Andrew Scott Four Times

I can't read the new chat with Andrew at The Times because it's pay-walled but these are in honor of his new role on the second season of His Dark Materials, playing Colonel John Parry, aka the father of Will, the main character in the second book The Subtle Knife. The new season just premiered in the UK and premieres here in the US on the 16th on HBO. (Sidenote: did y'all know there was a new mini-book out from HDM author Philip Pullman? It's called Serpentine and you can pick it up here. I haven't read it yet but I haven't finished the last HDM book yet -- I kinda trailed off in the middle of it and need to pick it back up.) Anyway here's the trailer for the new season of the show:

Hot Priest Heads North

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It seems I very much have got to go back and read Phillip Pullman's original His Dark Materials trilogy of books now, because Andrew "Hot Priest" Scott just got cast in the forthcoming HBO miniseries adaptation as a character I can't recall in the slightest, not even after reading the full Wiki entry for him. I mean I know he is playing John Parry aka Jopari, the father of Will,  the lead character of the second book The Subtle Knife. And it sounds like... well, he's got his hands in a lot. It's all spoilery so I don't want to dive into specifics -- it's just been a good 15 years since I re-read the trilogy so it's overdue, clearly, is my point. But hurray for Andrew Scott! Always and always Andrew Scott. Click here if you haven't seen the trailer for the HBO adaptation.

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"So I have summoned you here, and you are to fly me northwards”
When Lee Scoresby met Jopari.@Lin_Manuel #AndrewScott#BehindTheScenes #HisDarkMaterials pic.twitter.com/m0Rv6JlzSG

— His Dark Materials (@darkmaterials) August 19, 2019

It's Daemon Time

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Once Game of Thrones ends this weekend HBO has a couple of big nerdy projects down the pike that might possibly fill that nerdy void -- one would be their Watchmen series, and the other is their team-up with the BBC trying to do a right proper adaptation of Phillip Pullman's glorious His Dark Materials books. That "right proper adaptation" dig was clearly aimed at the 2007 film, which took a point perfect cast and threw them into a mess of an unfocused thing that obliterated the most fundamental aspect at the heart of the series -- its bone-deep atheism -- because that is of course deemed impossible in this dumb country called America. Well now the UK has taken their shit back from the dumb Americans and made it their own, and we're just borrowing it from them, so ha, hopefully Mr. Pullman's getting the last laugh.

The cast for this re-do is very good -- James McAvoy's a fine choice for Lord Asriel, and even though Nicole Kidman was the platonic ideal of the "Mrs. Coulter" character I can't wait to see what Ruth Wilson does with her; I just saw Wilson on stage beside Glenda Jackson in King Lear this past weekend and she not only held her own, she might have, gasp, been the best thing on stage? 

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Well I can check “full on sobbed watching Shakespeare be performed“ off my bucket list now thanks to Glenda & Ruth Wilson

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) May 11, 2019

Anyway this is the second trailer I've posted for the series -- see the first one, from the BBC, right here -- even though as far as I can tell we still haven't got any sort of release date for it either in the UK or here in the US yet. But you'll hear from me the minute we do! Until then here, watch, luxuriate, it looks like they might have gotten it right, you guys:

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Oh and in case you haven't read Pullman's books I highly recommend them, and he's actually started an entire new trilogy (which overlaps with the original in terribly interesting ways) recently -- the first part of The Book of Dust series came out in 2017 and it's already got me riveted to where he's taking everything. The second book called The Secret Commonwealth is coming in October! ETA and I just now read this at io9 -- the BBC has already renewed the series for another eight episodes! I don't know what that means about what this first series contains, book to screen wise -- if it's one season per book, or what -- but the more the better. There's enough material here to last as long as Game of Thrones, at least.
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Dust 2 Dust

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I've been reorganizing my bookshelves for what seems like weeks now (it seems like weeks because it has been weeks -- I have a lotta goddamned books!) and yesterday I was situating my pile of Philip Pullman books and thought to myself I sure would like to read the His Dark Materials books again. I meant to when The Book of Dust (the first book in a new trilogy that overlaps with the original threesome) came out in 2017 and that didn't happen -- perhaps I should make a plan of it? Before the next book (which I just learned via Wikipedia will be called The Secret Commonwealth) comes out? Or, since that doesn't have a precise release date yet, perhaps before the BBC miniseries comes out this year? We don't have an exact date for that just yet either but we do have a teaser trailer, just released yesterday! Watch:

