Sequels to The Golden Compass? It's not looking good.

[GreenScar]

Source and Source.

At least not any time soon. That's from this article in The Independent, which quotes author Phillip Pullman as saying that following the disappointing box office returns for The Golden Compass, no one has talked to him about adapting The Amber Spyglass (or, obviously, The Subtle Knife). Director Chris Weitz, who had been determined to make a sequel happen, is staying mum, as is New Line, now part of Warner Bros. At this point, the age of star Dakota Blue Richards -- already 14 -- is going to be a problem for any big plans to continue the franchise.

The Independent article is a little annoying, since it insists on blaming (crediting?) the Christian protests against The Golden Compass for the film's commercial failure in the US. That seems a little facile, though even Pullman seems to believe it. The source material didn't turn out to be much of a brand name, the marketing was a bit generic, and I think the movie just never caught on as a must-see holiday blockbuster. I'm not sure the protests had that much pull.

[thelaserdisc2000]

Bah, the Christians protested "Dogma" and that movie did well. It was all advertising. From what I hear many TV stations refused to air the trailer for the movie on their channel.

[Agent Cooper]

The Golden Compass was a dissappoinment imo. I think the acting was dull and uninspired and the lead character was somewhat passive during most of the film while the plot unfolded around her.

Blame the director and writers before anyone else.

[Giyomu]

they should make the sequel!!
end of gold compass shows clearly that the story only begun, they just can t let it end like this
compass is not THAT bad, no good neither but it can be better if completed by its sequels

plus the fact that I am also too lazy to read the books

[Neil_Luv's_BLU]

It's a shame, even though TGC wasn't a great movie it was watchable. I would have liked to have seen the sequels make it to the big screen.

I'd have thought the international B.O. would have been enough of a carrot to convince the studio to do another one.

[Marquoz]

The problem was the book wasn't that good to begin with, and then it was hacked to incomprehensible pieces for the movie. It was next to impossible to recommend it to somebody to watch.

[atomik kinder]

I think one of the main problems with this being adapted is that the source books are reletively unknown in the US. Everybody knows Harry Potter. Everybody knows The Lord of the Rings. Ask anybody about His Dark Materials or the Golden Compass and they just have never heard about it. I hadn't even heard about the series until about a year before the movie came out.

As for the protesting, I think it may have had something to do with it too. While as one person mentioned people protested Dogma, there was also great protest over The Last Temptation of Christ and they still did fairly well, but, I think the protesting went to new heights with this movie. Last year I had gotten several e-mails that had been forwarded to me "Warning" me not to see the movie because it is anti-christian.

[PS3-Playb3yond]

I was kind of dissapointed with The Golden Compass ending because I didn't know there were supposed to be sequals lol. There are 2 more movies, right?

[Krudy]

It was a lousy movie.

Generic and broken, that movie wasn't clear enough to be a success. Dialogue was bland and character bonds were loose. The action was boring and lacking.

What did this movie really have going for it? I would watch the sequels if they came out, but they wouldn't be anything of a success in the box office and a losing business venture the whole way through. I don't expect to ever see those sequels.

[GreenScar]

Originally Posted by Krudy

What did this movie really have going for it?

Sam Elliot. Love that guy.

[RUR]

It's not clear that it was a losing business venture. Although US sales were a lackluster $70M, Foreign were excellent @ $302M for a total of.....um, carry the two....$372M. This, vs. production budget of $180M (+advertising etc, I expect). Enough to justify two sequels? I dunno, but I hope so.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/...dencompass.htm

[ScarredLungs]

Originally Posted by Agent Cooper

The Golden Compass was a dissappoinment imo. I think the acting was dull and uninspired and the lead character was somewhat passive during most of the film while the plot unfolded around her.

Blame the director and writers before anyone else.

I never saw it, but everything i heard about it was not good. (see above) So i never saw it. If it was that bad, i hope they do not make a second one.

[danjross]

The movied ended about 75 pages short of the 1st book ending. I would hope that when or if a sequal was made, it would include the last section of the 1st book. The end of the movie was kind of disappointing if you had read the book.

On another note, I keep waiting for a studio to make Book 2 of the Eragon series into a movie.

[WickyWoo]

The GOlden COmpass made money, thanks to the overseas take

In my opinion, the general unfamiliarity with the franchise among most americans, coupled with the repeated declarations by powerful religious leaders that the books were the work of Satan (Most people ignore the Catholic League who protested Dogma), with the third factor of "family fantasy film franchise fatigue" all contributed to the less than stellar domestic take.

Hope is certainly not lost, but I doubt that Dakota (now too old) or Weiz (bombed the first one) would have anything to do with the sequels. The foreign distributors want this to happen, I think it's more a question of how much WB is willing to invest for the domestic end. I don't think they'd move forward with it until they have a formula to make that money back here, but there is an active group trying ot make that happen, and some of their ideas are supposedly promising

[RUR]

Originally Posted by WickyWoo

.....coupled with the repeated declarations by powerful religious leaders that the books were the work of Satan...

Life follows art........

[fighthefutureofhd]

the movie did worse than cutthroat island. there's less than 1% chance this movie will get sequels. it's not going to happen i don't think. can't rely on international sales alone and or dvd/blu-ray sales.

[aramis109]

I don't usually like to come and say, "old news!" to a thread, but truly, this is old news. www.aintitcoolnews.com had reported that the chances of this getting a sequel were slim and none months ago. Seemingly, that's not changed at all.

It's too bad. The movie wasn't bad. I didn't pick it up on Blu when it came out specifically because I had already heard that it wouldn't be followed up.

[gem_n_webz]

my wife and i watched it last night and really enjoyed it. yeah it wasn't great but it is a fun movie.

and for the record, i loved cutthroat island!

[SpikesBluBlooded]

The "Christian protests hurt the movie's chances" mantra can be dropped. It didn't hurt the Lord of the Rings, it didn't hurt the Harry Potter franchise, and it didn't hurt this movie. I have not seen it, so I will not speculate what caused the dismal US performance, but I will say that the protests didn't hurt the film. Historically, negative press like that only helps it, as it's free advertising, and typically the public tends to be more curious to see or experience the forbidden than they are to stay away from it...

[kpkelley]

Originally Posted by danjross

On another note, I keep waiting for a studio to make Book 2 of the Eragon series into a movie.

Why, so they can butcher the second book too?

Both The Inheritance series and the His Dark Materials Trilogy will require reboots before any sequels b/c the original films did not do the books justice.