BBC is definitely winning with the casting announcement for the upcoming adaptation of His Dark Materials series by Phillip Pullman. Someone is writing out some nice paychecks.
Apparently Lin-Manuel Miranda, the hottest pop culture musical icon (is that a thing?!) is close to signing a deal to play Lee Scoresby in the BBC One and Bad Wolf TV production. All those choir kids can glee in excitement.
Already confirmed is Dafne Keen, the breakout star of Logan, to play the lead role Lyra Belacqua. Thought I hope this doesn’t prevent her from my personal wish for an X-23 film.
Writer, Jack Thorne (National Treasure, Wonder, This is England ’90) be adapting the books with Tom Hooper (The Danish Girl, The Kings Speech, Les Miserables, John Adams) to direct. Both pretty white bread, but they do seem to know what needs to be done and hopefully won’t get too heady with the fantasy.
On a side, not Jack Thorne is working on the script for the ever-in-production Sandman film. I would love to be proven wrong about the filmability of that series.
The Book to Screen Club 