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As we reported when they were cast James McAvoy's playing Lord Asriel, aka Daniel Craig in the failed big-screen adaptation, while Ruth Wilson is tackling the Nicole Kidman part -- I loved the original cast in 2007 (sigh, Eva Green as Serafina Pekkala!) but Chris Weitz and the scaredy-cat American studio messed that movie all up, so here's to hoping that the BBC knows not to gut the entire atheistic point of the books. Or else!

Lord McAvoy

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James McAvoy (seen there hooting it up with a more waxen than usual Angelina Jolie via his Instagram) has just landed a pretty spectacular role - he's going to play Lord Asriel in the BBC's forthcoming massive adaptation of Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials series. In the 2007 flop film adaptation this is the role that Daniel Craig played - it's basically the main adult male role, getting more important as the series wears on. I sadly couldn't find any pictures of Jim & Dan in each other's presence in real life so here let's just look at the following and pretend they just had a really hardcore workout, one on one...

Anyway back in March I told you all about this series - it's being shepherded by The King's Speech director Tom Hooper, which means we'll see a lot of the wallpaper probably. Do a good job with the wallpaper, set decorators! I think James is really great casting for Lord Asriel - he will surely wear tweed and grow out his lightly salted ginger beard to look scholarly for it and with that we all win.

I Have Turned To Dust With This News

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That right there is a picture of the actor Tom Hopper. He was on Game of Thrones last season; we've posted on him before, right here. This post is not about Tom Hopper. But I think of Tom Hopper every time I see news about the Oscar-winning director of The King's Speech named Tom Hooper, and then I click on the news and I'm all, "Boo, it's just The King's Speech dude. No nips to be found." Oh well - this is still important news, nips be damned. 

The director Tom Hooper has signed on to direct an eight part (!!!) series adaptation of Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials books! EIGHT PARTS! There are three books in the series - The Golden Compass (aka Northern Lights, depending on what country you're reading the series in) which was already turned into a failed franchise-starter back in 2007 with Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig; then there's The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass. 

But wait! The series just got longer with Pullman having dropped what is meant to be the first book in a three-book series called The Book of Dust this past October, which I am suddenly realizing with dawning horror that I totally forgot about and haven't read yet. I posted about it and everything, and yet it totally slipped my melon. Anyway that will make six books turned into eight parts, apparently. I suppose if you add in the two short companion books called Once Upon a Time in the North and Lyra's Oxford it all adds up.

Anyway there are two actors signed on so far - the little girl from Logan named Dafne Keen that everybody fell for is going to play our leading lady Lyra, and she's probably excellent casting - I wasn't as nuts about Logan as everybody else was but she was a force of nature. And then in the role of the Texan Balloonist (yes really) Lee Scoresby (who was played by the pitch-perfect Sam Elliott in the 2007 film) there's a lil' someone called Lin Manuel Miranda signed up. Okay!

Those are two big roles but there are several great big roles left to fill, including Lyra's scientist-uncle Lord Asriel (who Daniel Craig played in the film), the witch queen Serafina Pekkala (played by a delicious Eva Green), and the big bad Mrs. Coulter, played to absolute icy perfection by Nicole Kidman back when. When I read the books years before the 2007 I'd pictured Kidman in my head while reading them - she was ace casting and I'm not sure they can find anyone better. Just hire Nic again.

