Catholics boycott Pullman film in US

BY ED WEST
CATHOLICS IN America have organised a boycott of The Golden Compass, the soon to be released film adaptation of the Philip Pullman novel
Bill Donohoe, president of the Catholic League in the United States, said that the British author's His Dark Materials series promotes "atheism for kids".
In Ontario the Catholic school board has ordered Northern Lights, the book on which the film is based, to be removed from library shelves, where it has been stocked since its publication in 1995.
Several other Canadian school boards are pondering whether to follow suit.
In Philadelphia, the local archdiocese has urged patents not to take their children to a film that had "anti-religious themes" and was based on a book by an "avowed atheist [who' has said in interviews that his books are about killing God".
Pullman is an atheist who once told the Washington Post that he was "trying to undermine the basis of Christian belief'.
Northern Lights is the first of the His Dark Materials series, set hi a parallel world where the Catholic Church has never gone through the Reformation but has instead evolved into "the Magisterium-, which rules supreme, persecutes heretics and suppresses science. The third novel culminates in a fight to kill God.
Supporters say the books are theological and even Christian in their ideology; Daniel Craig, star of The Golden Compass, and director Chris Weitz, both declared last weekend that the film was not anti-religious.
Some fans of the books have objected to the way the anti-Catholicism of the books has been toned down in the film version.
Terry Sanderson, president of the National Secular Society, of which Pullman is a member, said: "In doing that they are taking the heart out of it, losing the point of it. castrating it. It 'seems that reli gion has now completely conquered America's cultural life and it is much the poorer for it."
The film's lead actress, Nicole Kidman, said the antireligious stance of the film "has been watered down a little... I was raised Catholic, the Catholic Church is part of my essence. I wouldn't be able to do this film if I thought it were at all adti-Catholic."
Pullman responded to the League's criticism by calling Donohue a "nitwit". "To regard it as this Donohue man has said — that I'm a militant atheist, and my intention is to • convert people — how the hell does he know that?" he said, in an interview with Newsweek.
"Why don't we trust readers? Why don't we trust filmgoers? Oh, it causes me to shake my head with sorrow that such nitwits could be loose in the world."
Christian websites were instrumental in hyping up the film version of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, the C S Lewis children's book with a strong Christian message, But the Catholic League has not been entirely successful in it previous boycott attempts; the last big campaign, against the adaptation of Dan Brown's novel The Da Vinci Code, failed to prevent the film making /366 million in 2006.
The Golden Compass cost £90 million to make and the studio plans two big-budget sequels.
A spokesman for the Church in England and Wales has said it would not make any statement on the film until a representative had seen it.
Catholic author and broadcaster Joanna Bogle said that all publicity would be good publicity for the film: "My instinct is to not make a fuss of it, as the more people say let's not go, the more people will go. On the other hand The Da Vinci Code didn't do us any harm.
"I've known one or two people who have got interested in the Church after watching it, and one of them is becoming a Catholic. So bizarrely it may well help, and all attacks on the Church fail in the end.
"In 100 years people will still be going to Mass but won't still necessarily think this film is the last word."