December 19, 2007–The Vatican hopees that New Line will not film the remainder of the planned trilogy based on Philip Pullmans His Dark Materials books. If that should happen, it wouldnt be a big loss, said official Vatican daily lOsservatore Romano in editorial on Wednesday, citing indications that the disappointing take for Compass could put a freeze on further installments.
The Vatican daily also criticized Chris Weitzs adaptation of Pullmans first tome, saying that honest viewers gifted with a critical spirit will find the pic devoid of any particular emotion apart from a great chill.
In the Vaticans most scathing attack against a novelist and a movie since Da Vinci Code, lOsservatore blasted Pullman, a noted British atheist, calling for a boycott of the film. In Pullmans world, hope simply does not exist, because there is no salvation but only personal, individualistic capacity to control the situation and dominate events, it said.
The Vatican daily called Golden Compass “the most anti-Christmas film possible and found the family fantasys $26 million U.S. opening gross a consolation, claiming: When God is pushed off the horizon, everything is made smaller, sadder, colder and less human.