Lin-Manuel Miranda stars in new adaptation of His Dark Materials
The dazzling new production of the cult classic His Dark Materials — starring Lin-Manuel Miranda — is full of surprises.
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The presence of Westeros looms large over the set of His Dark Materials.
With the vacuum left by Game Of Thrones, after bringing the curtain down on a decade of TV dominance, people will naturally try and find something new to fill the void.
So it’s understandable that from a distance a new HBO-produced fantasy epic based on beloved books with flawed heroes, incredible scale, devious plotting and intrigue, as well as fantastic creatures, swapping dragons for armour-plated polar bears, seems to fit nicely into the gap.
But that’s largely where the similarities end with this far more family-friendly show.
Executive producer Jane Tranter does credit the Thrones success for being able to finally bring Philip Pullman’s beloved trilogy of young adult books to life in a way that the previous adaptation – 2007’s dreadful The Golden Compass – failed to.
That film, which saw New Line cinema similarly try to fill the chasm left after the success of The Lord Of the Rings trilogy, is also brought up in passing by cast and crew, but more of a warning of how to not repeat the same mistakes.
If you’re one of the millions who has picked up Northern Lights, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass, you’ll know that their depth and scope deserves a lot more screen-time and detailed attention than a two-hour movie could deliver.
Set in an alternative reality to our own the story follows orphaned heroine Lyra Silvertongue
(Logan’s Dafne Keen) from Oxford University to the frozen landscapes of the Arctic in pursuit of her uncle Lord Asriel (X-Men and Atonement’s James McAvoy), in search of missing children and a mysterious substance known as dust.
It’s a multi-layered adventure that touches on spirituality, science, freedom of thought and overbearing power that’s more pertinent to today’s confused, controversial world than when the first book was published a quarter of a century ago.
Though the Victorian-era stylings of the books has been updated with costumes befitting a post-World War II, the lengths gone to in order to recreate the rich worlds of the books should placate both sides.
The litmus test will surely be the appearance of the demons: manifestations of each person’s soul that take the form of monkeys, pine martens, snow leopards and more.
Employing extensive use of puppets in order to use as few special effects as possible, it’s not only given this crucial aspect of the stories authenticity, but also helped each actor interact with their demon.
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The effervescent Lin-Manuel Miranda, coming into our interview singing numbers from
Moulin Rouge! The Musical, admits it’s easy to buy into the fantasy world created in the Welsh capital.
“Jane and [writer] Jack Thorne took me out do dinner. I was already in love with Jack Thorne
because I thought his work on Harry Potter and the Cursed Child was genius; and that is a tough needle to thread. So I was excited he was working on this because it is a tough adaptation, another richly imagined world like JK Rowling’s.”
Not the most obvious choice for the fan-favourite Lee Scoresby, who he describes as Gary Cooper in High Noon meets Han Solo, in a hot-air balloon, he cheekily adds: “the costume gets me 80 per cent of the way there”.
His enthusiasm has obviously rubbed off on Lyra herself, taking the place of Hugh Jackman in both looking after Dafne Keen’s character as well as singing musical numbers between shoots as was the actress’ experience during the filming of Logan.
When Keen herself speaks, she exudes maturity, explaining how both the scale of the show and the length of the filming has a bigger impact on her young life than others.
With her age to consider, the first two series have been filmed back to back, making the character a considerable investment for the star of the show, the little person who stands
up against the big bad guy in a performance that should not only impress but inspire.
“I get to grow up with Lyra. I started auditioning for it when I was 11; I’m 14 now. So it’s great to see how Lyra grows up and becomes a better person. She makes lots of mistakes, but it’s all OK,” she says, underlining the fact that the last of the three books were already established favourites before she was even born.
But coming in an age where the role of the onscreen hero is changing in both mould and gender, Keen pertinently shows where both her character and the show can forge their own destiny, simply stating, “My favourite part is that there is a young female lead whose power isn’t sexual.”
And whether His Dark Materials can step out of the Game Of Thrones-shaped shadow to make cultural icons of its own characters, surely that revelation alone is enough to distance the show from its “competition”.
* His Dark Materials, 1pm and 8.30pm, Tuesday November 5, Fox Showcase