I am only half-way through reading the second book in Philip Pullman’s “His Dark Materials” trilogy (“The Subtle Knife”) and after reading the first book and comparing it to the film I don’t see how they could possibly make the sequels to The Golden Compass considering how much they watered down the film by removing the religious themes and completely turning it into a jumbled mess of jargon. However, now that the film is set to be the first film to gross $300 million at the foreign box-office while failing to reach $100 million in North America ($70 million) the sequel talk has begun.
Of course, the kicker here is that New Line isn’t really benefiting from this foreign box-office since, as most studios do, they sold off international rights. In this case the sale of the rights went to the $180+ million production budget. Therefore, this still makes the film a loss for New Line for now, who knows what it will do on DVD and Blu-ray.
So, when a film that was made for $180 million makes only $70 million and didn’t exactly impress the die-hard fans of the books and upset a whole bunch of closed-minded religious folks that judged it before they even saw it would you expect them to make two more films? I am assuming most of you are shaking your heads no, by it appears producer Deborah Forte isn’t all that convinced.
Forte is quoted in Variety saying, “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.”
Forte seems to believe the problem was in the marketing. She believes it wasn’t marketed as a family film, which meant families did not head out to the theaters. She says, “We’ve talked to New Line about it, and they have agreed it must be marketed as a family film for DVD.” I am not exactly convinced it is a family film. As a matter of fact I am not convinced it is much of a film at all considering the abrupt ending and the confusing way they prevent the story. The problem is that if you have read the book and know what it all is about then you know what Dust and so forth represents. However, if you have no idea what the books are about I have to assume the movie just appears to be a mess. Selling it as a family film is far from the problem.
On top of all of this, with Warner now bringing New Line in house you have to assume they will be more interested in focusing on the final two films in the “Harry Potter” series and then moving on to The Hobbit films. Also, considering the lead character in the Golden Compass series is played by 13-year-old Dakota Blue Richards they would need to get to work quickly on these sequels if they wanted to keep the growing child in the role and not lose continuity.
There is one more however to toss in here though. Hossein Amini (The Four Feathers) has already written a screenplay based on Pullman’s “Subtle Knife”. Whether it is usable or not is not known, but should Warner decide to move forward I guess the production is at least beyond a first script stage, that is unless a complete rewrite is commissioned.
Whether WB makes it or not, Forte is committed as she says, “I will make ‘The Subtle Knife’ and ‘The Amber Spyglass. I believe there are enough people who see what a viable and successful franchise we have.”
I know I would like to see them, but I would like to see them on a big budget stage, not as independent fluff features.
The Golden Compass hits DVD and Blu-ray on April 29, click here for more information on each release.
