As previously mentioned, the director of the upcoming fantasy blockbuster “The Golden Compass, Chris Weitz, has agreed to participate in an exclusive weekly blog series for MTV in which he’ll be answering your questions. We’re thrilled to now roll out the first installment, in which Chris responds to the burgeoning religious controversy, discusses the reason behind tweaks the film makes to the beloved book, reveals the status of the sequels and more.
QUESTION #1 (from Simon):
Some changes were made in the adapting process — taking out talk of religion, original sin, beating death, etc. — to avoid controversy. And yet, some religious groups are still upset. If you can’t please everybody either way, if it’s not possible to avoid controversy by taking religion out, do you feel more or less emboldened to put it back in the rest of the films?
ANSWER:
It’s very important that people understand that nobody just hands you a couple hundred million dollars and says “Go ahead, knock yourself out!” What you have is a dynamic — you could call it a debate — between me, the filmmaker, and them, the studio — that, one hopes, results in a good film. Sometimes I win, sometimes I lose. It is my job to fight, by hook or by crook, for the best adaptation of the book possible. It is their job to get the movie to pay back its investors. Even Peter Jackson had to deal with this dynamic, which is why there were shorter theater releases and longer DVD releases of the LOTR movies. But also consider that there was practically nothing that might be deemed controversial in LOTR (other than what you might consider some reflexive racism on Tolkien’s part).
So, how does one go about adapting a book that has controversial elements into a film that a very wide variety of people can enjoy, without betraying the original? One tries to be clever about it. I realized that the overt stating of some of the themes in “The Northern Lights”/”The Golden Compass” would never — this is important to make clear — never EVER get across the goal line. There isn’t a wide enough audience for that — yet. If I wanted to popularize this series of extraordinary books and open them to a wider reading public than ever before, I was going to have to make some compromises. But I also knew that as a filmmaker one has more means of expression than dialogue, and that dialogue is a more subtle business than characters saying exactly what the characters say in the book. Sometimes I transpose elements - for instance, the biblical ideas that Asriel addresses towards the end of the book are voiced in a different context (and at shorter length) by Mrs. Coulter at Bolvangar in the film. Sometimes I turn textual or narrative arguments into visual ideas.
What I would say to fans of the book who are worried about the fidelity of the film is - just see the film. Then we’ll have a good point of reference from which to talk. Or, of course, don’t see the film if you think that the book itself is harmed by departures from the text. Philip Pullman likes to quote James M. Cain on this issue. Once, when somebody asked him if he was worried what a movie adaptation would do to his book, he said, “What do you mean? The book is right over there, on the shelf.”
Now, one thing that some of the extremists who have attacked the film are right about is that I would be happy if it made more people read the books - not because I am pursuing any sort of atheist agenda (this is a ridiculous idea), but because they are great works of literature, beautiful, permanent, and unassailable. They’re not going anywhere. And as for those who are concerned that I have not used the word “Church” but only the word “Magisterium” for the bad guys, and that sort of thing, I would advise them to do a little research into the meaning of the word “Magisterium” for starters. Some people will only be satisfied if the film I’ve made is an outright attack on religion, which to me shows that they have misapprehended the meaning of Pullman’s books as much as the “other side.”
It’s true, though, that “The Subtle Knife” and “The Amber Spyglass” tread in territory that is much more controversial than the first book. This is also addressed by a bunch of questions that I will lasso under the heading “what next?” Well, though I saw it as my duty to build the franchise of “His Dark Materials” on as solid a grounding as I could, it would all be in vain if the second and third films did not have the intellectual depth and the iconoclasm of the second and third books. The whole point, to me, of ensuring that “The Golden Compass” is a financial success is so that we have a solid foundation on which to deliver a faithful, more literal adaptation of the second and third books. This is important: whereas “The Golden Compass” had to be introduced to the public carefully, the religious themes in the second and third books can’t be minimized without destroying the spirit of these books. There is simply no way to adapt them without dealing with Lyra’s destined role, her secret name, and the war in the heavens. I will not be involved with any “watering down” of books two and three, since what I have been working towards the whole time in the first film is to be able to deliver on the second and third films. If I sense that this is not possible, there’s no point my continuing to work on them.
