The Golden Compass is a fantasy film based upon the Philip Pullman novel (known as Northern Lights in the United Kingdom but the Golden Compass elsewhere), the first novel in Pullman’s trilogy His Dark Materials, and was released on December 5, 2007 by New Line Cinema. The story concerns Lyra, an orphan living in a fantastical parallel universe in which a dogmatic dictatorship, the Magisterium, threatens to dominate. When Lyra’s friend is kidnapped, she travels to the far North in an attempt to rescue him.
The project was announced in February 2002, following the success of other recent adaptations of fantasy epics, and at $180 million is one of New Line’s biggest-budget projects ever after a series of box office disappointments preceding the release.
Before its release the film received criticism from secular organizations and fans of His Dark Materials for the dilution of the religious elements from the novels. It was also the subject of a boycott campaign by the U.S. Catholic League due to perceived anti-Catholic themes in the same.

The story begins when Lyra Belacqua—an orphaned, eleven-year-old girl residing at Jordan College, Oxford—secretly enters the Retiring Room, despite resistance from her dæmon, Pantalaimon; an animal-formed, shape-shifting manifestation of her soul. Inside the room, they see a member of the Magisterium attempt to poison Lord Asriel, Lyra’s uncle. Lord Asriel shows the resident scholars a picture of mysterious elementary particles called Dust. Shortly afterwards Lord Asriel goes north, and Lyra continues with her normal life.
However, before long her friends Roger, a kitchen servant, and Billy Costa, a Gyptian, are kidnapped by “the Gobblers”, who are the subject of a children’s superstition. Lyra vows to rescue Roger, and finds her chance when a visiting woman of great importance, Mrs. Marisa Coulter, offers to take Lyra away from Jordan College to become her apprentice. Lyra assents, but before she leaves is entrusted with a priceless object by the Master of the College: an alethiometer. Resembling a golden compass, it is a device able to reveal the answer to any question asked by the user. Although initially unable to read or understand its complex meanings, Lyra takes it with her to Mrs Coulter’s flat. Lyra becomes suspicious of Mrs. Coulter’s motives when despite promising to take her North, she is instead paraded about from party to party.
After a party hosted by Mrs. Coulter, Lyra discovers that Mrs. Coulter is the head of an organization known as the “General Oblation Board” and that this board is, in fact, the “Gobblers” who have been kidnapping children. The horror of this discovery causes Lyra to flee Mrs. Coulter’s flat, after finding the Golden Monkey (Mrs. Coulter’s dæmon) with the alethiometer.
After fleeing the flat she is rescued by the Gyptians, a group of nomadic, canal-boat-dwelling people. She learns that many children like Roger have been disappearing from among the gyptians, and that the gyptians are planning an expedition to the north to rescue the missing children. While on the journey, she is visited by a Witch who talks to her about the alethiometer.
Lyra joins the expedition to the north, and in an Arctic port town called Trollsund in Norway meets and befriends Lee Scoresby, an aeronaut, who takes her to meet Iorek Byrnison, an armoured bear in exile and was formerly the prince of the armoured bears. She helps him regain his armour which has been taken by the townspeople and in return he will serve her until she has a victory. On the journey she discovers that the children kidnapped by “the Gobblers” are having their dæmons cut away from them, by way of experiment. Shortly after this revelation, the group is attacked and Lyra is captured and taken to the king of the armoured bears, Ragnar Sturlusson as a gift. She manages to trick the usurping bear-king into allowing Iorek Byrnison to fight to regain his throne. Iorek wins and becomes King of the armoured bears, and accompanies Lyra to Bolvangar to rescue Roger. However, while crossing a narrow ledge of ice, it collapses under Lyra’s feet and she is forced to make the remainder of the journey without him.
Lyra is warmly welcomed into the facility and inside it, she locates Roger and builds up a plan of escape. Lyra eavesdrops on a group of adults having a meeting with Mrs. Coulter about the experiments they do there, and is caught after Mrs. Coulter leaves. To silence her, they start to perform the severing on her and Pan, to be narrowly saved by Mrs. Coulter before it is complete. Lyra wakes up in a bed and Mrs. Coulter tells Lyra that she is Lyra’s mother and Lord Asriel is Lyra’s father. Running out, Lyra destroys the severing machine and leads the other children out of the facility, and is rescued by Lee Scoresby in his hot air balloon. A fight ensues between those of the Magisterium against the gyptians and those allied, like the witches. The gyptians win the fight, and allow the children to go free. Many Gyptian children are reunited with their parents.
In the end the Gyptians leave with their children. Lyra doesn’t go with them and says she is going to find Lord Asriel. Roger and his dæmon come with Lyra and Pan to find him. Scoresby takes them on his ship along with Iorek Byrnison and the witch that came to Lyra on the ship coming to Norway.
For some time during the pre-publication process, the series of novels was known as The Golden Compasses. The word Compasses referred to a pair of compasses—the circle-drawing instrument—rather than a navigational compass. Pullman then settled on Northern Lights as the title for the first book, and continued to refer to the trilogy as The Golden Compasses.
In the US, in their discussions over the publication of the first book, the publishers Alfred A. Knopf had been calling it The Golden Compass (omitting the plural), which they mistakenly believed referred to Lyra’s alethiometer, because the device superficially resembles a navigational compass. Meanwhile, in the UK, Pullman had replaced The Golden Compasses with His Dark Materials (a title that Pullman had taken from a line in Paradise Lost) as the title of the trilogy. But according to Pullman, the publishers had become so attached to The Golden Compass that they insisted on publishing the US edition of the first book under that title, rather than Northern Lights, the title used in the UK.
As the book was known as The Golden Compass in the US and Canada, with similar book titles in other languages such as in Germany where it is titled, Der Goldene Kompass, New Line Cinema chose to use that title for the film adaptation.

