This is probably the most negative reception Ian McKellen has met in some years.
Download the full Golden Compass trailer in fat lo-def, 480p, 720p or 1080p. Right-click to save and rename the file something like byebyenonso.mov or similar to ensure it works
As it downloads, take a minute to cross your fingers (or heart) and hope that this film, somehow, manages to not be awful.
And, to me, it looks pretty much certain that he's playing Lord Boreal. See him on the left, and then the right, in the pictures above. Click upon them to enlarge them.
[EDIT: Link fixed]
You can download the new Golden Compass trailer-for-a-trailer and hear Ian McKellen in the revoiced role of Iorek right now, should you wish. The direct download link for the full trailer will follow on film ick in due course.
There's a statement doing the rounds that reportedly comes directly from Chris Weitz, the director and scriptwriter (and appears to have first been posted on a fansite). I've cut and pasted it below. It confirms the story I ran yesterday about how the final three chapters of the book have been displaced and will only appear at the beginning of The Subtle Knife.
Dear fans of His Dark Materials,
For the past three years I (and a gigantic cast and crew of fans of the books) have been working to adapt The Golden Compass (aka Northern Lights). As you can imagine, the process can be both exhausting and exhilarating, and full of both challenges and surprises. Sometimes you discover reasons to modify the chronology or narrative path of the books in a way that serves the movie and the trilogy better.
I have decided, along with Scholastic and New Line and, most importantly, Philip Pullman, to shift the concluding three chapters of Book I of His Dark Materials to the beginning of the second film of our trilogy, The Subtle Knife.
To me, this provides the most promising conclusion to the first film and the best possible beginning to the second.
It has always been my main concern to portray Lyra's world and her adventures with integrity. Throughout this process I have been in close contact with Philip Pullman; and I would not be doing this without his approval. As Philip has said, His Dark Materials is not three stories but one story - the story of Lyra. And where we pause to take a breath in the telling of it is a matter of choice and taste. But I hope that when fans see the film they will find their fears put to rest and their hopes fulfilled. For the film to be judged on its own merits is all that I can ask for.
Many thanks for your time. I believe you will find The Golden Compass a fit tribute to His Dark Materials when it comes out in December; and in the meanwhile promise to work diligently on burnishing its details and providing a solid footing for the launch of The Subtle Knife.
Very Best
Chris Weitz
There's a series of strong voices spreading the same rumour at the moment and this rumour is, not to put too fine a point on it, that Bob Shaye is 'butchering' The Golden Compass.
It's been a far from ideal production, anyway, with Chris Weitz on-off-on-again as director, Anand Tucker tried on for size inbetween and other, far more suitable but less... malleable filmmakers being turned down no matter how keenly they sought the gig; with the abandonment of Tom Stoppard's screenplay adaptation and the removal of the key theological subtexts; with voice actors replaced all of a sudden and frightened mutterings from the hard-pushed FX teams.
Now it's being said that the end of the film is very, very different to the end of the book. By necessity, I am about to share some spoilers in discussing these changes.
The book ends with Lyra finding Lord Asriel tearing a rift between universes and following him through. According to old information, scenes were filmed to follow this, a coda to the book's plot lifted from the opening sections of The Subtle Knife, the second novel. This was supposedly meant to create a better segue into the 'our world' of the second film and book, rather than closing the first film on a fantasy note but beginning the second in 'reality' - but now there's talk that instead of leaving the story late, the film will be leaving early. Lyra won't even get to Asriel.
This space-time rift is opened in the book by an act, too complex to explain here, that results in the death of Roger, a key character. Of course, ending the film early stops it from climaxing on the death of a child.
Nobody has been able to convince me they know how the film actually will end, but there's a story of it wrapping up even before they even get to Svalbard. I doubt this - I suspect Iorek's battle with Iofur will be in, perhaps serving as a defacto climax.
It was always commercially risky, I suppose, planning to wind up what might, after all, be a stand alone film with a cliffhanger that's also a complete and utter downer. The following two books will only be filmed if this movie turns a sufficient profit and surely even a purist would see that keeping the story intact in film one at the expense of films two and three even existing would be a ridiculous trade-off. I wish widespread family audiences would cope with the scenes as written by Pullman, but I'm prepared to accept they probably wouldn't.
