When the movie adaptation of the first part of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials, The Golden Compass, was in the works, the one question that everyone was asking was whether or not the anti-organised religion overtones of the book would remain intact. What we finally got was something with the religious content, although still present, so watered down as to render the story somewhat toothless. The fact that it was there at all still annoyed fundamentalists across the pond, though, resulting in numerous protests and the film being a box office flop in the US, taking a mere $70 million (although it went on to take $300 million internationally).
Now it's being reported that the protests and the film's poor takings may mean that the trilogy-to-be may never get beyond that first movie. Citing "sources in the film industry", The Independent says that "plans for a sequel to The Golden Compass appeared to have been put on ice following the fervent Christian protests surrounding the first film, which led to boycotts and box office disappointment in the United States". The newspaper also adds that Philip Pullman, who was in regular contact with the film's writer and director Chris Weitz during the production of The Golden Compass, hasn't heard anything from Shepperton Studios about any work being done on The Subtle Knife, and Weitz himself has said that he doesn't want to talk about His Dark Materials while the future of the trilogy is uncertain.
Source: The Independent
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