The Official Illustrated Movie Companion (The Golden Compass) Hardcover – 5 November 2007

I love this book! It's a great companion to the film, particularly if, like me you don't have the Special Edition and would like to know how the film, "The Golden Compass" was made. There's a lovely introduction by Brian Sibley at the very beginning, and the entire book covers all of the usual special features that you'd see on a DVD in eleven chapters, from "Darkness Into Light" (which covers the origins of the book "Northern Lights" by Phillip Pullman), "Making It Happen" (which tells of the transition from the book to the big screen) and "Climbing The Mountain" (in which Dennis Gassner, the conceptual artist of the film is a key role) to "Looking For Lyra", "Bears, Witches, Heroes And Villains" and "Furs, Tweeds And A Touch Of Glamour" which all basically cover the casting choices of the characters and the outfits they wear, and it's actually really fascinating learning about how Ruth Myers, the costume designer made each outift to go with the personality of each character, such as Daniel Craig in a tweed suit for his role of Lord Asriel at the start of the film. It's all really interesting reading about what each of the main people who contributed to the film have to say; I've already mentioned Dennis Gassner who created the look of the film with the sky ferries and the carriages, the buildings, both on the outside and the inside and the port town of Trollesund. Among others are Deborah Forte, the producer and Chris Weitz, the director, who made it their mission to give Phillip Pullman's world a cinematic vision, and I've always loved the overall look of the film "The Golden Compass" and how well the story comes to life on screen, so it's great to read that they were very enthusiastic about making it. It's also equally fantastic that the author, Phillip Pullman liked how well they examined his story and how they made Britain look like Britain and also be magical, and especially with the casting choices for Lyra and Mrs Coulter and that he did not mind Mrs Coulter being made blonde at all. This last bit is covered in the chapter "Tartar Beards And Gyptian Tattoos", so the title is actually pretty misleading; it covers the hair and makeup designs for all of the characters, and is just brilliant to read. One of the hair designers from "The Lord Of The Rings" film trilogy, Peter King is mentioned, making more and more beards as if he hadn't been doing that previously! The "Guns, Spy Flies And Golden Compasses" chapter is excellent; it covers all of the weapons including Serafina Pekkala's cloud pine bow and arrows, which is one of my favourites! The descriptions for the invention of the Spy Flies and the titular Golden Compass are also great to read. In "Climbing The Mountain", there's an equally interesting description of the CGI animation which was used for the making of the majority of daemons, which were all based on the looks of live animals! The images of these creatures that embody the innermost self of each of the human characters in this book are beautiful, as are all of the photographs as well; there are photographs of the film makers I've mentioned, of the actors and actresses in various costumes, both directly from the film and on the set and also of all the various locations and film sets, props, the clay maquettes and blown up full scale figures for the Ice Bears and loads more! It is a totally engrossing read; I've read it once already and will definitely go back to it again and again! I recommend it to any fan of the film "The Golden Compass"; it is well worth buying!

excellent