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His Dark Materials

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His Dark Materials

I just heard today that New Line is going to be producing Phillip Pullman's trilogy "His Dark Materials"! It's supposed to be created along the same lines as The Lord of the Rings.

I "loved" these books. And just wanted to know what others thought - if anyone's read them, etc.

All these great new/classic stories coming to life through animation...it's exciting. I was just rewatching LOR3 last night and was thinking imagine what movies are going to look like 10 years from now (when you look back 10...)

I can hardly wait!

DreamFollower's picture
Erin ;) ------------------------ The only thing that is truly yours - that no one can take from you - is your attitude. So if you can take care of that, everything else in life becomes easier. ~unknown

Erin ;)
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The only thing that is truly yours - that no one can take from you - is your attitude. So if you can take care of that, everything else in life becomes easier. ~unknown

I haven't read that series (I'll have to look them up!) but I know of another that I'd love to see in film: The David Eddings series- ie The Belgariad etc.

I've read the entire series, and I thought that they were fantastic. I can't believe that the harry potter hating public hasn't caught up with it and burned the entire publishing for being thought provoking and entertaining. If you haven't read it you are missing out. Go buy the box set, it's cheaper than buying them all seperate, and its available in paperback.
I hope they can do it justice.

Don't do nothing because you can't do everything.

oh yeah!!!

KAM - I've only read 2 of the Eddings' books, "Belgarath and the Sorcerer" and another one, but can't remember the name of that one because it was quite a while back. But I agree, they would be pretty interesting to see. If you have the chance, read the Dark Materials series (The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass.) While they are geared more towards teenagers and younger adults, they are still excellently written and have an amazing storyline. I read them as they came out and couldn't wait for the next ones to be released each time I read the next.

MG - I think they'll do it justice. When you see the LOTR stuff, it's pretty amazing. While it's not necessarily all true to the story exactly, it was incredible. And with all the advances that are happening, by the first one comes out, it should just be wild.

I can't wait!

Erin ;)
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The only thing that is truly yours - that no one can take from you - is your attitude. So if you can take care of that, everything else in life becomes easier. ~unknown

Ah! I saw those books on the shelf and they looked really interesting. I'm definitely going to read those over the Summer now.

worth it

Ender, I think you'll really enjoy them. They're one of those "keeper" series.

Erin ;)
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The only thing that is truly yours - that no one can take from you - is your attitude. So if you can take care of that, everything else in life becomes easier. ~unknown

I haven't read the books but if they are anything like David Eddings books they will be great. Wish I could afford to follow the fantasy movement like I used to.

The Terry Brooks "Sword of Shannara" books would make great film also.

Pat Hacker, Visit Scooter's World.

I read all three books while touring between Hamburg and France last year. They're good, no doubt about it, and I'd be quite exited to see them turned into movies. Unfortunately, pre-production rumours have it that Pullman won't be very involved in the whole process of script-writing and filming so I'm not exactly sure what to expect in terms of faithfulness to the original.

About the books themselves: I simply loved the first one! It had a great heroine and a very intriguing plot full of myserties and secrets that kept me on the edge of my seat till the end. I have to admit, though, that I didn't enjoy the other two books as much. For one thing, I didn't like the fact that parts of the plot were taken into our reality; I know the story demanded other worlds and dimensions but I'd have preferred a novel set entirely in the steam-punky world of book one.
Then there's the male main role introduced in book two - he never really did it for me. I realise that his part was necessary for the overall plot, too, but angry, grim, manly heroes simply aren't the type of hero I like reading about. Especially not if they come in the form of teenage boys.
The last book brought the story to a satisfactorily epic conclusion but in terms of exciting mysteries, book one was juicier and also more subtle in my opinion; I never had to force myself to read on which happened once or twice in book three which got a bit boring every now and then. The 'Travelling Tolkien-style' effect but not as well written.

All in all, I think the series has all the potential to become a movie trilogy worth seeing if they do it right.

Dragon Lance

Another series that I loved and have read through twice, is the 'Dragon Lance' series, Margaret Weiss & Tracey Hickman. Has anyone else read them? I must admit, I read them when I was a teenager, and before I read Tolkien and Eddings, so it would be interesting to see if I would enjoy them as much now. I remember the thing I liked so much about them though, was that they started off so simple and you got to really fall in love with the characters- very similar to Eddings' style of writing. (again the Travelling Tolkien Style) By the end of the series, they are very indepth, but you don't notice it so much, because it builds up so gradually as you go along. Some fantasy books I've tried to read, sort of leapt in too quick and expect you to take on board too many races, lingos, places etc etc etc, and become almost a chore to read rather than an enjoyable exercise.

By the way, if you do end up looking these ones up, make sure you get the "true series". I think the first one's called Dragon's of Autumn Twilight. I'm pretty sure the books had a connection with the Dungeons & Dragons people, and they brought out a whole lot of spin offs by other authors later on, that were very ordinary in my opinion. In the original series, there are 9 books.

if you like the character development in eddings books you should take a look at terry goodkinds novels as well.
I don't like the dragon lance books by margret weis and hickman as much as the salvatore books. I think that he is a crazy writer, but thats just personal opinion i suppose.
I'm still hoping that that someone will make a movie of the bunnicula series. I believe I've mentioned this before...
I must be getting repedative in my dotage.
repedative in my dotage.

Don't do nothing because you can't do everything.

For more information on the Movies and His Dark Materials in general visit http://hisdarkmaterials.org :)

I enjoyed the books, and felt, like someone else had mentioned, Book 1 was more enjoyable than the other two. I think the animation would be amazing - other worlds, creatures, the death sequence - wonderful, creative opportunities. I only hope they do each book would have it's own movie.

I think finding the right audience will be tough. Where Harry Potter appeals to all ages, I think these books are a little too deep for that.