Author Bill Pullman gravely doubts that the remaining two books in his His Dark Materials trilogy will be made into films following the poor box office reception that The Golden Compass, an adaptation of the series’ initial volume, received this past winter.
Pullman told the British newspaper the Independent that if plans were in motion for a second and third film, he would have been notified by now.
I know everyone would like to see a sequel and I know I’d like to see it. When the first film was in production, I was talking to the studio and to [Golden Compass director] Chris Weitz and producers quite frequently. I’m sure I would be now if the sequel was in production.
The Independent‘s reportage seems to want to chalk up the film’s poor reception to protests from Christian religious groups who objected to elements of the books’ themes. And while there were a few of the usual media-hungry types who got their faces in the news to complain about the film, I would rather suspect that it was the marketing that made the film look like a rather generic family fantasy picture than kept people away from the box office more so than any concerns about perceived content. Though it should be noted that the film did ultimately pull in over $300 million at the box office world wide, so there is still a chance that they could proceed. They better hurry though, before young star Dakota Blue Richards ages out of the part.
