BBC One, BBC’s flagship channel has announced plans to make an initial eight-part series based on Philip Pullman’s epic fantasy novel in three parts, “His Dark Materials,” and will be produced in Wales.
“His Dark Materials has been the first commission from Bad Wolf, a UK/US production company founded by former BBC executives Jane Tranter and Julie Gardner, and co-sited in South Wales and Los Angeles. The show is New Line’s first move into British television. The series will be executive produced by Pullman, Tranter and Gardner for Bad Wolf, Toby Emmerich and Carolyn Blackwood for New Line Cinema, and Deborah Forte for Scholastic.
Pullman stated that it has been a constant source of pleasure for him to see this story adapted to different forms and presented in different media. As in recent years they have seen how long stories on television, whether adaptations (‘Game of Thrones’) or original (‘The Sopranos,’ ‘The Wire’), reach depths of characterization and heights of suspense by taking the time for events to make their proper impact and for consequences to unravel, And also that the sheer talent now working in the world of long-form television is formidable.
BBC executive, John Tranter also said that it was a sheer joy to be part of the team responsible for bringing Philip Pullman’s trilogy of novels ‘His Dark Materials’ to the BBC. He also considered the books to have highly influenced him ever since they were first published and it is enormously inspiring for him to be working on them for television adaptation.
Being first published in 1995 of “Northern Lights,” the three books have been acclaimed worldwide and has won many awards. In 2001 “The Amber Spyglass” was the first and only children’s book to win the Whitbread (now Costa) Book of the Year Award, in 2007 “Northern Lights” won the Carnegie of Carnegies, and in 2005 Pullman was awarded by the Swedish Arts Council, the children’s literature equivalent of the Nobel Prize, The Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award.
“His Dark Materials” has been published in more than 40 languages, and has sold worldwide close to 17.5 million copies.
Previous adaptations of the novels include Nicholas Hytner’s stage production of the trilogy, which was produced in two parts at the National Theatre in 2003-4. In 2007, New Line Cinema released the film “The Golden Compass,” which was based on “Northern Lights.” It starred Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig and Dakota Blue Richards as Lyra.
New line had made a film on the first part of the trilogy, “Northern Lights,” that introduced 0Lyra, an orphan, who lives in a parallel universe in which science, theology and magic are entwined. Lyra’s search for a kidnapped friend uncovers a sinister plot involving stolen children and turns into a quest to understand a mysterious phenomenon called Dust.
In “The Subtle Knife,” she is joined on her journey by Will, a boy who possesses a knife that can cut windows between worlds. As Lyra learns the truth about her parents and her prophesied destiny, the two young people are caught up in a war against celestial powers that ranges across many worlds, and leads to a thrilling conclusion in “The Amber Spyglass.”