Is there Dust in the air or is it just me? The latest news about the BBC’s long-gestating His Dark Materials TV mini-series adaptation nearly brought tears of joys to this fan’s eye. According to Deadline, The King’s Speech director Tom Hooper and Logan star Dafne Keen have signed on to the adaptation of Philip Pullman’s critically acclaimed His Dark Material novels for BBC One. Hooper will helm the series and Keen will play the lead role of Lyra Belacqua. The Daily Mail‘s Baz Bamigboye also claims that Hamilton‘s Lin Manuel-Miranda has joined the cast as the hot air balloon-piloting aeronaut Lee Scoresby.
The series, produced by Doctor Who veterans Jane Tranter and Julie Gardner of Bad Wolf, will run for eight episodes and was written by National Treasure scribe Jack Thorne. The series, first announced in 2015, is expected to commence production in wales in the near future, which means that further casting details are inevitable.
For those of you who haven’t read one of the greatest book series of all time, His Dark Materials is comprised of a trilogy of fantasy novels: Northern Lights (also known as The Golden Compass), The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass. The first novel in the series, Northern Lights, was published in 1995, and tells a sprawling coming-of-age story of two children–Lyra and Will, who find themselves caught up in a wild, harrowing adventure that takes them across space and time into parallel universes. The trilogy offers up a heady blend of theoretical physics, philosophy, theological pontification, as well as some truly wild stuff like armored bears, flying witch covens, and a knife capable of cutting through subatomic particles. In other words, it gives you a lot more to chew on than most young adult literature.
Stay tuned to Nerdist for even more on this mini-series as it develops and thank your lucky stars that we’ll finally have something to wash the taste of that truly abysmal movie adaptation out of our mouths once and for all. In the meantime, why not read Pullman’s new sidequel novel in the His Dark Materials universe, The Book of Dust?
What do you think of this casting news? Who else do you hope to see join the series? Let us know in the comments below.
Images: 20th Century Fox; Philip-Pullman.com
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