Let me also kind of round up some of the other questions in the same vein that I have received - let’s call them the “Religion” questions. First off, I would like to state what I think about Philip Pullman’s books and their view of religion. A lot of people — mostly those who haven’t read the books but are only repeating what they have read in some biased chain e-mails — are saying that Philip is “against religion” or “against Christianity.” These people don’t really want to engage with the very subtle philosophical and theological ideas in “His Dark Materials.” There are many grand ideas and themes in “His Dark Materials,” and Pullman asks us to question a lot of cherished and engrained beliefs; but if I had to boil it down, I would say that Pullman is against the abuse of religion for political power. He is against forcing people to believe what you believe, and against accepting something you are told without thinking about it. Which makes it ironic that none of the people who have attacked the film from a religious angle have seen the film!
QUESTION #2 (from Adam):
At what point do you start working on the next one? How far along is the script?
ANSWER:
The first draft of the script for “The Subtle Knife” is completed. It was written by Hossein Amini, an Oscar-nominated screenwriter in whom I have a great deal of faith. There simply wasn’t time for me to finish “The Golden Compass” and get the script of “Subtle Knife” ready in time. In that sense, work has already begun. But in fact, the nuts-and-bolts part of the making of the films to follow is a question of capital flow. Films like this are huge machines, which take a lot to get rolling. The contracts are in place for the cast to come back, all it will take is a successful debut of “The Golden Compass” for preproduction to begin.
QUESTION #3 (from Jennifer):
You stepped off the film, then came back on. What prompted you to leave, and what prompted you to come back?
ANSWER:
Two reasons I stepped off the film (about three years ago now!), and two reasons I came back…
(1) I had never made a film involving so much CGI and, to be honest, I wasn’t sure that I would be up to the logistical task. (2) I had a feeling that, one way or the other, I might get stuck between a rock and a hard place, with some people hating me for doing a work that they imagined offended their religious beliefs, and some people hating me for doing a work that they imagined did an injustice to the book that they loved. You have to imagine what it’s like to have people quoted in The Times of London saying I have to be “stopped” because of my “stunted imagination.” Eventually, though, I (1) began to feel confident that the screenplay I was writing could be achieved technically and (2) was in a position where, if I wasn’t going to direct the film, it was going to fall to pieces and never get made. I felt that would be a great shame, and in the meanwhile I had examined my conscience and realized that I would have to be crazy not to risk time, career, reputation, whatever to make a film of my favorite book.
QUESTION #4 (from Melliu):
First, I’m 23-year-old boy from Barcelona who loves the Pullman triology and Nicole Kidman. I have a lot of faith in this adaptation. My question is why did you have cut the ending of the first book? Why? Can you please give me a reasonable answer?
ANSWER:
Yes, I’ll try to give you a reasonable answer, and an answer to a lot of other people who have asked the same sort of question. First, I haven’t “cut” the ending of the first book. I have only moved it to the beginning of the second movie. Some people are distressed by this, citing that the end of the novel is beautiful. Yes, that’s true. “And Lyra and Pan walked off into the sky.” But this ending was posing a problem for the (relatively few) audience-members who saw earlier cuts of the film. What is plangent and beautiful in the end of a novel can be confusing or off-putting in the end of a film.
For instance, people who hadn’t read the books (yes, these people exist! And they matter!) didn’t know if Lyra was in fact going to heaven. My job is to make sure that ALL of Pullman’s story will be told, not to flame out gloriously with one film. The juncture at which to leave audiences hoping for more was before Lyra sets off to find Asriel. She has fulfilled the intitial reason for her journey (to save her friend Roger), but there is a further tangible aim for her. Yes, I get that this means delaying some brilliant scenes from the book. But trust me, they would have been less brilliant if they had to meet the demands (as interpreted by the studio) of a movie-going audience for the end of the film. Whereas, difficult to handle/difficult to swallow material, which is to say dark material (no pun intended) can work perfectly well in the second film of a trilogy (cf. “Empire Strikes Back”). Trust me on this one, I was doing what I could to protect the integrity of these scenes and the overall story. Furthermore, I would not have done this without Pullman’s consent.
