TV Adaptation for His Dark Materials

LONDON: Philip Pullman’s fantasy trilogy His Dark Materials is being adapted for television by Jane Tranter's Bad Wolf and New Line Cinema for BBC One.

Pullman's acclaimed trilogy has sold almost 17.5 million copies worldwide since the first book, Northern Lights, was published in 1995. New Line Cinema released a film adaptation, The Golden Compass, in 2006. The deal with Bad Wolf, set up by ex-BBC execs Tranter and Julie Gardner, marks New Line's first move into television.

"It is an honor to be bringing Philip Pullman’s extraordinary novels to BBC One," said Polly Hill, controller of drama commissioning at the BBC. "His Dark Materials is a stunning trilogy, and a drama event for young and old—a real family treat, that shows our commitment to original and ambitious storytelling."

Pullman commented: “It’s been a constant source of pleasure to me to see this story adapted to different forms and presented in different media. It’s been a radio play, a stage play, a film, an audiobook, a graphic novel—and now comes this version for television. In recent years we’ve seen how long stories on television, whether adaptations (Game of Thrones) or original (The Sopranos, The Wire), can reach depths of characterization and heights of suspense by taking the time for events to make their proper impact and for consequences to unravel. And the sheer talent now working in the world of long-form television is formidable. For all those reasons I’m delighted at the prospect of a television version of His Dark Materials. I’m especially pleased at the involvement of Jane Tranter, whose experience, imagination and drive are second to none. As for the BBC, it has no stronger supporter than me. I couldn’t be more pleased with this news.”

Tranter, who is exec producing the adaptation, noted: "Ever since they were first published these books have been a huge influence on so much of my thinking and imagination and it is enormously inspiring to be now working on them for television adaptation. The broad horizons of television suggests itself as the best of vehicles to capture the expansiveness of the story and worlds of Lyra and Will and I am looking forward to seeing how Northern Lights, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass will occupy their place in an audience's imagination across many episodes and seasons. To say that I am grateful to Philip Pullman and to Toby and Carolyn at New Line Cinema for entrusting this to Bad Wolf is an understatement and we will give everything that we have to rise to the challenge of doing justice to these great works and to the responsibility that Philip and the incomparable BBC have bestowed on us.”