"The Golden Compass" novel inspires entertainment world, creates controversy

ELIZABETH HOLTAN
Special to The Leader

SOURCE: news.bbc.co.uk

More than 10 years after its conception, the extraordinary world where talking armored bears, witches, Gyptians and the child-snatching "Gobblers" dwell, has seen recent public and media attention.

On Dec. 7, New Line Cinema will release a $150 million film based on Phillip Pullman's award-winning fantasy tale The Golden Compass. The book is the first of three in the His Dark Materials series, which also includes The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass.

According to a Nov. 29 BBC article, the movie follows the adventures of 12-year-old Lyra Belaqua, a free-spirited orphan raised by scholars at Jordan College in a parallel-universe in Oxford, England. In Lyra's world, each person's soul takes the form of a companion animal, called a daemon.

When children begin to vanish from Oxford, including her best friend Roger, Lyra takes off on an epic journey to the far north with her alethiometer, the truth-telling instrument of the film's title. She fiercely vows to find the lost children and seeks answers about Dust, the mysterious particles feared by the Magisterium, a powerful church establishment.

Science, mysticism and theology combine to form the perilous world that embroils Lyra in a compelling struggle for her own survival. On her quest, Lyra and her daemon Pantalaimon are aided by witch queen Serafina Pekkala (Eva Green), a bear named Iorek Byrnison (voiced by Ian McKellan), Texan aeronaut Lee Scoresby (Sam Elliott) and the Gyptians, boat travelers who are roughly based on the Romani people, or Gypsies.

13-year-old London schoolgirl Dakota Blue Richards was chosen from over 10,000 girls to play Lyra, according to the BBC article. Richards, with no previous acting experience, joins a cast that includes Nicole Kidman as Mrs. Coulter, a seemingly charming lady with a particular interest in Lyra and Daniel Craig as Lord Asriel, Lyra's powerful uncle.

The book and movie are not without controversy. Some see them as an attack on faith due to plot elements that connect religion and cruel experiments on children.

A Nov. 27 ABC article reports that the film may be subject to boycotts; some conservative Christians have voiced their objections to Pullman's "unflattering portrayal of the church and specifically the Catholic faith."

In an Oct. 31 FOX news article, Bill Donohue, president and CEO of the Catholic League, said that Pullman's books "denigrate Christianity, thrash the Catholic Church and sell the virtues of atheism." The Catholic League's Web site describes the group as a "the nation's largest Catholic civil rights organization."

The controversy has extended into the popular social networking Web site Facebook; one group against the movie has reached over 86,000 members as of Nov. 30.

The film's director Chris Weitz said, "Yes, it deals with theology and it deals with religion, but I think it deals with it in a much more subtle way than the people who want to boycott the film are regarding it," according to the ABC article.

Nicole Kidman has said she would not be involved in a film seen as anti-Catholic or anti-religious, according to ABC. "I come from a Catholic family so that's not something that my grandmother would be very happy about and I really don't think that that's what I'm involved in."

Pullman, who also co-authored the screenplay, has come under fire from secularists as well. In another Nov. 29 BBC article, Terry Sanderson, president of the National Secular Society, stated, "We knew from the beginning that the producers of this film intended to leave out the anti-religious references. We think this is a great shame."

In response to critics, Pullman said, "If I wanted to send a message I would have written a sermon. I am a story teller."

Despite its controversy, The Golden Compass has sold over 3.5 million copies in the U.S. alone, and was named the best children's book of the past 70 years in 1995.

The story has also been made into a stage production and a video game. The National Theatre in London adapted the entire His Dark Materials series into a six-hour play in two parts, featuring puppets. The show opened in January 2004 and closed in April 2005.

The video game will be released Dec. 4 by Sega and is rated E10 for ages 10 and up. Games will be available for PlayStation2 and 3, Nintendo DS and Wii, Xbox 360, Sony PSP, and Windows 2000/XP.

According to Sega's Web site, players can switch between Lyra with her daemon Pantalaimon, and the armored polar bear Iorek on a journey to rescue Lord Asriel and Roger from a world that holds both danger and excitement.