His Dark Materials To Brighten The BBC

Courtesy of New Line Entertainment

Since the success of Game of Thrones, every TV network with a couple of dollars to rub together has been looking for their own morally complex series to adapt. Starz is getting American Gods from Bryan Fuller, SyFy will shortly be entering The Expanse, and so on and so forth. The BBC has been resistant to this notion, in part because they don't need to, they are the BBC, and already have Doctor Who and Sherlock as well as a host of high quality original programming, though their adaptation of Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell did at times feel like they were trying to wade into the bog of modern adaptation frenzy. This news assuredly feels that way, to our boon.

The Beed have announced that, under the eyes of former Doctor Who producers Julie Gardner and Jane Tranter, they will adapt Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, better known as the Golden Compass series. The three books, Compass, the Subtle Knife and the Amber Spyglass, as well as the novellas Lyra's Oxford and Once Upon a Time in the North, will serve as the source material on this adaptation, and might serve as the push Pullman needs to get his addendum volume, The Book of Dust, out and to market. Said Pullman,

"In recent years we've seen how long stories on television, whether adaptations (Game of Thrones) or original (The Sopranos, The Wire), can 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 the sheer talent now working in the world of long-form television is formidable.

For all those reasons I’m delighted at the prospect of a television version of His Dark Materials. I'm especially pleased at the involvement of Jane Tranter, whose experience, imagination, and drive are second to none. As for the BBC, it has no stronger supporter than me. I couldn't be more pleased with this news." 

So, sounds like he's on board with the idea. So long as the BBC is willing to put the time and money that will be needed to appropriately create talking polar bears and flying cowboys with snarky rabbits, and all the other fancy magic that occurs in the books, then there won't be an issue. The film version, for all it's faults, did look amazing. One hopes that Gardner and Tranter have more faith in the source material than the producers of the film (made more as a reaction to the Narnia films than anything) every did.

Via Den of Geek.