QUESTION #5 (from Aman):
Will the polar bears be as they are in the book? Did you keep in how Iofur wants to be human and wants a daemon? Does the ice palace appear in the film as it does in the book?
ANSWER:
I think that people are going to be blown away by how great the polar bears are. They were done by a company called Framestore in the UK. They are extraordinary. And yes, they will be as they are in the book. Iorek is stoic, powerful, and most importantly of all very dangerous. The bear king still wants to be human and to have a daemon. The only differnce is that he is called Ragnar Sturlusson and not Iofur Raknison. Why? I didn’t want anyone to confuse his name with Iorek’s. Ragnar Sturlusson is a hybrid of names from the Icelandic sagas.
The bear palace is as it was described in the book, at least I think it is. It looks fantastic. And the bear fight is just…amazing.
QUESTION #6 (from Jerome):
How will you deal for the two other episodes with the fact that Dakota Blue Richards will grow up, whereas her character has the same age in the three books?
ANSWER:
Well, as you know, things get very interesting for Lyra in books two and three, with regard to her relationship with Will. I think it’s all to the good that Dakota will look older than twelve by then.
QUESTION #7 (from Josh):
Do you think a newcomer to “His Dark Materials” will be able to get as much from your film as a devoted fan? How did you fashion the film to work on both audiences?
ANSWER:
I hope that a newcomer will get a great deal from the movie, but I never tried to “dumb down” the script in a way that was annoying to readers of the book. It’s a fine balance.
November 14th, 2007 at 3:34 pm
Thank you, thank you, Chris Weitz! You’ve restored my faith in the movie(s) again. Brilliant answers!
November 14th, 2007 at 3:52 pm
Thank you very much!! Now I understand the ending in the second film much more. I admire you Chris!
November 14th, 2007 at 5:30 pm
I hope this turns out great. The final book would look sensational on the silver screen, and the second book has a real feeling of The Da Vinci Code about it. Hopefully Chris Weitz has successfully navigated the minefield and will deliver.
PLEASE don’t succumb to the temptation turn this into a disneyesque style production!
November 14th, 2007 at 5:42 pm
I feel so much better about this movie now… I can’t wait for the next two movies, if Chris Weitz is true to the books (as he promises here) then they will blow everyone away. I can forgive him for messing with The Golden Compass because it’s the only way the rest of the trilogy will make it to the screen.
Also, I now understand why the ending had to be moved to the second film. His explanation made perfect sense.
November 14th, 2007 at 7:50 pm
Congratulations and nest of luck!
Im confident you will deliver a fabulous
trilogy. I think your ensemble is strong,
specially Nicole Kidman who looks
simply divine in the trailer.
Very excited about your movie!
November 15th, 2007 at 3:49 am
How dare you accuse JRR Tolkien of “reflexive racism”. You clearly are unaware that he was on record as a strong critic of the apartheid regime and of fascism. You have simply bought the leftish rubbish of Philip Pullman, the author behind your little film. Hope the movie tanks chum.
November 15th, 2007 at 5:07 am
This looks better and better. No little feat in bringing such an amazing book to the screen. At the same time a great story is the strongest of foundation for a great film. One can clearly see that Chris Weitz is animated by the same passion that Peter Jackson had in bringing the LOTR books to the screen. Chris has to compose with an infinitely more complex and subtle storyline. I, for one,have faith in his abilities and resolve.
November 15th, 2007 at 2:29 pm
Mr Weitz my friend is a great fan of the book by Pullman, so how did you manage to make the movie like the book to please fans. Because many people have complained about Book-movie adaptations failing to be like the book, how did you face this issue.
November 15th, 2007 at 7:40 pm
A guy with integrity - excellent - and only today I found out that the wonderful Kate Bush has somehow been persuaded to write and record an original theme song. Speaks volumes about the entire project. The very best of luck.