I assume that the excised scenes - which were filmed, of course - are to be placed at the beginning of the second film, should it happen. Surely their adjustment, from one film to another, is going to be somewhat moot if the second film hits, then? And if there is no second film, the absence of films two and three would surely be more disappointing. Anyway, at least they seem to have killed Roger in the scenes as filmed, rather than rejigging them and somehow just having him survive.
Rather than losing sleep over the postponement of these scenes, I think people should be more worried about the countless smaller changes Shaye will have insisted upon, and about the loss of the film's principal argument in a concession to the self-righteous and blinkered.
Just to repeat: this is all based on information I am treating as rumour and rumour only. I've had e-mails on the matter, and in trawling the various His Dark Materials pages, found much discussion of it on forums. But it is not yet confirmed. Yet.
The Golden Compass is nearing the end of post production now, with only a few more weeks of FX work before the end of October and a complete lock down of everything at the beginning of November. Amazing, then, that some of it's best kept secrets have remained hidden for so long.
I've been e-mailed this afternoon by an Italian reader of film ick, [EDIT: himself a webmaster] telling me that not only will Christopher Lee be appearing in the film - in the flesh, as it were, as a member of the sinister Magisterium - but that his Lord of the Rings sparring partner Ian McKellen will be involved also. Their source seems to be a fairly reliable His Dark Materials fansite, themselves getting info from a tried and tested source.
The story goes that McKellen will be voicing Iorek Byrnison, the great white bear you see Lyra riding on the posters and in the trailers. Previously it was believed that Nonso Anozie was providing the voice of Iorek. Did Anozie record the role and then get bumped for McKellen? Or is there a wire crossed with McKellen actually voicing another of the bears?
Or - maybe - is this going to turn out to be nothing but hot air?
Oxford's a good place to be to ask about these matters as there's plenty of folk around who touched on the production in one way or another and plenty more who know Phillip Pullman himself. Feelers have gone out...
[EDIT: From Oxford as well as further abroad, I'm getting confirmations on Christopher Lee but denials on Ian McKellen. Of course, the McKellen element may be hush-hush even to people partially or tangentially related... hopefully something more solid will come up soon]
[EDIT AGAIN: McKellen is listed as a voice on an official announcement now (indeed, the announcement was written before I even heard this rumour, but the trickle down was a wee bit slow) ... but it still isn't clear which voice. let's face facts though, it's almost certainly Iroek. This has clearly been a relatively late decision. Nobody has said anything official about Christopher Lee but I've got plenty of nods on that one, so expect it to be true]
Here's a whole number of Golden Compass model shots, showing Nicole Kidman and Eva Green in their alternative-Oxford get-up. One ice cold by demeanour, the other by exposure to high altitude winds and a lack of footwear.
Click on any of these to make it much, much bigger.
I'll do all of these together in an attempt to catch up.
First of all, The Golden Compass gets a new trailer and, probably a more indicative one. It doesn't look horrible, does it? Choose from normal definition Quicktime or 480p, 720p or 1080p hi-def versions.
For Death Sentence, you have 480p, 720p or 1080p options. Rename the file ismellbacon.mov or similar.
Rush Hour 3, the latest dip in the graph of Jackie Chan's intermittently very-high-peaking career, has a new trailer. Normal definition quicktime. 480p high-def. 720p. 1080p. The choice is yours.
In the Shadow of the Moon. Take your pick from normal def, 480p, 720p and 1080p. Again. This is a rare trip into the documentary arena for film ick, not to mention our trailer notifications.
Finally, you have high-def options for December Boys - 480p, 720p and 1080p. Rename the file antonrodgersanddonhenley.mov to make it work. This wasn't played before Harry Potter when I saw it last night (with 82 over excited students) - why on earth not?
MyNewPlaidPants is the blog of Jason Adams who seems like a pretty cool chap. Today, he sent me the following e-mail:
Hello, I'm stealing links from you all the time, but for a change. I've got something semi-worthwhile to share with you - I got to watch trailers for Be Kind, Rewind, Rendition, and a 10-minute extended trailer for The Golden Compass via that NYC Toyfare thing yesterday - I posted on them at my blog.
