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Consult ‘The Golden Compass’
Savvy movie companies know how to use the Cannes Film Festival to promote films that aren’t quite finished but have lots of promise.
Last year, Jeffrey Katzenberg of DreamWorks screened about 20 minutes of “Dreamgirls” and generated big buzz. This year, New Line Cinema has done the same with “The Golden Compass.” Like “The Lord of the Rings,” it’s planned as an epic trilogy, set for release over the holidays.
The segments shown in Cannes looked great. The cast alone is worth giving it a shot. But fans of the books by Philip Pullman will want to attend regardless of star power.
Precocious newcomer Dakota Blue Richards, 12, plays the young girl Lyra, who voyages to the edge of her world with her uncle Lord Asriel (Daniel Craig). Asriel is obsessed with a mysterious phenomenon called the Dust, which he believes can be found at the site of the Northern Lights over the Arctic Circle.
Nicole Kidman plays Mrs. Coulter, who takes Lyra to London, where she gets a chance to join her uncle in the journey.
As with the “Rings” movies, the fate of the world rests with the ability of a single person, Lyra, to navigate the various challenges ahead. (But in contrast to the “Rings” movies, Lyra is not fully aware of the importance of her role.)
The rest of the cast includes the great Derek Jacobi, Oscar nominee Tom Courtenay and Ian McShane, the star of HBO’s “Deadwood.”
It’s clear that New Line hopes to duplicate the success of “The Lord of the Rings,” the biggest grosser ever for the movie company.
But even though the Pullman books have sold more than 15 million worldwide, that’s far smaller than the multigenerational built-in audience for “The Lord of the Rings.”
Complicating matters is the need for elaborate special effects. Those include armored polar bears, stark icy scenes and, most importantly, the pairing of daemons with each character. (In the books, the spirit of each person is externalized and represented by an animal or reptile. And these daemons — pronounced “demons” — interact with the characters.)
Director Chris Weitz, who most notably directed “About a Boy,” said Monday that he realized he faced a huge challenge in making the movie.
“I knew that I had to imbue humanity and spirit with the special effects,” he said. “Otherwise it wouldn’t work. I wanted to make those effects as seamless as possible and to make the movie matter.”
On a side note, Sam Elliott, the ever-present movie character who has repeatedly been seen as the personification of Wild West Texas, showed up Monday to help promote the flick.
Sporting long gray hair and an equally long gray moustache, he plays a Texas astronaut who lends the heroic Lyra a helping hand. He sat stoically Monday during the goings-on and said nary a word. Just what you’d expect.
Daniel Craig also sported a different look. His role calls for a heavily bearded character, and he kept scratching at his newfound facial hair.
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