Then again I'd actually be fine if they hired all the original actors - they were all great! (Poor Dakota Blue Roberts.) The problem with the original film was the Hollywood Studios adapting the story gutted everything interesting about the books, which tell some extremely dark stories tearing down Religion and the very idea of God itself. The folks making the new adaptation say they're staying true to the source material this go around - they're keeping it out of the U.S. for one, I think making this the most expensive UK production of all time? BRING IT ON.
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Great Moments In Movie Shelves #97

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It's weird -- I really remember there being a big beautiful library in the opening scenes from 2007's The Golden Compass. But my memory is wrong -- the most you see of any bookshelves in the college where Lyra and her uncle Lord Asriel (Daniel Craig) scamper about are those dusty ones you glimpse at the right side of his office there. How weird! But seeing as how it's Daniel Craig's birthday today and I will always welcome the opportunity to glare at him bearded and tweeded in this movie (not to mention the recent news about a new trilogy of books in this series from author Phillip Pullman!) we'll stretch the definition of "Great Shelves" to their breaking point today to fit our needs.

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Get Ready For The Book of Dust!

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It doesn't matter to me that this news isn't about a renewed interest in reviving the film series -- if there's news about Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials, then I will illustrate such news with a photograph of Daniel Craig in character in the movie version because Daniel Craig in tweed with a beard just gives me energy to go on. And boy is there ever new news about Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials! The author has just announced he is writing an entire new trilogy!

Okay. Have you woken up on the floor? I will give you a minute to situate yourself. Take deep breaths. It it true. The Guardian wouldn't lie to us!

"The Book of Dust, an epic fantasy trilogy that will stand alongside his bestselling series, His Dark Materials, will be published in October around the world. The as-yet-untitled first volume of The Book of Dust, due out on 19 October, will be set in London and Oxford, with the action running parallel to the His Dark Materials trilogy.

... Pullman’s brave and outspoken heroine, Lyra Belacqua, will return in the first two volumes. Featuring two periods of her life – as a baby and 10 years after His Dark Materials ended – the series will include other characters familiar to existing readers, as well as creations such as alethiometers (a clock-like truth-telling device), daemons (animals that are physical manifestations of the human spirit) and the Magisterium, the church-like totalitarian authority that rules Lyra’s world."

Pullman has already finished the first two books and is at work on the third, so it doesn't seem like we have to worry about any kind of George RR Martin situation here. Anyway I was just looking at my copies of the original HDM books on my shelf the other day and considering a re-read and obviously, the time is perfect. Y'all have read the books right? I'm not surprised that the big-screen Hollywood version failed - they were never going to have the balls to make the movies about what the books are about. The BBC was supposedly working on a new TV miniseries based off of them but I haven't seen an update on that in awhile and it's not mentioned here.
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Give Me Your Best Grace Kelly

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I haven't been able to stop thinking about yesterday's news that Phillip Pullman's brilliant book series His Dark Materials is getting rebooted by the BBC for a miniseries - if you've never read the books now's your chance! I mean, every day has been your chance, but this offers yet another one! No judgment! (I am judging you until you read them.) Anyway our pal Nathaniel mentioned the news over at TFE today and pointed out an excellent point:

"Good luck besting Nicole Kidman's Miss Coulter."

When I read the books eons ago even then I knew that the only person right for the villainous Mrs. Coulter was Nicole Kidman -- it was one of those perfect preordained bits of casting that thankfully worked out. And considering this today I realized we've currently got yet another example of such an occurrence -- nobody but nobody but Cate Blanchett was right for the role of Carol Aird in an adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's story The Price of Salt, and thankfully the fates aligned and made is thus. (Here's my review of Todd Haynes' Carol.) But since we always feel the need to put everything into competition with everything else, we must ask...

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I Am Link

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--- Lady's Boys - The hot similar looking dudes of American Horror Story: Hotel are fully aware that they all look similar, thank you very much. (Thanks Mac) It's seemed like a silly non-story to me because clearly it was intentional; look at those twin children Lady Gaga breeds! Clearly she's into types. She's like Bert from Sesame Street with his closet full of the same outfit. (Bad analogy actually since Lady Gaga changes outfits per scene, but whatever.) Anyway I did appreciate Cheyenne Jackson's comment on the twin thing:

"There are worse things than to be compared to Matt Bomer."

