By that measure, the pickings were pretty slim in this category. As poor a movie as Transformers is, I would probably still put it ahead of Golden Compass by some small margin. (The Pirates movie was just unwatchable.)

I don't doubt you but I've been looking around and I can't confirm what you said. Do you have a source? I found this:

http://www.bridgetothestars.net/news...omment-page-2/

So if New Line was covered for 70%-80% of the budget, they will make money on the film even without foreign profits. And if the foreign payments to them covered 60% of the budget, does the deal you are talking about mean that New Line/Warner would get nothing up front to finance the second and third films or is up front money for those also part of the deal? It makes no sense that New Line would take the up front money for the first film but have to totally finance the sequels while still having no foreign box office rights. I would think that if there is a deal that covers all three films that the same foreign investors would have the same funding deals for the production of the other two films.

But I don't know what the deal is so could you please provide a link which explains it?

Can't wait until next Tuesday when CH ships out my copy of this and my free copy of Beowulf HD-DVD. I never had the chance to see it in the theater but it seems like the majority enjoyed it.

I tried to read your post three times, but each time my vision got blurry and I doubled over in pain. ;)

Seriously though, I think we'll just have to agree to disagree on that one.

....Anyway, the movie looks amazing. No grain and very clear scenes. Love those Ice Bears!

No grain, but also little detail. New Line hit this one with DNR.

The bears were by far the worst part of the movie. They looked on the level of those old Coke commercials, and the big stupid cartoon bear fight just went on forever.

And what did they do to Ian McKellan's voice to make him sound exactly like Patrick Stewart? :)

I have heard others mention DNR...but it seemed ok to me :shrug:

The Ice Bear fight was like 2 minutes! A freaking cool the entire time.

Agree to disagree. When a supposedly 'live action' movie has all of the live actors step out of the frame to watch cartoon characters fight each other in a completely animated environment for what feels like hours, I'm overwhelmed by the feeling of, "Who the hell cares?"

It reminded me of the Gungans vs. Droids battle at the end of The Phantom Menace. Blech.

Well, if you think Transformers and/or At World's End (two movies I could barely SIT through) were more entertaining than The Golden Compass, that's your perogative. I obviously disagree. :)

Here's a recent Variety article that mentions the sequel deal with foreign distributors and the problem it poses for Warners:

http://www.variety.com/article/VR111...ompass+sequels

Thanks. Interesting that this deal was not made just for the Pullman films but for many New Line films.

They made what turned out to be a bad deal for them. I hope they make the sequels which can still make them money although not nearly as much as they could have made.

It occurs to me that Warner has some leverage here. It looks like it's up to them whether the films get made at all. Since the films would obviously be very profitable for the foreign distributors, Warner could say, look, if you want these films made let's make a new deal that would be good for all of us. Otherwise we won't make the films and you'll get nothing.

i thought the same thing. heh.

anyway the 7.1 soundtrack was amazing.

although the music may have been a bit too overbearing/loud.

anyone think all the foreign accents may have hurt the box office in the states?

You mean like the accents hurt the box office of the Harry Potter movies in the USA?

It was much discussed in the thread in the Movies forum, but I think the main problem was that the Pullman's "His Dark Materials" books are little known or read in the US so there wasn't a large built-in base of fans. Others will say that the movie wasn't very good so it had poor word-of-mouth. And still others will say that the religious boycott had an impact.

Take your pick.

i thought of harry potter, just thought i'd toss it out there.
didn't expect it to hold much water.

Between Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and Chronicles of Narnia, audiences have pretty much come to expect British accents in their fantasy epics.

Good point, but all of those were by British authors, after all. I have read a lot of fantasy novels (my favorite genre) by American authors but can't think of any off-hand that have been made into movies. A fantasy novel by a German author is due to hit the screen next winter. It has a mostly English cast however. More evidence for what you said.

With regard to The Lord of the Rings, I will point out that mixed in with the English accents there were a few Kiwi and Aussie accents and some Maori influence in the music. Not that it had anything to do with the popularity of those movies.

I have a question for the OP. You said this is a screener copy. What does that mean? The reason I'm asking is that I had someone trade me a copy of this and said that he got it to review for a magazine. The problem is the copy he sent didn't have ANY art included. No box art and no disc art. Before I complete the deal I'm just wondering if he's tricking me or if they really send the dvds with plain type on the disc. Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

The first post shows Gizmo's screener copy of the BD that looks official, including slipcover. So at least he didn't get a plain copy.

Ive never heard of that before...My copy came straight from Newline and it exactly what the retail copy will be when it comes out in a few days. I think the only studio that sends out "burned DVDs" like that is Fox...but I'm sure Adam here can help you with that. With the dozen or so Blu-rays I have received as a screener all have been retail copies with artwork etc. Some even came with the $10 off coupon inside if you own the DVD (Unbreakable and Hidalgo).

So when you say "screener copy" it's just like what this other guy said. You get them to preview to write reviews? Thanks for the quick responses. I saw the OPs first post. The picture is what made me realize that the guy was trying to trick me. I didn't even know you could copy blu rays...I'll confront him about it and we'll see what happens.

A screener is just a free copy of the disc that the studio provides to movie reviewers prior to street date so that the review can be published in time for the official release of the disc.

Every Blu-ray screener I've ever gotten has been a full retail copy with all artwork and packaging. I've never received one from a studio with just the disc (or a burned copy at that).

Fox does do that for their DVD screeners, including a "PROPERTY OF 20TH CENTURY FOX. DON'T COPY THIS, YOU SCUMBAG PIRATE!!!" watermark running across the bottom of the screen during the movie, but not for their Blu-ray screeners.

So was this one. :)

Right, I'm not saying that the entire cast is British, just that there are enough British voices in it that audiences expect that as a de rigeur part of the fantasy epic genre, not something they would be turned off by. Even Star Wars has a lot of British accents throughout the series.

I am the OP :)

And as far as a burned copy of a Blu-ray...there are encodes of the available to download off torrents...so I suppose it could be a Blu-ray rip that somehow got its size shrunk to fit on a DVD? I really don't know but I would avoid it.

I know, someone else had just said to look at the picture you posted at the beginning so I was sort of responding to them. -smile- I didn't make it very clear. It's actually a blu ray disc just without art. He even has both discs of the two discs. We'll see what he says...Thanks again for all the info.

I'd pass anyway. The movie is only $25 or so on Amazon. Its a really nice set.