Chris Weitz directs The Golden Compass (2007). Photo: New Line Cinema

As a novel, The Golden Compass represents the first third of a juvenile fiction trilogy entitled His Dark Materials, which has captured scores of enthusiastic fans and sold 14 million copies internationally to date. In adapting The Golden Compass for the screen, writer-director Chris Weitz took on a subject that he calls “one of the 20th century’s greatest works of the imagination,” a book that awoke his cinematic senses to the possibility of a legendary screenplay. “I knew immediately that I wanted to translate these books to film,” Weitz says. ”The Golden Compass, the first book of the series, offers everything a filmmaker could want--a compelling story, fascinating characters, psychological and philosophical depth and an abiding wonder at its heart.”

Weitz’s last project as both writer and director, 2002’s About a Boy, earned Weitz an Oscar nomination for its screenplay (which he adapted from Nick Hornby’s novel with his brother Paul and co-writer Peter Hedges). It was during the production of About a Boy, in fact, that Weitz discovered His Dark Materials. “A friend suggested I read Philip Pullman’s books,” he recalls, “I was absolutely stunned by (their) imagination, daring and intelligence.”

Fortunately for The Golden Compass, most of the production team shared Weitz’s reverence for the subject. According to producer Deborah Forte, “Every individual working on this movie understood the material from inception… they had a vision for it that dovetailed with Chris’ vision for the movie, and so it was off and running the moment Chris walked into this project.”

As to whether The Golden Compass will be a memorable The Lord of the Rings-type success or a fading Chronicles of Narnia memory, the man at the helm has done all he can. As Weitz says, “When you are directing a movie, you have to have utter commitment to every aspect of it, and there was nothing about this project that I didn’t feel absolutely passionate about.”

Chris Weitz’s The Golden Compass, starring Daniel Craig and Nicole Kidman, is in theaters now.