--- From Gods To Men - Bryan Fuller has poked his head up out of the writing room for his upcoming adaptation of American Gods to talk to Crave about both that project and where it stands and the just announced reboot of Steven Spielberg's Amazing Stories that he is doing for NBC. Sounds like Spielberg is much more involved than it seemed when the project was announced - he recruited Bryan personally to make the thing because he loved Hannibal! In other Bryan Fuller News, Bryan was asked recently what his dream reboot would be and he said he's love to bring the British spy series The Avengers back from the dead. (thanks Mac)
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--- Daemon Lover - This is hopefully good news, fingers crossed: the BBC is planning on making a television series out of Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials books! You might recall the movie The Golden Compass with Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig and Eva Green (who really all were ace casting) flopping violently back in 2007 - they made some good choices but they neutered the story for audience approval and ended up erasing why the story matters in the first place. So let's hope the BBC learned from that, and stick to Pullman's hardcore anti-religious guns because there's a hell of a story to be told here.
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--- And Speaking of Nic, apparently Nicole Kidman is in talks to play "a high-ranking Amazonian Warrior" in the upcoming Wonder Woman movie starring Gal Gadot, spinning off from the Batman v Superman of next summer. People are theorizing that this means she'll be playing Diana's mother Hyppolyta, who is the Queen of the Amazons. Listen I love Nicole but she usually makes reeeeally bad choices when it comes to mainstream movies so I'm not sure whether I'm excited about this or not.
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--- Scrubbed Clean - The Playlist got their greedy mitts on the first picture from Park Chan-wook's upcoming film called The Handmaid, which returns him to Korea after making Stoker here in the States. The movie is an adaptation of an English-language book called Fingersmith (it was turned into a BBC miniseries in 2005) but he's switched locations; now it "is set during the Japanese rule of Korea and follows a handmaid who employs the services of an heiress, con man and pickpocket." See our previous post here. No word on a release yet though.
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--- Just Shoot Me - The first pictures of James Franco and friends in the upcoming Stephen King adaptation 11.22.63 have been released, see them over here - I can't recall whether I knew Josh Duhamel was in this show or not but hells yeah. And also Sarah Gadon! And Cherry Jones! And Chris Cooper! Did I just forget this thing had assembled such a stellar cast or what? Maybe somebody went back in time and erased my memory. Anyway I really liked this book, which is about a dude going back in time to stop JFK from being assassinated; did anybody else read it? The series will premiere on President's Day (so clever you guys!), February 15th 2016.
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--- Forever Filthy - I think John Waters has been given like five interviews a week lately and I've posted links to all of them, but we should be happy he won't shut up dammit! Happy as snapping clams. He chatted with Michael Musto in the new issue of The Advocate and while he refuses to take Musto's bait on the trans issue he did offer up this bit of hilarity about Divine:

"He didn’t want to be a woman. He wanted to pass as a monster."

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--- Herky Jerky - This will take forever because stop-motion always take forever but it's still pretty cool news for like ten years from now -- Henry Selick, director of The Nightmare Before Christmas and Coraline and everything good stop-motion-animated ever, is teaming up with comedians Key and Peele (!!!) to make an animated movie called Wendell and Wild, which is about "two scheming demon brothers who must face their arch-nemesis, the demon-dusting nun Sister Helly, and her two goth teen acolytes." I will watch that!
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I Am Link

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--- Be My Baby - I didn't see The Fault in Our Stars so maybe I am missing something spectacular but I have yet to get sold on this Ansel Elgort fella, but if anybody can make it happen, Edgar Wright can make it happen - Ansel is in talks for the leading role in Wright's Baby Driver, his heist movie that he's been working on for awhile now, ever since Ant-Man went bust.
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--- Dead Girls - It just wouldn't be Twin Peaks without Sheryl lee so I'm glad that BD's reporting that she (and also Sherilyn Fenn!) will indeed be returning for David Lynch's new season of the show for Showtime. Of course, how the heck he's bringing her back is a mystery since she's already played two different people on the show and been murdered both times, but this is David Lynch - Lynch finds a way.

