h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

yeah, they've changed the Magisterium from being catholic church to being a sort of generic dogmatic authority, so that's gone.
Also, they have apparently ended the film before the last 3 chapters which are to be moved to the next one.

well, to be frank, I'll sit through it anyway for the rather fantastic casting of Lee Scoresby and Daniel Craig

Yep. Shallow. It's my middle name.

There's an extended trailer here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oj61Q5KPues

After watching this twice I've noticed that you never see any of the characters speak the words "golden compass". I'm hopeful that this means they've recorded a different version of the soundtrack just for some of the trailers.

Is the alethiometer referred to as the golden compass throughout the US version of the book, or is it just the title?

*feels undereducated, never having heard of a Golden Compass or alexisccarringtonometer*

*chucks a spare copy of Northern Lights at Roymondo*

read it
it's wonderful
and then you can come and watch the film with me and help me

*glooges 'Northern Lights'

Ah, it's Philip Pullman! I saw some TV coverage of the 'Dark Materials' stage play but it doesn't really appeal much.

The film's got quite a stonking cast though!

I've only just recently read the book. I do hope the movie isn't too badly "butchered". I may re-read this month before the film release.

Throughout my copy (I bought an omnibus edition containing all three novels) the alethiometer was referred to as such.

blimey, that must have been a huge book!

I see that the film makers have done a Narnia on me - in the Narnia film the witch had the wrong coloured hair (after the author mentioned several times how black it was they couldn't have put her in a wig??) and now they have done the same with Mrs Coulter.

Still, so far the rest of it looks fine. And as long as it remains an Alethiometer i'll be fine.

As a matter of interest - in the USA prints of the novels (so, The Golden Compass instead of Northern Lights) is it an aletheomiter?

(sorry, psychocandy, I'm not sure where you are)

ah, now I've checked. I guess that answers my question then

Well, I could've mentioned instead of making people check!

I'm in Chicago, so I read a US version. And yeah, the omnibus volume's a couple inches thick or so. It was a very engaging read, though- no idea why it took me so long to get around to it!

I too came to the books late... In fact I read them while staying in my friend's house while she was on honeymoon... I enjoyed them plenty. Luckily mum likes them too.. We'll be seeing the film for solstice.

I saw the trailer in a swedish cinema, and they used the word alethiometer.

As for Narnia, I thought they managed to make the white witch look rather inhuman which wouldn´t have worked as well with black hair.

It is indeed referred to as an aletheiometer in the US versions of the novels.

Just to buck the trend, I've always preferred The Golden Compass as a title to Northern Lights - fits with the other two, in that the title is the name of the instrument which is bestowed upon the children in the book that bears its name. Nothern Lights is therefore a curious abberration.

I can't remember precisely why HP and the Philosopher's Stone was changed to Sorcerer's Stone - it may well be simply because having the world philosophy in the title would be daunting and perhaps misleading to readers (not that we're all idiots or anything, but the general populus thinks that if they're getting a book about magic, magic oughta be explicit in the title somehow). Why only the American titles were changed, I don't know.

Ironically, if you know anything about the Cabala, alchemy, and Giodurno Bruno and all of that (when the Philosopher's stone myth came into popular parlence), the title Sorcerer's Stone is actually more correct in a modern sense. Philosopher now means something completely different from what it meant in alchemy, and regardless of what the actual name of the myth is, the Sorcerer's Stone is actually less ambiguous to a modern reader, regardless of nationality or education (as it is, few people know about alchemy and its mythological and religious roots anyway). I actually prefer Philosopher's Stone as a title as I'm a bit of a purist, but can understand why they might have changed it (and perhaps even considered changing all versions of the book to line up with it, not just a few).

but the Alethiometer isn't the compass from the title. That's what's so annoying.

>Didn't I read somewhere that some of the more atheistic concepts had been removed from the film[s], Due to studio pressure ? Pretty sad if true . The American religious right pack a big punch and they are not reticent in swinging it around wildly .

A waste of time since I think they've already started campaigning against the film.

Not that it'll make much difference. Pullman's lack of faith is common knowledge and I can't imagine many religious people read his books and are any sort of natural audience for the films anyway.

Just on the "Philosopher's Stone" thing - did Van the man's album have poor sales in the USA?

Or is it a case of "Shhh!!! Shhh!! We're trying to get them to buy a BOOK! Don't put them off. Maybe they'll buy it without realising if we keep the fancy words off the front cover!"

Interview with the film's director: http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2007/11/21/golden-compass-director-chris-weitz-answers-your-questions-part-ii/

"The change was made only in the trailers, to make the storyline of the trailers more understandable. In the film it’s called both an “alethiometer” and a “golden compass.”"

SPOILER ALERT in post below.


I personally wasn't all that grabbed by these books although I did read them from cover to cover. They certainly weren't bad books, that's for sure.

I've seen the trailers though and the film looks awesome.

When I first heard they were making it I knew from moment 1 that the catholic church would no longer be that in the film. It's not just the american right you would offend it's the entire population of quite a few countries if not one entire continent. So that's hardly a surprise.

I do wonder what they're going to do with the fact that the Archangel Gabriel and...well... God are the biggest representations of evil in there though...

It'll certainly be interesting to see what they do with that. I would suggest also wholesale changes to the third book will be seen on film. I would have thought the whole section on the creatures that gad about on wheels would be rather dull and boring on film... we'll see.

Here in Ontario, the Catholic School boards have pulled the books from the school libraries. Brilliant marketing move. Most kids probably weren't aware that the books were there. Now, with the censorship story on all the news channels, every kid will want to read them.

I was surprised there wasn't more of a fuss before. It is a best selling book and really famous book and whatever the author might say, I certainly was quite taken aback by it's thinly veiled vitriol against the church when I read it. It was the most interesting thing about it for me.

But it seems to have taken a film being made, where they've toned it all down it seems to enrage the religious types.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7115300.stm

Or was there a fuss before which I just missed?