Reviews of the The Golden Compass have been mixed. At review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes, which divides the number of positive reviews a film has received by the total number, it has a 43% rating based on 143 reviews. At the similar website Metacritic, which assigns a rating out of 100 to each review, the film has received an average score of 53, based on 29 reviews. Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian gave it a mark of four stars out of five, praising Nicole Kidman’s casting in particular and saying it had “no other challengers as this year’s big Christmas movie.” James Christopher of The Times was disappointed, praising the “marvellous” special effects and casting, but saying that the “books weave a magic the film simply cannot match” and citing a “lack of genuine drama.” Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter predicted a “substantial” box office for the film, praising the special effects and stunts, strong storyline, viable characters and the acting. Opening weekend North American box office returns were “a little bit disappointing” according to New Line.

New Line Cinema has commissioned screenwriter Hossein Amini to write a screenplay based on the second book in the trilogy, The Subtle Knife, potentially for release in late 2009; with the third book of the trilogy, The Amber Spyglass to follow. However, New Line president Toby Emmerich stresses that production of the second and third films is dependent on the financial success of The Golden Compass.

Cast: Dakota Blue Richards as Lyra Belacqua, who embarks on a voyage to battle the forces of evil and rescue her best friend. New Line Cinema announced 12-year-old Richards’ casting in June 2006. She had attended an open audition after watching a stage production of The Golden Compass, and was picked from 10,000 girls who auditioned, for what is her first acting job.Nicole Kidman as Marisa Coulter, Lyra’s mother and the villain of the film. Kidman was author Phillip Pullman’s preferred choice for the role ten years before production of the film, and despite initially rejecting the offer to star as she didn’t want to play a villain, she signed on after receiving a personal letter from Pullman.Daniel Craig as Lord Asriel, Lyra’s ruthless and mysterious adventurer “uncle”, who is actually her real father. Ian McKellen as the voice of Iorek Byrnison, an armoured bear who becomes Lyra’s friend and comrade. Nonso Anozie had recorded lines for the part of Iorek Byrnison, but was replaced by McKellen at a late stage as New Line wanted a bigger name in the role. New Line president of production Toby Emmerich admitted he “never thought [Anozie] sounded like Iorek” and while he initially trusted director Weitz’s casting decision, he “never stopped thinking that this guy didn’t sound right.” The recasting was against Weitz’s wishes, though he later said “if you’re going to have anyone recast in your movie, you’re happy it’s Ian McKellen.”Ian McShane as the voice of Ragnar Sturlusson, the armoured bear king. Ragnar’s name in the book was Iofur Raknison, but the name has been changed to prevent confusion between him and Iorek. Sam Elliott as Lee Scoresby, a Texan “aeronaut” who comes to Lyra’s aid. Eva Green as Serafina Pekkala, a queen of the witches. Freddie Highmore as the voice of Pantalaimon, Lyra’s dæmon. Ben Walker as Roger Parslow, Lyra’s best friend, who is kidnapped and taken North. Claire Higgens as Ma Costa, member of a Gyptian family which aids Lyra. Jim Carter as John Faa, the king of the Gyptians. Tom Courtenay as Farder Coram, Gyptian second-in-command and advisor to John Faa. Kathy Bates as the voice of Hester, Lee Scoresby’s Dæmon. Kristen Scott Thomas as the voice of Stelmaria, Lord Asriel’s Dæmon. Jack Shepherd as Master of Jordan College.Simon McBurney as Fra Pavel.Magda Szubanski as Mrs. Lonsdale.Christopher Lee as the Magisterium’s First High Councilor. Lee’s casting was also at New Line’s behest, rather than that of Chris Weitz.Derek Jacobi as the Magisterial Emissary.Charlie Rowe as Billy Costa.