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--- Freak Out - Some of the names being rumored for the young X-Men in Bryan Singer's next X-flick are pretty terrific - apparently Saorsie Ronan and Sophie "Sansa Stark" Turner are both testing for the young Jean Grey (played by so well by Famke Janssen in the original movies), and Tye Sheridan, the kid from Mud and The Tree of Life, is up for Cyclops aka Young James Marsden. The two ladies they mention re: Storm, named Alexandra Shipp and Zendaya Coleman, I do not know. Do you?
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--- Future Passed - I doubt I'll ever find the time to watch this personally but I'm sure it'll curl somebody's toes - Steven Soderbergh has re-edited Stanley Kubrick's film 2001, and posted the whole thing right here. Oh Steven, you weirdo, make a damn movie.
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--- Stalker Special - Back in September we'd heard that Joel Edgerton was working on his directorial debut, a thriller-of-sorts called Weirdo about a couple who move to a new town and are followed by someone (presumably the titular weirdo) from their past who mucks up their clean slate. Now comes word that the couple will be played by birthday-boy Jason Bateman and Rebecca Hall.
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--- More Wet Hot - As if the original cast for Wet Hot American Summer wasn't big enough - and they all seem to be returning! - a whole bunch of new names just got added for the sequel Netflix is making; people like Josh Charles, John Slattery, and Michaela Watkins - I love her! So great on Enlightened. I can picture her fitting right in.
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--- Dandy Pair - I don't really have the highest of hopes that a conversation between Eddie Redmayne and Jennifer Lawrence will be the most compelling thing in the world, but hey such a thing exists, and Eddie looks cute in the pictures, so we'll give it a whirl. Also at Interview, an interview with slash gallery of pictures of Finn Wittrock!

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--- Return To Dust - Did you know that Phillip Pullman is working on a fourth book in the His Dark Materials series? I did not know this! It's to be called The Book of Dust and he says he's hoping it will be out next year. This comes to us alongside the news that he's released an audio-book only version of a new short story set in the same world, having to do with Mrs. Coulter (the ten people who saw that movie are picturing Nicole Kidman).
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--- Flat Circle - I don't know how many of you I could possibly entice with such a link but hey look the people who made Sufjan Stevens' new record did a whole Reddit thread about the design of said record, that's a thing. I just liked it for the peek at the inside sleeve photo of Baby Suffy with a banana!
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--- Later Weeks - In a chat with IGN 28 Days Later writer Alex Garland says that serious negotiations are happening with regards to making a third film in that series, long rumored to be called 28 Months Later (following the woefully underrated 28 Weeks Later). I'm one of the few who adores the second movie... I like it more than the first.
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Quotes of the Day

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I'm mashing together two different bits into one post because I can. Deal with it! First up, in an interview with Werner Herzog at AICN, Herzie's asked (yes I called him "Herzie") about something Nic Cage said recently, that they ought to do a sequel to their Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans that follows Val Kilmer's character and call it Badder Lieutenant. Herzog just laughs and says this:

"As usual, I have a home invasion of burglars of five, six, or seven other feature films that are pushing me, so no. I haven’t made AGUIRRE 2, 3, 4, and 5 either, so I wouldn’t completely exclude it, but at the moment I’m really headed for other things."

Who else but Werner Herzog would categorize his artistic impulse as a home invasion and his films as burglars? And I might just spend the rest of the day picturing what Aguirre would look like as a big budget franchise with multiple sequels.

And that poster image there at the top is via this gallery at AICN of fan-made posters for the movie which y'all oughta check out; there are some great ones in there.

And secondly! Listen, I flirt with a deep-seated hatred of the Twilight franchise myself, based pretty much entirely off of Stephanie Meyers' Mormonism, but even though a good deal of the massive amount of money the second film made this weekend might find its way into that monstrous religion's coffers I can't help but find a great deal of humor at watching the Dark Knight fan-boys splutter and rant and rave about their precious pathetic box-office records being beaten by - gasp! - a bunch of tween girls! Not girls! The horror! The cooties!

All that isn't my second point at all but I felt the need to get it off my chest. No my second point is even if the film sucks I'm glad that director Chris Weitz got a successful fantasy flick out there after the failure of his Golden Compass film and is taking the opportunity to finally let off some steam about the latter's failure. Weitz says (via) the studio took Compass away from him and cut out 30 minutes, and that:

"It was an utter violation of my status as a director and the worst thing that has happened to me professionally. I was treated badly, it was almost like they never read the books. They seemed frightened of offending the right."

