It centers on Lyra Belacqua (Dafne Keen), an orphan living with the scholars at the fictional Jordan College in Oxford who becomes swept up in an adventure that involves witches and prophecies and talking polar bears. and HBO in the U.S., is a more or less faithful adaptation of Pullman’s novel. “His Dark Materials,” which will air on BBC One in the U.K. “And almost four years later, it was a good time.” “From that moment on I was hooked,” Thorne said. Thorne ended up meeting with Trantor for what was supposed to be a one-hour conversation about the project and his potential involvement and ended up being a four-and-a-half-hour deep dive into the details of Pullman’s story and the possibilities of a TV series adaptation. “Then I thought about it, and thought about it, and thought about it.” “It was six months before the opening of ‘Harry Potter’ on stage, I was pretty tired, my wife was heavily pregnant and I didn’t want the burden of it, frankly,” he said. BBC One had teamed up with Jane Trantor and Julie Garner’s production company Bad Wolf to adapt the first book, “Northern Lights” (published under the title “The Golden Compass” in the U.S.) as an eight-part television series. Rowling’s mega-popular book-turned-movie franchise when he was first approached to tackle the “His Dark Materials” adaptation in 2016. He was still in the middle of working on the stage follow-up to J.K. versions of “Shameless” and “Skins” and, most notably, “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.” So I know about fans.”Īlso Read: 'His Dark Materials': Watch the Comic-Con Trailer for New HBO Fantasy Series (Video)Ī veteran screenwriter and playwright, Thorne’s previous credits include the BAFTA-winning “National Treasure” series, the TV spinoffs of Shane Meadows’ “This Is England,” the U.K. “Oh totally,” Thorne said in an interview with TheWrap when asked if adapting a property with such a passionate fanbase had ever given him pause. The book series by author Philip Pullman is one of the most beloved fantasy franchises this side of “Lord of the Rings” and “Harry Potter,” and any writer attempting to tackle an adaptation is opening himself up to a ton of potential backlash.īut Jack Thorne, writer of the new limited series adaptation for the BBC and HBO, is intimately familiar with the pressures of dealing with fandom and still he took on the challenge anyway.

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