His Dark Materials TV show wraps filming, gets tentative release date
“So Lyra and her daemon turned away from the world they were born in, and looked towards the sun, and walked into the sky.” So reads the final line of Northern Lights, perhaps better known to American audiences as The Golden Compass, the first novel in author Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy. HBO and the BBC are producing an extremely ambitious and expensive adaptation of Pullman’s story, and according to the show’s official Twitter account, filming for the first season has finished.
“So Lyra and her daemon turned away from the world they were born in, and looked towards the sun, and walked into the sky.” @BBCOne @HBO @DafneKeen pic.twitter.com/TRdzrUNdhn
— His Dark Materials (@darkmaterials) December 14, 2018
That’s Logan star Dafne Keen, who plays lead character Lyra, making the announcement. Ruth Wilson (The Affair) will play the conniving Mrs. Coulter, Lin-Manuel Miranda (Hamilton) the grizzled Lee Scoresby, and James McAvoy (X-Men franchise) the aristocratic Lord Asriel. Like we said, they’re going all out with this. Other cast members include Game of Thrones stars Ian Gelder (Kevan Lannister) as Librarian Scholar Charles, James Cosmo (Lord Commander Jeor Mormont) as Farder Coram, and Lucian Msamati (Salladhor Saan) as John Faa.
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The BBC has released a detailed synopsis of the eight-episode first season, which will be based on the first book in Pullman’s series, Northern Lights:
"Dafne Keen takes on the lead role of Lyra, the young protagonist of the story who lives in Jordan College, Oxford. Placed there at the request of her Uncle, Lord Asriel (James McAvoy) she lives a sheltered life amongst the scholars and college staff while under the watchful protection of The Master (Clarke Peters) and Librarian Scholar Charles (Ian Gelder).When the glamorous and mesmeric Mrs. Coulter (Ruth Wilson) enters Lyra’s life she embarks upon a dangerous journey of discovery from Oxford to London. Here she meets Father MacPhail (Will Keen), Lord Boreal (Ariyon Bakare) and journalist Adele Starminster (Georgina Campbell) at a glittering society party where she first hears about the sinister General Oblation Board.Lyra is subsequently thrown into the nomadic world of the boat-dwelling Gyptians – Ma Costa (Anne-Marie Duff), Farder Coram (James Cosmo), John Faa (Lucian Msamati), Raymond Van Geritt (Mat Fraser), Jack Verhoeven (Geoff Bell) and Benjamin de Ruyter (Simon Manyonda) who take her North in her quest.Once in the North, she meets charismatic aeronaut and adventurer Lee Scoresby (Lin-Manuel Miranda) who joins them on their epic journey and who becomes one of Lyra’s closest allies."
In September, it was announced that the BBC was partnering with HBO to bring the show to the U.S., and that it had already been picked up for another season. The second season will presumably cover the second book, The Subtle Knife, with a third adapting the final book, The Amber Spyglass.
As far as when the first season will debut, Miranda told Variety it should appear on HBO at “the end of next year.”
🏴 day 3
— Lin-Manuel Miranda (@Lin_Manuel) August 10, 2018
When you’re in 🏴 to film His Dark Materials and even the statues have rabbit daemons pic.twitter.com/8ElXcOaIwp
His Dark Materials is a beloved series, and it’s a shame that most people probably know it through New Line’s shoddy 2007 movie adaptation, which cut out all the interesting parts and didn’t have the soul of the books. Although it did have Sir Ian McKellen voicing armored bear Iorek Byrnison, so it’s not all bad.
Still, we’re looking forward to seeing what HBO and the BBC do with this material, hopefully sooner rather than later.
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h/t Deadline, Digital Spy