Weitz always seemed to get the books better than the final film did so I always wondered what sort of compromises were crammed down his throat. A shame. There's a great trilogy to be made out of Phillip Pullman's series and I guess we're never gonna get it. Boo.
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Catch The Compass, If You Dare

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What would happen if you took the two sides of Indiana Jones - scholar and adventurer - and then basically neutered him of everything interesting? You'd unfortunately have Daniel Craig's turn as Lord Asriel in The Golden Compass, out on DVD today. I don't blame Craig, of course - at least he cuts a dashing figure in tweed - and I don't blame Phillip Pullman's source material, of course (Asriel's much more interesting in the books). I blame the shredder they edited this story in.

But that's the biggest problem of The Golden Compass film-edition, one that hits all the bases, and not much of anything survives completely unscathed (that said, everything bounces off Nicole Kidman like that old school-yard chant "I'm rubber, you're glue..."). It's still an alright movie, which is why I'm reminding y'all it's out today and you ought to catch it if you haven't caught it already - it's just not all it could've been.

And every day that passes with more Hobbit-related news-bites is another day this franchise turns to dust. Sigh.
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Don't Count Lyra Out!

There's a pretty long article in Variety today talking about the fact that The Golden Compass just passed the $300 million mark overseas while not even reaching $100 million here in the US, and why it might've failed here, and so on... the part that caught my interest was the film's producer Deborah Forte talking about her commitment to getting the sequels, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass, made. Says Forte:

"'This was a success as a family movie in most countries, it's a very strong family franchise, it won an Academy Award. We have to make the second and the third movie...

I will make 'The Subtle Knife' and 'The Amber Spyglass,'" she vows. "I believe there are enough people who see what a viable and successful franchise we have.'"

Stick to your guns, Deborah! And while you're at it, maybe work a little harder on the quality too. Just a loving suggestion from a big fan of the books who saw The Golden Compass twice in theaters in the United States.
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I Am Link

--- Over at Defamer, they've got word from Spike Jonze himself on that clip from Where The Wild Things Are that leaked this past week; I guess it was test footage and not a part of the film. Which I think is a shame, and I hope that the final footage is of the same feeling. Anyway, Defamer also tells us the word from test screenings of WTWTA has not been kind - namely, the suits are troubled because Max isn't a likable little boy (he slaps his mom!) and children are, basically, crying their whiny little eyes out, terrified of the Wild Things.

Let me be as delicate as I can manage here: kids today suck.

--- Tilda Unloosed - Michael Clayton is out on DVD now, and Slate has up one of the best pieces I've read on it, dissecting the film from a real-life law perspective.

--- It looks like David Yates might be 3-for-3, Harry Potter wise; DH says that it looks as if he might roll right on to the final installment, The Deathly Hallows, after finishing up The Half-Blood Prince, which he's filming now (and which is his second Potter film after last year's Order of the Phoenix). If they make it two seperate movies like had been rumored, he'll have directed four! And Cuaron only one! Something's askew in the world. Not that there was anything wrong with Phoenix, mind you; I enjoyed it. But I liked the shifting directorial duties they'd been running this franchise on.

--- There's an interview with George A. Romero up at AICN; I sorta couldn't take reading the entire thing though because Capone (the interviewer) was drooling all over Diary of the Dead and, I love ya George, but no.

--- Do the Japanese love Oxford or something? I'm confused by this quote from Dakota Blue Richards, the terrific little star of The Golden Compass, when asked if she knows anything about the possibility of the sequel happening:

"I think they are going to see how it does when it opens in Japan. It's set in Oxford so it is going to be better received here."

Poor thing. Keep the hope alive, Other Dakota! Seriously, she was a perfect Lyra, and I'd love to see the film happen, if they got their shit together and did it right this time around. But I think hope's fading fast on this one.

--- Stacie Ponder at Final Girl got in a car with Guinevere Turner, actress and filmmaker and WRITER (and co-star) OF AMERICAN PSYCHO (as well as The Notorious Bettie Page and Go Fish), and lived what ought to become the hit road-trip movie of next year. The Donut Belt would be the working title, I think.

