VER THE GOLDEN COMPASS 2 MOVIE
Mostly, though, the screenplay is an extensive cataloging of the book’s plot points, and in that respect would have made a better movie than the one that was eventually filmed.
He also throws in some half-baked illustrations of multiple worlds and a few choice moments of foreshadowing of the second book, The Subtle Knife - including an appearance from Will. It’s clear that Pullman’s explanation to Hanna Rosin at The Atlantic that he felt Stoppard was too interested in “the discussions between old men with beards” is accurate in addition to almost every major and minor plot point from the book, Stoppard has added a number of scenes of - yes - bearded men talking philosophy. It isn’t particularly Stoppardian it’s not that witty and feels very invested in replicating Pullman’s voice onscreen, not Stoppard’s. Stoppard’s script clocks in at a whopping 178 pages.
Weitz’s original script was actually great and makes us sad about the movie that could have been. Had Stoppard’s screenplay been filmed, the movie would have been ponderous, a bit dull, and far too long. Much to our surprise, upon reading the screenplays, we’re wrong. Like many fans, we’d always assumed that Stoppard’s draft must have been a work of genius, and that his replacement by Weitz surely doomed the project. So how do the three versions - Stoppard’s, Weitz’s first draft, and Weitz’s final product - differ? Was Stoppard’s a masterpiece? Was Weitz’s awful?
VER THE GOLDEN COMPASS 2 CRACK
So how did the movie go so wrong? How did a film with such smart people behind it end up looking spectacular but completely failing to capture the magic - or even to deliver effectively the plot - of the novel? We’ll never know who made the fateful decisions, but we at Vulture have gotten our hands on two previous drafts of the screenplay, both of which represent important moments in the life of the project at New Line: Tom Stoppard’s 2003 draft, and a 2004 Chris Weitz screenplay, an early crack at the material before he filmed his final version last year. Starting tomorrow, the theater lobbies, message boards, and high-school hallways of America will be filled with angry shouts from His Dark Materials fans pissed off about how incoherent and lame the film of The Golden Compass turned out. Photos: Getty Images (Stoppard, Weitz), New Line (Lyra)
Tom Stoppard, The Golden Compass, and Chris Weitz.
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