Posted on 07/18/2008 1:50:59 PM PDT by yankeedame
By Stephen Adams
Last Updated: 1:01pm BST 18/07/2008
The future of the film trilogy based on Phillip Pullman's books His Dark Materials is in doubt after the controversial author said he did not know if the sequel to The Golden Compass would be made.
The first in the trilogy, which starred Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig, was dogged by accusations from American religious groups that it was anti-Catholic and even sought to "destroy God".
British author Pullman admitted such objections may have hit US box office sales....
The Oxford-based author said he had received no confirmation that the second book, The Subtle Knife, would be made into a film.....
...Pullman claimed religious attacks on The Golden Compass were misdirected but...Denying His Dark Materials was anti-Catholic, he still argued: "When religion gets its hands on the levers of power - whether to go to war, hold people prisoner or decide what they can or can't do - that is when it is dangerous.
"I find it very hard to understand how anyone can disagree with that. "In the world we live in, both Catholics and Protestants have wielded that power to the detriment of very many people."
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
From my own researches, “The Golden Compass” would likely not have attracted nearly as much opprobrium had not the author spent years ranting and raving against christianity.
Furthermore, from a scan of the Amazon.com reviews, the quality of the writing drops off precipitously after the first installment. Far fewer people read “The Subtle Knife” and almost no-one reads “The Amber Spyglass.”
Was it really protests or was it that the movie blew chunks? Even people who liked the book didn’t like the movie, that’s usually not a situation that spawns sequels.
Antitheism is the intolerant ideology of atheist supremacists. It's not enough that they don't believe in God, they believe that religion itself should be outlawed (eventually).
read later
On the other hand, pretty much every good thing done in the past 2000 years has been done as the basis of Christian faith. Art, science, economics, exploration, individual rights, property rights -- all basically brought to you courtesy of Christianity.
Philip Pullman thinks thats a darn shame.
Or in other words, the movie did poorly. C’est la vie.
“The first in the trilogy, which starred Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig, was dogged by accusations from American religious groups that it was anti-Catholic and even sought to “destroy God”.
British author Pullman admitted such objections may have hit US box office sales....”
No what hit US boxoffice sales was that the movie was crap, and the reviews said so.
“Or in other words, the movie did poorly. C’est la vie”
The movie did well overseas, and was a blockbuster in Europe. But for these huge budgets, you need an American blockbuster to be profitable, and religious Americans, well aware of the intent of the author, stayed away from the film in droves. The studio execs knew after the first week’s take that it would do poorly in the US. They also know that the audience likely isn’t going to get better, only worse, because even the director (who soft-peddled the message in the first movie) admits that in the sequels, the anti-god message is front in center. Without it, you just don’t have a story. And that just won’t sell in America.
Yes, I read the first two books, but before the third came out, I read an interview with the author about his intentions for the series. I was disappointed to learn that he's such a bat, because I'd enjoyed his non-fantasy historical fiction.
Reviewers found the movie of the "The Golden Compass" poorly done, exaggerating the weaknesses of the book. It's too bad, in a way, because it had a good cast.
Even the atheists of my acquaintance thought the movie blew. I don’t think it was so much the theistic message of the movie as the fact that it sucked rocks.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/1923315/posts
[snip] Pullman left little doubt about his intentions when he said in a 2003 interview that “my books are about killing God.” He has even stated that he wants to “kill God in the minds of children”. [end]
Indian movies actually draw well in Europe ~ always something about some god or two in any of them, plus dancing, singing, scenes in New York City, etc.
Reading about the writer, his focus, his movie ~ is there some reason anyone would want to watch it? Did they perhaps come up with a new way of having sex ~ now that might be edgy enough to get me to pay $10.85 for afternoon matinee in an empty theatre.
BTW, any of you guys notice how all the micro movie houses are all being closed, as are the bigger units in malls? The theory is digital large screen TV is just wiping them out.
They weren't Christian.
Good.
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