His Dark Materials is among the more exciting sci-fi/fantasy shows on the slate at HBO. Philip Pullman’s original novels are lyrical, richly imagined works that treat subjects like puberty and religious oppression with the grace and subtlety they require. And also there are talking warrior bears.
From the first, though, I’ve worried that HBO — which is working with the BBC on this project — would be tempted to extend it artificially, taking Pullman’s original three books and stretching out into a seven-season monster of a show that couldn’t bear the length. After all, if a show can’t last as long as Game of Thrones, why bother, right? Happily, speaking at the Television Critics Association press tour, executive producer and writer Jack Thorne assured reporters that the plan is to adapt one book per season, meaning we should end up with a total of three.
The first season, based on Northern Lights (or The Golden Compass, as it was renamed in the US), will feature the rambunctious Lyra Belacqua (Dafne Keen) as the main character, and take place in a fantasy world where human beings are accompanied by animal familiars called dæmons, representations of their souls. “I’ve stolen a few bits from other books for this season,” Thorne said. “It was looking at all three books figure out how we could celebrate them in the best way, and sometimes that was moving things forward.”
"We wrote many drafts to try to find a way to tell the story as elegantly as possible. Philip Pullman’s dense-ness is a blessing and a curse. It’s a very challenging, yet glorious show to write. … Philip shows you the top of the mountain of glorious-ness. It has a child lead, talking animals… he gives you an enormous level of fantasy and fun. There’s nothing more delicious than the villainy of Mrs. Coulter. It’s fantasy embedded in something. As adapters, we took the glorious notes and joined them together. We found the connective tissue."
Another hot button issue surrounding the books involves religion. Lyra’s world is run by a religious organization called the Magisterium, which aggressively polices thought and dissent. When (pretty crappy) The Golden Compass movie came out in 2007, some religious groups boycotted it. This time around, executive producer Jane Tranter isn’t worried. “We’re not concerned because we’re adapting across the board,” she said. “What happens with film, you have to cut down. We have eight episodes per book so we can sound every note that Philip sounded. We make clear the religious controversy was not relevant to the books. His Dark Materials talks about oppression, the falsification of information.”
"There is no organization today that is a direct correlation [to the Magisterium]. Looking back in time, you could look at the printing press or the Cold War as things he was digging at. He was getting to themes of truth coming out to the general population. It’s not an attack on religion.They are full of faith and belief…I think Philip Pullman is talking about oppression everywhere."
Tranter likens the Magisterium more to Big Brother from George Orwell’s 1984 than to any religious organization. Consider the disclaimers disclaimed.
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His Dark Materials will drop on HBO this fall. As Tranter said, they’ll eight episodes per book, which sounds about right. And we probably won’t have to wait too long to watch season 2 after season 1. As the team pointed out, they needed to turn the thing around pretty quickly to prevent the young leads from aging out of their roles. Readers will know that, in addition to Lyra, a young character named Will is also hugely important, although he isn’t introduced until the second book, The Subtle Knife. He’ll be played by Amir Wilson. Might he even make a cameo at the end of the first season?
I’m getting excited. Fall. We’ll check back in then.
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h/t Syfy Wire