The Golden Compass
Book to Film: The Golden Compass
The Golden Compass: The Story
The story revolves around Lyra, a 12-year-old girl who is raised at a Univesity unknowing of her own desting. For all she knows, Lyra is an orphan taken under the care of professors at Jordan College, Oxford. Her adventure kicks off when she witnesses an attempted assasination (through poison) of her uncle, Lord Asriel. Though her daemon tried to dissuade her from getting involved, Lyra follows her rebellious conscience and rescues her uncle from certain doom. In response to her action, Lord Asriel requests that Lyra become his own spy at the University and allows her to secretly watch a presentation on his findings from the north. What did he find? Dust. Though we don't know what it is, we slowly learn that it has something to do with children and their daemons.
Lyra tries to return to 'normal life' around the University but news begins to stur of missing children and the organization, "the Gobblers", responsible. Lyra's best friend, Roger, becomes one of the Gobblers victims. Alone, Lyra receives a visitor named Mrs. Coulter. Coulter and her golden monkey daemon made a deal with the University to adopt Lyra and help her learn the ways of the world outside of Jordan College grounds. Enchanted with Mrs. Coulter and her daemon, Lyra agrees. Before leaving, however, she receives a golden compass known as an "Alethiometer." She is instructed to keep it hidden.
Lyra goes on adventures both with Mrs. Coulter and with others to figure out what "dust" is and how it has anything to do with the Gobblers and their practice of abducting children.
The story closes with a wonderful twist that describes what exactly "dust" is. If New Line pulls off the ending's twist to the same stature as the book, the film should turn out to be pretty amazing.
The Golden Compass: The Market
Kids. This is the first element that could push away some of the young-adult market hoping for something like Lord of the Rings. As I mentioned before, The Golden Compass could turn out to be another Narnia, which, for adults, is nothing worth getting too excited over.
Expect New Line to play it safe and deliver a film that is rated PG; to our disappointment of course. If they wanted to remain faithful to the book, I can't fathom a way for them to avoid PG-13. Besides witnessing the deaths of young children, we are also given a couple scenes of exaggerated violence and gore. All with little Lyra somewhere in the middle. Will New Line risk placing a 12-year-old girl in danger? If they stick to the book they will.
The Golden Compass: The Budget
The film's budget is predicted near $150-$160 million. Expect the CG work and the vast sets to use up a good chunk of this money. Lyra travels across the globe in her hunt for the Gobblers and encounters many different environments and cities along the way. Another sizeable chunk of the budget will go to creating the daemons. Bu what is a daemon?
A daemon is something that every human has. We don't, but humans in the world of "Dark Materials" do. A daemon is basically your conscience in animal form. Each character's daemon is with them at all times and neither human nor daemon will travel that far from one another; basically, you'll never see a human without their daemon present. If a daemon dies, a human dies. If a human's daemon wanders too far off, both could die. In the world of The Golden Compass, having a daemon is what makes you human.
Before adolescence, each child's daemon has the ability to transform into any animal of its choosing. Once mature, the daemon is stuck in a single, finalized form. Human's can only touch their own daemons; it is considered 'perverted' to touch another. Daemons can touch one another.
Imagine this: twenty separate human characters on screen each with their own animal daemon either next to them or on their shoulders. Most of these daemons will have to be inserted digitally, which could get pricey. So far New Line has yet to show us a daemon, but expect them to appear with upcoming movie stills.
The Golden Compass to Film
Risky! The fact that it is impossible to remove the daemons from the story (they are very important) makes The Golden Compass a financial risk. Making daemons believable could cost New Line an arm and a leg. Especially since these creatures will exist in almost every single scene.
The biggest risk for the film, however, is its combination of gore and violence with a young protagonist. Lyra is only twelve, yet she is forced to face challenges that could get her killed. How New Line plans to successfully mix in the detailed violence featured in the book is still a mystery. If the studio was to do it correctly, we could have another Harry Potter franchise on our hands. No, it's still not Lord of the Rings, but who out there can deny Potter?
The Golden Compass comes to theatres on December 7th.
For movie stills, a full synopsis and addition info, go to The Golden Compass
Movie Page.
Stay tuned for updates.
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