God cut from Dark Materials film

The director and screenwriter of the film adaptation of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials is to remove references to God and the church in the movie.

Chris Weitz, director of About a Boy, said the changes were being made after film studio New Line expressed concern.

The books tell of a battle against the church and a fight to overthrow God.

"They have expressed worry about the possibility of perceived anti-religiosity," Weitz told a His Dark Materials fans' website.

Pullman's trilogy has been attacked by some Christian teachers and by the Catholic press as blasphemy.

Weitz, who admitted he would not be many people's first choice to direct the films, said he regarded the film adaptation as "the most important work of my life".

"In part because it is one of the few books to have changed my life," he told bridgetothestars.net.

The award-winning trilogy - Northern Lights, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass - tell the story of Oxford girl Lyra Belacqua.

She is drawn into an epic struggle against the Church, which has been carrying out experiments on children in an attempt to remove original sin.

well, i'm excited that christ weitz is directing, which is a fact i didn't know. i think he's pretty good - he handled the adaptation and direction of "about a boy" very gracefully, making it one of the best book-to-movie adaptations that i've seen. even though about a boy obviously a) isn't a trilogy and b) doesn't have the literary heft of "his dark materials," i bet he'll do a good job.

but in order to understand how FUCKING RIDICULOUS it is to cut out any references to church or christianity in "his dark materials"...i'm trying to think of an appropriate analogy. it's like filming "pretty woman" without any references to prostitutes, or "harry potter," except they take out, you know, magic.

apparently pullman, the author, isn't too put out by this change - and i'm sure he expected it:

Weitz said he had visited Pullman, who had told him that the Authority could "represent any arbitrary establishment that curtails the freedom of the individual, whether it be religious, political, totalitarian, fundamentalist, communist, what have you".

He added: "I have no desire to change the nature or intentions of the villains of the piece, but they may appear in more subtle guises."

There are a number of Christian websites which attack the trilogy for their depiction of the church and of God, but Pullman has denied his books are anti-religious.

His agent told the Times newspaper that Pullman was happy with the adaptation so far.

"Of course New Line want to make money, but Mr Weitz is a wonderful director and Philip is very supportive.

"You have to recognise that it is a challenge in the climate of Bush's America."

i guess the film will still be able to properly convey the stories, as long as there's an all-powerful, respected yet totally and terribly evil institution (though i'm not sure why any sort of corporation or other entity would concern themselves with the concept of original sin, which is central to the book), but what the fuck? if people are so worried that their faith, which has been around for, you know, a couple thousand years, is in mortal peril from a movie based on a series of children's books, then that is just plain stupid.

update: bridgetothestars.net suggests that "The impression I have received when I talked to Mr. Weitz was that the anti-religiosity of some aspects of His Dark Materials were being toned down, not removed altogther."