November 15th, 2007 at 9:55 pm
I have two parts to this question. First is, is it true that u are athist. Second if so, what are you trying to get ou of this movie, such as the moral. Is it that you wish to get people further away from “Christ”
November 15th, 2007 at 11:38 pm
Don’t be a coward. why don’t you put the ending of the book in the movie so everyone can see it for what it is. or are you afraid that no one will see it. it’s a pitty that Mr. Pullman will also coward down by letting you do it, but he too must know the best way to get his other books out is by hiding the true meaning than sneaking it into the second movie. i’m sure you’ll make millions by tricking kids to see this with dazzling effects and other rip offs of Narnia. but good luck with your second movie once you try to show what it is your afraid to show in the first movie. fool me once shame on me, fool me twice shame on me.
November 16th, 2007 at 12:32 am
This sounds like the voice of a studio puppet who is trying to pass off the studios notes as his own artistic choices. If the ending of the movie made people think Lyra is going to heaven, its not because of the plot, its because his failure as a director and a story teller.
November 16th, 2007 at 12:49 am
Good job Chris. To all you who are throwing critical remarks towards him you are either stupid or have jumped on that Christian Leagues dumb bandwagon. This is based on a fiction novel, just like your religion. Yes, the Bible is a novel, not a historical text. A FICTION novel. Next time listen in Science class.
November 16th, 2007 at 6:14 am
Is this a movie about killing God?
November 16th, 2007 at 3:51 pm
The movie looks like it will be fantastic! I have complete faith in Chris and that he will be able to successfully adapt the movie so that it will be welcomed by the public. Even if the movie is half as good as the book, it will still be incredible.
November 16th, 2007 at 6:25 pm
Whats the fuss? Orthodox christianity is an abomination.
How many terrorist explosions and middle east wars do we need to wake up to the fact that the God of Abraham ain’t nothing but a ignorant Demiurge? The man behind the curtain is your god. He and his Archons. This was the gnostic truth that Christ brought us.
Qanna, Saklas, Jehovah may be your father, but he ain’t mine.
November 18th, 2007 at 9:26 pm
haha who got the idea that this movie is about killing god? This movie is about original sin, adam and eve, etc., not god.
November 23rd, 2007 at 2:14 am
I love directors who have a belief in their projects and are not just doing it for the money.its proven to actually make the films great like LOTR and stardust and im wishing Chris weitz all the best with the filmhope golden compass makes enough money so that we can all see the subtle knife
November 23rd, 2007 at 5:31 pm
Go look on Snopes.com
http://snopes.com/politics/religion/compass.asp
Philip Pullman’s purpose is to be anthetical version of Narnia, and yes, he has stated publically that “My books are about killing God.”
It isn’t fantasy, this is his stated purpose of the books.
I sincerely hope the movie fails at the box office.
November 24th, 2007 at 4:05 am
As someone who started reading the series before “The Amber Spyglass” had even been published these books are incredibly near to my heart.
I think the important for fans of the books to remember that a movie adaptation will NEVER be exactly how we each individually pictured the story. Yes, Chris Weitz is sacrificing some of the depth and major themes of the first book in favor of a diluted and more socially acceptable story. However, he does cite the fact that this is merely to ensure that a second and third movie can follow with these elements more intact.
The fact that he addressed this issue, even nominally, somewhat comforts me because I see no way you can disentangle the themes of religion and lyra’s journey as the story progresses.
For anyone who is getting all up in arms about the fact the books tend to express an anti-established religion view I say this: how is it you are so insecure in your own beliefs you feel threatened by a trilogy of children’s books? They are fantasy novels, take place largely in paralell universes and the only thing they are blatantly against is abuse of power.
I would suggest that people read the books and draw conclusions themselves rather then basing their opinion solely upon other subjective opinions.
I look forward to the movie. I trust Philip Pullman to protect the integrity of his work.
