. . . when you can wait to trash the movie? This is the film that some Catholic organizations don’t want you to see. Interesting that the book has been on the shelves since 1995, but only now are the soi disant moral guardians waking up to its perfidy. Maybe they are riled by the fact that the villainess ~ played by that other well-known skinny blonde, Nicole Kidman ~ is named Coulter?
Rumour hath it that the movie has been bowdlerized by the producers, who removed much of author Philip Pullman’s anti-clerical sentiment. Even so, I can hardly wait to see the film, which looks amazing, but I know that it will be no match for the book, which is the first in the “His Dark Materials” trilogy. While any books that get Bill Donohue’s panties in a bunch have got to be worth reading, these books are among the best I have ever read. And my son and step-daughters loved them too, which probably means they are damned to eternal flames! Comparisons to the Harry Potter series abound, but they can seriously only be made by those who have not read any of the Pullman books.
Philip Pullman has also written a series of books set in Victorian times, about the adventures of Sally Lockhart, who sets out to find the truth behind her father’s death. Nothing at all like HDM, but still beautifully written yarns that any adolescent will love. They are being adapted by the Beeb, with Billie Piper (hated her in Dr Who!) playing Sally.