The Golden Compass is the first planned adaptation of Pullman's bestselling His Dark Materials trilogy.

BBC: The film is based on Philip Pullman's bestselling book

Philip Pullman, author of the His Dark Materials trilogy, said he feared the loss of "special community centres, dedicated to knowledge".

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And echoes of Lyra, heroine of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, can be heard around the colleges, the streets of Jericho and the Botanic Garden.

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Her story is designed to span three films, as it did the three books of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials saga which proved controversial in some quarters because of the religious beliefs, or more precisely the religious unbelief, of its author.

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