November 27th, 2007 at 3:54 pm
Chris Weitz: I commend you for taking on a project that to many would seem impossible. The multi-world setting of the books alone would be enough to deter most people, let alone the controversial nature of the trilogy — you deserve to be applauded for your hard work and dedication (adapting the script, directing, etc.) as does the person who assembled such a fantastic team of actors, special effects artists, and costumers. When I first read the books ten years ago as a young girl, I was absolutely captivated and never could have imagined I would be able to see them adapted for the silver screen. Thank you, I can’t wait to see the first installment next weekend!
November 27th, 2007 at 10:02 pm
I’m very worried about how the storyline will be handled. To be honest I think I could’ve skipped out on all the expensive special effects and casting just to be sure that the story I love so much is preserved. I agree that if you water down the controversial riligious questions in the storyline of the second and third parts you will be seriously changing the spirit of the films. That would be horrible, because these are my favorite books, and there are a lot of people out there who adore them equally as much as I do. The only thing that actually restores my faith in all of this is the fact that you are saying you will follow the soul of the books more faithfully in the following films.
Can we expect to see some of the more controversial aspects of the film when it is released on DVD?
December 3rd, 2007 at 6:58 pm
I’m very worried about the film. I think concerning oneself with people who haven’t read it is obnoxious. They should either know it’s a book and read it first, or watch the movie and be intrigued by the confusion enough to read the book. I think too much was sacrificed for convinience. Iorek and Iofur were confusing in the book at first too, but you get over it after a while. Cutting out the ending almost makes the movie not worth watching. That ending was absolutely beautiful, and I think the effect of the first movie is compromised because of it. If the book had stopped on a happy note, I would have been too severely disappointed to read the second one. Part of what’s admired about it is that it ends on a sort of negative note. I think too much was compromised and they cornered themselves into cutting out the ending and putting it on another movie. If you kept true to the book, you would have the entirety of Pullman’s fanbase watching it with extreme patronage and they would probably spread it by word of mouth. I think you are disappointing too many people. It got horrible reviews on RT, and I’m not surprised. Not only the readers but the non-readers have been disappointed. They called it too rapid. Why? Because too much was chopped out. If you don’t stick to every intention Pullman had, it doesn’t fit. The world is inspired by controversial movies. Controversy didn’t stop them from making a movie out of The Da Vinci Code, or The Passion of the Christ. I’m still debating over whether or not to waste 8.25 to go see it. I might just wait for it to come out on DVD and rent it for half that much.
December 3rd, 2007 at 10:56 pm
Hi! I can hardly wait till December 7. I also want to say, thank Weitz for making sure this doesn’t end up like Dune. Weitz is on the money with his politics. Anyone who wants the 1st book precisely made, is part of the class of people who really want good literature and art to themselves so they can feel part of a special elite class and care less that others actually start asking questions and get the whole picture.
December 4th, 2007 at 12:22 am
I’ll see it. I am glad that it was rated PG-13, that restored my confidence somewhat that it wasn’t completely watered down from the source material. And I don’t put that much stock in movie reviews, some of my favorite movies have received terrible, awful reviews. The current 44% on Rotten Tomatoes is based on a small selection of film reviewers, so the margin of error is pretty high (basic statistics); once more people see the film, that number may rise. Either way, reviewers are just people who get paid to give their opinion.
I have to take you at your word as to the nature of film politics, and I’m sure that you really have taken what you believe to be the best course of action for the preservation of the trilogy. As to your other work, I’ve only seen About A Boy, and I would give that a thumbs up, so I have hopes that I will enjoy The Golden Compass. My one fear is that it will subscribe to the “tell” philosophy, rather than the “show” philosophy… audiences don’t want to spend half an hour of a movie having the backstory explained to them: don’t belabor them with thinly-veiled “Last Week, in The Golden Compass” scenes… just shoot the important scenes and let them piece it together.
December 4th, 2007 at 12:28 am
Oh, and to the person who said “concerning oneself with people who haven’t read it is obnoxious,” everybody can tell that you’re just looking for a roundabout way of establishing your lit-cred. Nobody’s impressed that you read the book, and real fans of a book should hope for the remake of the book to be accessible to all audiences. Contrary to what you may believe, you and your cadre of literary elitist friends seeing the movie three times in the theatres won’t put the production company in the black, so if you ever want to see the far-superior Subtle Knife or Amber Spyglass hit theatres, you should hope for a newbie-friendly first movie.