I just sorta rambled about what I saw but maybe you'll find a smidge of the info interesting.
And I certainly did. While I'll post his Be Kind, Rewind trailer description below you'll have to click over for the other two. And so you should.
So I got to see what looked like an early cut - the footage was pretty raw looking - of the trailer for Michel Gondry's next film, starring Jack Black and Mos Def as video store employees with a problem: namely, Jack Black's brain is magnetized and he's erased all the videos in their store.
The opening scene of the trailer sets this up - when Jack Black is in close-up the film actually goes all wavy like on an old, screwed-up videotape, which was a nice touch - and then we get on to the real business of the movie: namely, getting to watch Jack Black and Mos Def reenacting scenes from old movies.
A good chunk of time is spent watching them reenact scenes from Ghostbusters, including Jack Black's awful (in a funny way) take on that movie's familiar theme song - we get to hear Mos Def say "I got slimed" which was the highlight for me.
We see that their homemade versions become big hits in the neighborhood and suddenly the two of them become quasi-celebrities; there's a fun montage of scenes from their different movies - 2001 and Boyz In The Hood stand out in my memory, the latter involving Jack Black in an afro.
But then The Man, in the form of Sigourney Weaver - YAY! - shows up and threatens their new business with talk of copyright infringement and what not.
And then Mia Farrow shows up and says that these boy's movies got heart!
It was only a couple minutes long but it looks a thousand times mainstreamier than The Science of Sleep was (a movie I liked but didn't love). A fun trailer that has me hyped for the movie even more.
Empire got the scoop: the Weitz brothers are to adapt Michael Moorcock's Elric novels. While no director is yet attached, Paul Weitz thinks Chris Weitz is the man for the job. Hmmmm. Let's see The Golden Compass first and then decide about his chances with Moorcock.
Would they approach the books in chronological order? Compound some of them? Reorder them? Ignore some? No clues yet.
The Golden Compass website has been updated with a number of downloadable wallpapers. Now you can pile quicktime film strip icons with titles you'd never repeat in polite company all over polar bears and little girls.
You can download the first real trailer for The Golden Compass in medium, high and ultra definition Quicktime as well as 1080p, 720p and 480p high-def. Remember to rename the file something like goldencompass.mov to sidestep the Yahoo and New Line thought police and outwit their tricksy jiggery pokery.
Enjoy. And don't say I don't ever do anything for you.
The first Golden Compass trailer is to go out in US cinemas with Pirates 3 from Friday. It's more of a teaser, but will present the first 'officially complete' visuals from the feature to be released.
Some Oxford based reshoots start in just over a week. I'll certainly be keeping an eye out for Kidman and Craig on the streets.
The big ol' His Dark Materials fansite Bridge to the Stars are previewing the covers of a series of Golden Compass tie-in books. Ashes to ashes, books to books.
Aint it Cool have the very, very big version of the Golden Compass poster you can see below. Oh... and those reshoots I was telling you about? Turns out they're taking place in Switzerland. Fans of the book will instantly be able to surmise that this indicates reshoots for the end of the movie, not the earlier scenes.
Thanks to 'The Man' for the tip-off. And sorry to 'The Man' for calling him that.
Of course, they can't be changing the end. Can they? Nah. Probably more action stuff.
I have been reliably informed (did you want a credit, reliable informant?) that two weeks of reshoots for The Golden Compass began yesterday. And, yep, that could indeed be a decent slice of the film. Fixing, adding, improving or just routine?
If they hit the streets, rather than stay in the sanctuary of a studio, be sure that more news will follow.
You can now see new trailers for The Golden Age, Bourne Ultimatum (in 1080p, 720p or 480p), Evening and The Golden Door online. Most can be downloaded directly, The Golden Age comes via Rapidshare.
Golden Ages, Compasses and Doors - a golden year for cinema?
Enjoy. And if you are downloading any of these, remember to correct any funny file extensions when you save.
April 30th - May 6th will be Spider-Man week in New York City. The most giant ad ever for a film that, frankly, hardly needs a drop more publicity. But... I still wish I could go and check some of this stuff out.
Are we going to get a Lyra Bellacqua week in Oxford this December, New Line?
