One scene in "The Golden Compass" might shock fans of the book -- because Mrs. Coulter does something taboo to her monkey. And no, she's not spanking her monkey, just slapping him. "That's entirely different," director Chris Weitz laughed.

So why would this be shocking? Because her monkey is her daemon, the physical manifestation of her own soul, and it's a tad sadomasochistic, to say the least -- it's unheard of to hurt someone else's daemon, let alone to hurt your own. And when she smacks him, she gets a red mark on her own cheek. Read more...

At a special event here in New York City last night, author Philip Pullman answered a series of questions about his bestselling "His Dark Materials" fantasy trilogy, which will see its first installment -- "Golden Compass" -- adapted to theaters on December 7th. Read our full round-up of Pullman's chat here, and in the below clip, watch Pullman describe how he finds the "Lord of the Rings" books trivial in their lack of asking big questions and doesn't find C.S. Lewis' answers to the big questions in the "Narnia" books satisfying.

Our team is on the ground in San Diego, and we're the first inside Comic-Con!

Our friends at New Line were nice enough to sneak us in a side door and let us tour their massive display for December's "The Golden Compass." And to even call it a "booth" is ridiculous, because it's big enough to house the cast of a Steve Martin family film.

While the hall was empty, we ran between a 10-foot-tall statue of Iorek the grizzly bear (he feels fuzzy), displays of one-of-a-kind elaborate costumes worn by Daniel Craig and Nicole Kidman, and even got to hold the Golden Compass itself (it weighs like 8 pounds!).

Some 140,000 people will come through here this weekend, see these props and get their photos inserted in the film's poster. And after experiencing it all, I can honestly say it's a glorious geek necessity this weekend.

Check out our photos of the "Golden Compass" booth.