James McAvoy, Ruth Wilson on TV’s His Dark Materials, and why producer Jane Tranter is a believer in timing
- X-Men’s McAvoy takes lead role in the BBC/HBO adaptation of the first book in Philip Pullman’s fantasy adventure book trilogy
- Wilson plays the ‘all-time great literary villain’ Mrs Coulter, while Dafne Keen plays Lyra, the 12-year-old around whom the entire plot pivots
The carpet at the recent world premiere of the BBC/HBO television series His Dark Materials in London isn’t red. It is black. The colour choice isn’t simply a visual pun on the title; it’s also a reference to the power of the Magisterium. As any reader of Philip Pullman’s extraordinary trilogy will know, in his alternate universe the church has absolute power and the Magisterium is its authority.
A set of volumes that tussle with spiritual issues and were inspired by the poet John Milton may not sound a recipe for modern-day success. But since Northern Lights, the first book in the series, appeared in 1995, there’s been a desire within our own time continuum to convey Pullman’s stupendous realms in different formats.
The most notable attempt, so far, has been the 2007 film The Golden Compass (as Northern Lights is known in the United States). It was produced by the American film company New Line and is generally viewed as an almighty failure: too child-centric, too glossy.
Jane Tranter, executive producer of His Dark Materials, is diplomatic about that previous version. Her Welsh company, Bad Wolf, is co-producing the series with New Line for whom this is a first venture into British television. HBO is the international distributor.
She has been a Pullman fan from the beginning when she longed to do a television adaptation of the books but the rights had already gone to New Line. “So I went into my shell,” she says at a London press conference. “Then I saw the film and … I came out of my shell. I’m a believer in timing. If I’d made it then, it would have been a teatime series. I had to wait for television to go epic.”