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Finally got around to watching the Golden Compass trailer via the official website (find out what your daemon is…I was chuffed that mine was a fox until my girlfriend got a freaking snow leopard). Watch it below…

Pretty good. Glad to see a decent line-up of actors in there (using Ian McKellan as the voice of Iorek the armoured bear was an unexpected direction but should pay off) and Lyra’s world seems beautifully realised, but I do have some minor niggles that I need to get off my chest…

1) I was frankly gutted to hear Nicole Kidman would play Mrs Coulter. While she is certainly an alluring woman, which fits the bill, I’ve never rated her ability to act and she would normally rank alongside Julia Roberts as one of the big female names that instantly puts me off a film. It’s a great character, and one with more complexity than I think Kidman can handle. Couldn’t they have got a blonde Kate Beckinsale (seen below looking brutally stunning in a scene from Underworld: Evolution)? Although, I imagined someone more curvaceous - like a modern Marilyn Monroe. Is that weird?

2) Dakota Blue Richards, the become-an-actress-or-die named London lass who plays Lyra was born in 1994 - a fact which made me feel very old indeed. From the trailers, I have been disappointed with the way the character is being represented. Lyra always seemed to be a high-spirited, naive and feisty young thing in the books. Judging from the trailers, the character is annoyingly bland and collected - her voice maintaining the kind of dry, unwavering tone I’ve come to expect from Keanu Reeves, or Nicole Kidman.

3) Mrs Coulter’s monkey isn’t NEARLY scary enough. That thing needs to turn into a fucking beast when it’s mad.

4) The choice of Daniel Craig (pictured below, naked) as Lord Asriel is also a departure from how I imagined him to be. Although I am confident he’ll pull off the role well, I wanted someone to appear more like a traditional villain and I think Christian Bale would have been better suited. Admittedly, I say that to just about everything and it wouldn’t be fair to cast him in every role.

5) Serafina, the witch, is being played by Craig’s co-star from Casino Royale, Eva Green (pictured below, also naked - hey, got to be fair), which is also a departure from what I had in my head. I pictured her blonde from some reason, and I also wanted her to be a lot sluttier. Green’s too classy - I wanted someone who looked could take the wisdom and power of a centuries old witch and come off looking like desirable trailer trash. I think I must be really fucked up.

These are just my initial impressions from watching the trailer, and I expect to be made a damned fool of. This should be fucking awesome and I’m strangely excited to see that Sam Elliott is playing aeronaut, Lee Scoresby. That’s some grade-A casting there.

I am interested to see how this plays out - especially in America, where the anti-religious nature of the story is bound to ruffle a few feathers and ensure the film is labeled as distinctly un-American. My biggest concern is that the next two installments (in which the war on God becomes the centre of events) may be twisted somewhat for mass consumption. I hope not, because this is an amazing tale and could make a fantastic film.