isn’t actually a sequel or prequel story it’s “an ‘equel.’ It doesn’t stand before or after His Dark Materials, but beside it.” He adds that Lyra is the center of it all, she’ll start and finish the new trilogy. “This volume and the next will cover two parts of Lyra’s life: starting at the beginning of her story and returning to her 20 years later,” wrote Pullman. But fans should go back and re-read His Dark Materials for a clue about what’s coming: more
Philip Pullman’s seminal trilogy started with The Golden Compass in 1997 and ended with The Amber Spyglass in 2000. Or so we thought—because now, the author has announced an entire sequel trilogy, The Book of Dust, will come in October.
While everything about Lyra’s life before she’s introduced in The Golden Compass—including what went down between her parents—is interesting, it’s going to be the sequel plot that has fans salivating. Or, at least, has this fan salivating. The trilogy ended with Lyra and Will Parry falling in love but being forced to separate because they literally come from different universes. It also had Lyra losing the intrinsic ability to read the alethiometer and vowing to build the Republic of Heaven. That’s all stuff I’m kind of desperate to see followed up on. [links]
And we come back full circle a little here. The change in running time came because of a limited notion of what a children’s movie can be, and what a younger audience can cope with. It’s even more obvious in hindsight with the raft of young adult adaptations that the audience could have coped with a three-hour long version of The Golden Compass with its bleak finale, had New Line opted to go that way.
It’s self-perpetuating in many ways. So long as products for children have an air of complacency and simplicity their superiors will be tarred with the same brush, lending children’s films a reputation that means some creators feel they don’t have to try so hard. more
Daniel Craig was cast well, as were Nicole Kidman and Sam Elliott. The child actors are occasionally guilty of being child actors, though it feels harsh to criticize them at all when their dialogue has the ring of a production enclave asking: “But are we sure people will get that Lyra’s feisty and intelligent?” here
This is an important factor when it comes to the adaptation. Say something is for children and for a lot of people you automatically impose limitations on what it can be. Consider how many times “for kids” is used as a derogatory term, even if that means you have to ignore the sheer abundance of brilliant stories that match that description. more
Pullman’s His Dark Materials was much praised for its rich, imaginative fantasy world, nuanced and ambiguous characters, and powerful anti-religious themes. Critically acclaimed, award-laden bestsellers with a young heroine in the form of Lyra Bellacqua, the trilogy seemed an obvious choice to follow Harry Potter and Lord of The Rings and become a blockbuster movie series. New Line bought the rights after bringing Lord of The Rings to the screen, hoping for a similar success. The two stories are very different high fantasies, however, and The Golden Compass contains concepts less familiar to audiences than wizards, monsters, and swordplay. His Dark Materials was also occasionally categorized in shops as a children’s book, unlike Lord of The Rings.
While only a hint of the religious subtext was left in that script, much of what made Weitz’ first draft work was cut to bring down that running time. Actor Tom Courtenay confirmed that his role was drastically reduced in post-production, with the studio editing the full-length version down, removing its original ending and staging reshoots to exposit information now lost. Ultimately, there were problems as a result of religious pressure and the studio being unwilling to risk wrath (wrath that would probably have descended on them at any rate), but this was far from unsalvageable. What really killed the film off it seems was the drive to get it under two hours, and the ensuing studio-imposed reworking of the movie. In short, it feels more like a bullet point list of things half remembered from the book than an actual film. [links]
Though we read that the anti-Catholic content of the book would be toned-down for the film, which was released by New Line Cinema in cooperation with Scholastic Entertainment on December 7, this did nothing to alleviate our concerns. Indeed, we found this watering-down of the content to be deceitful. We knew that the flick would serve as bait for the books, and unsuspecting parents who took their kids to the theater and were unaware of the books’ content may be impelled to buy the trilogy as a Christmas present. We decided to call for a boycott of the film, and to issuing a consumers alert. To that end, we published a booklet called The Golden Compass: Agenda Unmasked. The booklet contained background information on the film, quotes from the author, extensive plot summaries and excerpts from the trilogy.
Bridgetothestars.net, Pullman’s fan site: “The removal of the religious motivations makes the institution [the Catholic Church] incredibly bland, a mere band of thugs with a domineering power for no apparent reason.” more
How New Line and Scholastic could get behind making The Golden Compass into a film, in light of comments Philip Pullman made for years, was never something addressed by the movie moguls. Choosing instead to spin the story as a family-friendly adventure picture teaching the values of honesty and courage, they refused to acknowledge the blatant anti-Catholicism in Pullman’s books. However, a short sample of what Pullman himself has said about his work reveals, without a doubt, his atheist agenda:
The Golden Compass movie focused on the first of the books in the trilogy, like series one of His Dark Materials on BBC One. more
But, is His Dark Materials the same as The Golden Compass film? Here’s everything you need to know!
Both stories follow the coming of age of Lyra as she fulfils a prophecy and learns the power of her true identity. more
However, BBC One have now adapted series two, and are working on series three. more