UNITED KINGDOM: Nicole Kidman, Eva Green, Daniel Craig and Dakota Blue Richards attend world premiere of fantasy film 'The Golden Compass'

Record ID: 219983

  • Title: UNITED KINGDOM: Nicole Kidman, Eva Green, Daniel Craig and Dakota Blue Richards attend world premiere of fantasy film 'The Golden Compass'
  • Date: 29th November 2007
  • Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (NOVEMBER 27, 2007) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) CHRIS WEITZ, DIRECTOR, SAYING: "A premiere in London is like a premiere nowhere else. The amount of enthusiasm and this gigantic theatre is really deeply, deeply impressive, and so, yes, it feels like an amazing pay-off, it feels like too glamorous event for words."
  • Embargoed: 14th December 2007 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: United Kingdom
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Reuters ID: LVA8ZDTVDX9LKWVWZPYM9MHXG6GG
  • Story Text: No expense was spared as New Line Cinema pulled out all the stops at the world premiere of their latest film 'The Golden Compass', the $180 million US dollar-adaptation of Philip Pullman's novel "Northern Lights".
    Stars Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Eva Green delighted London fans as the world's media looked on in London's Leicester Square on Tuesday (November 27). Even Nicole Kidman's husband Keith Urban made it to the premiere to support his wife.
    Young newcomer Dakota Blue Richards who beat off 10,000 girls to play the film's central role of Lyra, said being a movie star was not just about acting in front of the camera:
    "It is the most amazing feeling I think I have ever experienced in my life. I don't think the feeling of getting the part could beat this,"
    she said. "I got out of the car and you hear this big wave of people screaming your name and you know it really is quite daunting, but it is so fun at the same time."
    With so much riding on the commercial success of the film, the director could have cast a known American child star to play the film's heroine, Lyra.
    But novelist Philip Pullman insisted that Lyra had to be played by an English actress for the film to work.
    "Lyra is an English girl. She is an English girl living in an English city, everything about her belongs to the world, country, that I live in and it would be wrong to have anyone other nationality playing her. Besides I don't think that anyone else in the world could play Lyra as well as Dakota is playing her, she has done an extraordinary performance," said Pullman.
    Daniel Craig is fast becoming one of the hottest leading men in Hollywood. As well as taking the lead as Britain's super spy, 007, Craig plays next to Nicole Kidman in The Invasion and the Golden Compass. Not one known to actively seek publicity, Craig plays down his recent meteoric rise.
    "I have never made plans like that I have always done the work that I am attracted to. I had no grand plan and the way things have worked out have surprised me but pleased me very much and I am very happy with the way it has turned out."
    Eva Green is more philosophical about her success saying, "Some good gods are with me tonight, but you can never plan anything. I am very lucky and very privileged to be part of this privileged cast and I am quite overwhelmed."
    Laden with computerized special effects including talking polar bears, warring witches and animal "daemons" that represent each human's soul, the film aims to go where the "Lord of the Rings", "Narnia" and "Harry Potter" series have gone before.
    Director and screenplay writer Chris Weitz said at a press conference before the premiere, the fate of films two and three in the Pullman series depends on how "The Golden Compass" performs, with more money riding on the movie for New Line than even on "Lord of the Rings".
    Industry estimates show that each "Rings" film cost around half the amount of money to make as "The Golden Compass".
    "It's bigger than 'Lord of the Rings' in terms of its outlay," Weitz said in an interview. "And so 'The Golden Compass' becomes central to the future of the company."
    Compared with "Lord of the Rings", "Harry Potter"
    and "Narnia", Pullman is relatively unknown, particularly in North America, making it a commercially more risky project.
    Even before the film's release on December 7, some conservative Christians in the United States have urged moviegoers not to see it, basing their objections on Pullman's unflattering portrayal of the church, and specifically the Catholic faith.
    In a storyline seen by many as an attack on religion, the church is linked with cruel experiments on children aimed at discovering the nature of sin and with attempts to suppress truths that would undermine its legitimacy and power.
    Reacting to a question on the recent bad press the film has received, Pullman said, "I am very grateful to them for bringing all this attention to the film. They never learn these people, they should realise that the more you talk about something the more people are interested in going to see it."
    Peter Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" film trilogy is a tough act for Weitz to follow, earning around $2.9 billion US dollars at the box office, according to movie tracking site www.boxofficemojo.com.
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