The Golden Compass

His Dark Materials is a proposed movie based on the His Dark Materials trilogy of books by Philip Pullman. It has been announced by producer Sheila Hanahan that The Golden Compass is scheduled for release in December 2007 by New Line. In early 2002, fresh off its phenomenal success with The Fellowship of the Ring, New Line Cinema purchased the film rights to the His Dark Materials trilogy. The period of time following the success of Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter saw relentless acquisitions of fantasy titles by film studios. Tom Stoppard wrote a draft for the first entry in the planned film trilogy, Northern Lights (or The Golden Compass, as it is known in North America), and Sam Mendes was rumoured as a possible director. Chris Weitz was hired as a controversial choice to direct. His previous credits, punctuated by the teen sex comedy American Pie, seemed deficient to many fans of the series. In an even more controversial manoeuvre, Weitz (and New Line) chose to drop Sir...