HBO and BBC Take Another Crack at The Golden Compass with ‘His Dark Materials’ Trailer

If there was one thing to admire about 2007's The Golden Compass, it's that it was an unapologetically dark fantasy film. Sure its narrative was compressed to the point where many characters were reduced to glorified cameos, but at least it was a film with the courage of its convictions.

The book that film was based on is the first in a trilogy of stories by British author Philip Pullman titled His Dark Materials, which is the name adopted by HBO and BBC for their new adaptation of the saga. Based on Pullman's books "Northern Lights" (aka The Golden Compass"), "The Subtle Knife," and "The Amber Spyglass," the stories are widely recognized as the first fantasy series firmly rooted in atheism: The bad guys in these stories are analogous to the Catholic Church.

They've gathered up some good talent here from the little girl who played Laura in Logan, to James McAvoy, Ruth Wilson, and Lin-Manuel Miranda. While I love LMM, he's playing the same role Sam Elliott played in The Golden Compass, which makes me wonder which actor is more accurate to the book's description of the character, because those are two wildly different actors.

His Dark Materials is set to debut on both HBO and BBC sometime in the latter half of 2019.