December 5th, 2007 at 8:02 pm
The His Dark Materials trilogy are my favourite books and after seeing all the reviews I was thinking of not bothering to watch the first film. However from this article it’s clear to me that Chris Weitz really does care about the books and may be playing a clever game. I say sacrificing the first book to what the studio wants is a good call if he gets to make faithful adaptations of the other two. It’s a shame that it has to be done this way and that the studio are such spineless money hungry b*stards but such is life. I think I’ll actually check out this film based on how reasonable Chris sounds and if its awful then I know that the blame lies in New Lines meddling hands.
December 16th, 2007 at 1:53 am
What was in the bad polar bears hand when Lyra came to see him was that a child?
January 7th, 2008 at 7:28 am
Ragnar Sturlusson, the “bad polar bear” is holding a doll, a girl child. He wants to have a daemon (a soul), as humans do. Since humans have animal daemons, he is trying to pretend to have a human daemon.
January 13th, 2008 at 7:45 am
may i ask a question to the director to answer?
How may young people, like me, get involved in film proction or acting in a film, like what the beatiful dakota blue richards did? Please may you personally answer this. Thank you.
February 4th, 2008 at 12:51 am
I went to see the movie out of curiosity. I am no fan of Pullman, have heard him speak and thoroughly disagree with his blatant atheism which he admits he wants to spread to our children. However, I went to see it, just to see how bad it was, and I’ve not read the books.
I certainly wouldn’t put it on a par with LOTR at all, but it had an enchantment all of its own. I disliked his use of “magesterium” because as a Catholic, that word is tied up with my own faith and is something I respect. But I must say it kept my interest, and I wouldn’t have said it was an overtly anti-Catholic movie, though what comes next may be. I left the cinema thinking that despite how much I can disagree with Mr. Pullman, he has a good imagination. And I can give credit to that.
February 23rd, 2008 at 2:14 pm
i loved the film and the book i think the film is gust like the book and the actors and all of the film makers are absolute fantastic in there part of the movie and i think its a genius of Chris to make this film and its one of the best visual effects movie I’ve seen in ages great result and now i cant wait for the next one to be released and hope they are big successes i no ill be in the cinema on the 1st day out lol i absolutely love the director one of my favs with peter jackson.
April 16th, 2008 at 9:15 am
Hell, I’m hoping so much for a director’s cut.
I found Weitz’s work great, as writer and director, BUT the theatrical cut is too rushed and lacks character and plot development. I’m sure that his full script didn’t have this flaw, and so a fuller cut of the film would’t have as well. It’s sad to know that so many beautiful sequences were cut.
May 3rd, 2008 at 10:12 pm
THIS MOVIE (GOLDEN COMPASS IS JUST AWESOME) WHAT THE HELL IS THE SCHOOL BOARDS AROUND NORTH AMERICA ARE TALKING ABOUT. ALWAYS SOMEONE TO FIND SOMETHING WRONG. KUDOS TO WEITZ AND ALL THE CAST.
SHERRY
CALGARY, ALBERTA CANADA
May 3rd, 2008 at 10:21 pm
what is with these SCHOOLS banning this, WHAT THE HELL DOES RELIGIONN HAVE TO DO WITH THIS MOVIE, YOU GO FOR IT CHRIS I know you don’t give a tinkers dam about what the public said, GO FOR IT. I CAN’T WAIT FOR THE SEQUEL.
Sherry
Calgary, Alberta, CANADA
May 10th, 2008 at 1:01 am
To all of you Christians up in arms about these movies and books, you’re simply proving that yes, you are closed-minded bigots.
If I boycotted every movie that portrayed the Church in a good light (even after all the pain, suffering, and brainwashing it’s caused and condoned) then I would have seen far fewer movies by now.
These are my all-time favorite books, Chris Weitz, and I am really hoping that you actually do plan to preserve the spirits of the second and third books, and that this isn’t just bs meant to keep the fan market stable.