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An awesome and ridiculous film that leaves you thrilled beyond the point of your natural endurance
Film gives Greenwich an added dimension
By Louise Jury, Evening Standard 30.11.07
Parallel worlds: Greenwich's Old Royal Naval College stars as the Magisterium
Stunning: The building, here minus its computer-generated imagery, is one of several London sites used in the film
Fame game: Nicole Kidman's character Marisa Coulter hatches her plots in the Greenwich building
Here's Greenwich - in a parallel world.
The splendour of Christopher Wren's Old Royal Naval College has impressed visitors for more than 200 years - and now it has a starring role in multi-million-dollar movie The Golden Compass.
To make the venue even more imposing, the film-makers have added stunning computer generated imagery.
The building is one of several London sites in the first film instalment of Philip Pullman's dimension-hopping fantasy epic His Dark Materials.
It acts as headquarters of the Magisterium, the religious organisation that seeks to control humanity and is designing cruel experiments on children. The interior of the listed building becomes Pullman's fictional Jordan College in Oxford, home of young heroine Lyra.
Turning the Painted Hall at Greenwich into the Jordan dining hall involved closing it to the public and blacking out 29 70ft-high windows to simulate night-time.
Ray Faithfull, director of facilities management at the college, said: "We're part of a World Heritage Site so the main thing is to protect the historic nature of the buildings.
"With such a large film as this, it's very difficult to try to allow the director to get the effects he wants while trying to protect everything. But there's always a willingness on our part."
The Golden Compass, out on Friday, is the adaptation of Northern Lights, the first book in Pullman's Dark Materials trilogy. It takes Lyra, played by 13-year-old Dakota Blue Richards, from Oxford to the Arctic as she flees from and then challenges the fiendish plots of the Magisterium's Marisa Coulter (Nicole Kidman), with the help of talking armoured bears and heroic gipsies.
Director Chris Weitz and the cast, which also includes Daniel Craig, who plays Lord Asriel, spent more than a fortnight filming in London in September last year. Other London locations that can be seen in the movie include the Sheraton Park Hotel in Piccadilly, Chiswick House, streets in central London and Crowley Wharf in Greenwich.
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Reader views (2)
With a heavy heart I agree with Sarah, I've barely been able to contain my anticipation of this film. Over the past 6 months I've watched every version of it's trailer with mounting excitement... it was if the film's imagineers had extracted every gorgeous detail from my own imagination. Books-to-film rarely live up to visual expectation, but this films' beauty and intricate detail is beyond spectacular, what a tragedy the story told is a skeleton of the original Northern Lights. That said, if those responsible for creating the amazing daemons/ice bears and the CGI scenery are not feted at the Oscars it will prove there really isn't any justice in our own dreary parallel universe!
- Cazzb, Brighton UK
Don't go and see the film, if you expect it to be a film of the book. My comment at the end of the film was "what a cop out". If you want a relatively child friendly adventure film it's fine but don't expect a lot. Though if you've read the book it means you actually know what's going on.
- Sarah Barker, Taunton, UK
