Indie Wire- New Line Launches “Compass” At Cannes

New Line treated journalists and industry folk to ten minutes of promotional footage from Chris Weitz’s “The Golden Compass,” the $150 million adaptation of Phillip Pullman’s first part of the “His Dark Materials” trilogy. Weitz (who previously helmed “American Pie” and “About a Boy” with brother Paul) nervously introduced the clips. Though its difficult to draw any conclusions from what is essentially an extended trailer, the footage looked very promising: Gorgeous sets and eye-popping CGI, as well as an icy Nicole Kidman stealing frames as the film’s villain.

The screening was followed by a press conference. Attendees included Weitz and actors Daniel Craig, Eva Green, Sam Elliot and Dakota Blue Richards (Kidman expressed apologies but was off shooting “Australia”). Richards, who plays the film’s protagonist Lyra, answered questions under the seemingly paternal gazes of Craig and Weitz. On her post-”Compass” life, she suggested: “There are now two different worlds. I just focus on going to school and being me.”

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Rotten Tomatoes- Cannes: Sneak Peek at Footage From “The Golden Compass”

But “Compass” already looks to be more than your average “Narnia”-like kids adventure, thanks seemingly to the adult appeal of its source material. Pullman took his title from John Milton’s “Paradise Lost,” for goodness sake, if that gives any indication of the literary and philosophical ideas at the story’s root.

Somehow, the literary heritage lends itself very much to the film’s British sensibility; one gets the inkling that this could be a way to get the young kids reading classics (or even some grown-ups). Weitz even deliberately kept the bulk of his cast British, and studied literature at Cambridge.

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