PhilipPullman
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The BBC wants to right Hollywood's 'Golden Compass' wrongs
The Golden Compass was a critical flop, but thankfully Philip Pullman's epic trilogy of fantasy books, His Dark Materials, is being given another shot on TV. The BBC has commissioned an eight-part series based on the complete works, which will be made in Wales by Bad Wolf and New Line Cinema. The story begins with Lyra, an orphan that lives in a parallel world and finds herself swept up in a mystery surrounding strange "Dust" particles. She eventually encounters Will, a boy from our world, and the pair go on an epic adventure spanning countless cities and creatures. A TV mini-series should give the producers more space to explore the characters and their relationships. One concern, however, is the budget -- aside from Doctor Who, the BBC hasn't delivered many fantasy TV shows on the level of, say, Game of Thrones. His Dark Materials covers a dizzying number of worlds that, without the proper funding, could be rather tricky to pull off.
Philip Pullman argues that authors are being shortchanged on e-book loans
Few people understand the magic of libraries better than Philip Pullman, author of His Dark Materials, but all is not well when it comes to digital lending. As the soon-to-be president of the Society of Authors, Pullman is leading the charge against publishing houses that may be shortchanging writers on e-book loans. In a letter to major publishers like Random House and Bloomsbury, Pullman argues that selling e-books to libraries as single sales rather than licenses costs authors up to two-thirds the income they receive from print loans. The Society's brief calls for the industry to reconsider existing models for compensation so that writers can continue producing books with which to line library shelves. After all, without authors, there would be no books, and as Pullman himself wrote, "Without stories, we wouldn't be human beings at all."