--- I See Rorschach - AICN has got a new image from Zach Snyder's Watchmen.

--- The Rezzies Cometh - Joe R.'s laying out his awards for the year that was 2007 at Low Resolution, and it's There Will Be Blood in a landslide!!! ... Okay, I lied. Joe's quite possibly the only person on the entire Earth - besides maybe Richard Kelly - who might end up arguing that Southland Tales was a better film than TWBB. Which is why he's worth reading - you never know what invigorating nonsense wisdom he might provide us with!
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What's That B.O.?

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Well, according to DH, The Golden Compass has crossed the $300 million mark thanks to the overseas markets. Why am I bringing this up? Me, a person who claims to loathe box office discussions? Because, as I read the news, I felt a deeply buried twinge of hope, and then I wondered about whether such a hope was wise, and then I wondered whether wondering about the wiseness of said hope-twinge said what. Huh? Exactly.

What I'm saying is, do I even want a sequel? Compass certainly wasn't the worst thing I saw all year or anything (Hi Transformers!) but it was sloppy, and it could've been so very much more with its source material. So while not the worst, it was maybe my biggest disappointment of the year.

But... from my perspective, the books only get better as they go along. There are things in The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass that I'd give up a testicle to see on-screen (if only movies were funded with nuts!). And that's a double-edged sword because, if they keep up with the quality-lessening, I'll only get angrier at each successive film.

But they could learn from their initial mistakes, right? Maybe stop being so terrified of the property that they're working with and actually make a film that feels like Phillip Pullman's vision and not a tourist's guidebook to fictional other-worlds.

And then, all this discussion is moot anyway, because who knows if $300 mil. is enough to convince anybody to jump back into this particular well... especially with The Hobbit lined up to rescue some corporate asses.

Thoughts? Would y'all be up for seeing another Dark Materials movie? Or did the first one's relatively sickening thud onto the theater floor smother any expectations for the franchise you might have had? If director Chris Weitz were to be given the boot would that allay your qualms? My answers are ALL MAYBE.
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Cut Clip o' Compass

Not sure if this will stay up for too long, but (via DH) here's a full minute and ten seconds of footage from The Golden Compass that got left on the editing room floor from the snipped ending, which was found from inside some video game tie-in thing:

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I saw GC a second time over the weekend and... well, what's good seemed even better, and what's not-so-good seemed even worse; unfortunately, the biggest part of the not-so-good is the butchering the entire plot was given, which... well, it hurts everything. But I'll write more later.
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The Golden Compass in 150 Words or Less

Dust Kidman Fidgety Daemons Balloons Not-Church Bears Craig's-Beard And Snug-Tweed-Pants Lyra Blimp Hot-Witch Flying Jaw Smackdown Hug The Monkey Happy-Ending?

(What? If they can boil the book down to less than two hours and make what made sense there semi-nonsensical, then I can boil my review down to 26 words. I am seeing it again this week and will properly write it up then.)
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What The Monkey?

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A pox on my own house for my forgetfulness in reveling post-wise in the fact that The Golden Compass arrived in theaters this weekend. So here's our chance! Have you seen it yet? What did you think? Tell me in the comments!
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I Am Link

I'm feeling a little under-the-weather this morning - sniffles! - so I might not have the blogging joie de vivre we've all come to love and admire from me today... but here's some links!

--- The Golden Compass is playing on 800 screens for a sneak preview tomorrow night at 7pm... you can see if it's near you at this link (found via Cinematical). I already had plans tomorrow night of the unbreakable sort, so I cannot attend... [insert cursing the gods here].

--- I keep hearing amazing things about this Spanish first-person zombie flick [REC] so I figure it's high time I pointed it out - I mean, it's already slated for an American remake. Twitch has got a couple of clips up. I imagine it might get some Stateside play in the new year... one hopes...

--- I don't have much, if any, enthusiasm brewing for this Justice League movie, but they've found their Wonder Woman, apparently. She's nobody anybody's ever heard of, but she's tall, chesty, and brunette, so she's anatomically correct. So to speak.

--- This love letter from Roger Ebert to Werner Herzog is Roger at his finest.
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