It's looking more and more unlikely that the sequel to Golden Compass is going to be made. This really breaks my heart. I don't think I have ever been more keen to see a book brought to life. I didn't enjoy Golden Compass at all (which is the film version of Philip Pullman's book Northern Lights, which seems to have been permanently renamed to Golden Compass by the publisher). When I saw Golden Compass, my immediate impression both during and after the film was that there was a really great story here and that the producers were really screwing it up. If you look at bridgeofthestars.net you'll see more than one person agrees with me and that includes people who knew the books beforehand. Many people believe that we should just scrap the New Line cinema version of the story and start again. Preferably with a new film correctly named "Northern Lights".
Back to my heart breaking though. I am really sad to think that I might never see The Subtle Knife or The Amber Spyglass on the big screen now. The whole way through the books I tried to imagine who they would get to play Will and Mary. Mostly, though, I am positively dying to see how they envisioned Cittagazze, The World of the Dead and the world Mary finds herself in. (Does it have a name? I can't remember). Lastly, of course, I wanted to see how the angels, mulefa, Gallivespians and the harpies were represented. I was quite excited to see that on one of the alternate covers to The Subtle Knife the picture was almost identical to how I had myself imagined Cittagazze.
Here it is:
To be perfectly honest, I think the best thing that can happen here is that the BBC gets hold of the story and makes it into a series.
I have recently bought the "Northern Lights" and I will read it when the time comes.
ReplyDeleteNow, the film: In my opinion it could have been better, I believe that they didn't really mention that it was based on a book, I only found that out a couple of weeks ago.
I think this is like the "Harry Potter" books, I don't mean no one knew the fact it was based on the book, but the fact it was a awesome series of books ruined by a mostly crap series of movies. The first and second movies were excellent, at the third, they tried to make it ammusing and funny. For example, they changed "The Fat Lady" completely in the third movie and tried to make it hilarious, it was hilarious, but not in a good way, it was the kind of "Lame" hilarious if you know what I mean.
Moving back to the film; why on earth would they change the title, that is my main suspicion why no one knew about the books.
Hey Pizza. I hope you enjoy it. I really enjoyed the "His Dark Materials" trilogy and I think Philip Pullman has a great imagination. He just needs to start writing again!
ReplyDeleteI didn't like the film at all. But the one thing I realised in the film was that there was a good story behind all of this and that is what made me go out and read the books. I am glad I did.
It's strange - I have a different view of the Harry Potter films to you. It was only when I saw Goblet of Fire that I even thought of reading the books and that was because I enjoyed GOF so much. It's interesting how our experiences differ. :)
Oh, by the way... they changed the name of the film because there was a magical item in each book: The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass. So they named the film after the magical item in question of book one.
ReplyDeleteI am going to read the first book after I have finished Mister Monday AND Ranger's Apprentice Book Two.
ReplyDeleteI finished Mister Monday last night. It was really good but I honestly think I'll have to read it again. It's a very complex book!
ReplyDeleteI'm reading Abhorsen next, the last book in the Old Kingdom series. It has been on my reading list for months!
Maybe I'll take out the Ranger's Apprentice too. We'll see...
I finished this about a week ago, I loved it! As all movies do it changed the story line of the book A LOT, I have watched the movie before, I watched it again when I finished it and it didn't seem as great.
ReplyDelete@ Pizza: I thought you would like it! I think you will like The Subtle Knife - I am sure you will identify with the main character!!
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