Showing in December 7 (US). In a parallel universe, young Lyra Belacqua journeys to the far North to save her best friend and other kidnapped children from terrible experiments by a mysterious organization.

Official Synopsis: The first movie based on the bestselling Philip Pullman novels. The “His Dark Materials” trilogy is comprised of “The Golden Compass,” “The Subtle Knife” and “The Amber Spyglass”. It revolves around a young girl who travels to the far north to save her best friend. Along the way she encounters shape-shifting creatures, witches, and a variety of otherworldly characters in parallel universes.

There is a world where witches rule the northern skies, where ice bears are the bravest of warriors, and where every human is joined with an animal spirit who is as close to them as their own heart.

But this world is dominated by the Magisterium, which seeks to control all of humanity, and whose greatest threat is the last remaining Golden Compass and the one child destined to possess it.

Twelve year-old Lyra Belacqua (Dakota Blue Richards) lives an extraordinary life as a ward of distinguished Jordan College. Tearing unsupervised through the streets on mad quests for adventure with her loyal friend Roger (Ben Walker), Lyra is accompanied everywhere by her daemon, Pantalaimon (voiced by Freddie Highmore) – a small, ever-changing animal that serves as a constant voice of reason.

But Lyra’s world is changing.

Her uncle, Lord Asriel (Daniel Craig), is embarking on a trip to the Arctic Circle to investigate a mysterious element intriguingly called Dust, but the Magisterium would go to any lengths – including shutting down Jordan College – to stop him.

At the same time, rumors of children mysteriously disappearing and being taken north become terrifyingly real when her best friend Roger goes missing. Lyra swears to go to the ends of the earth to rescue him, and when a new figure appears at the college – Marisa Coulter (Nicole Kidman), a beguiling scientist and world traveler – she sees her best chance to get away.

But Lyra finds that she has been drawn into a trap designed to take from her the one thing she possesses that the Magisterium desperately seeks – the Golden Compass. Given to her as a gift by the Master of Jordan College (Jack Shepherd), it is a mystical, powerful device that can tell the truth, reveal what others wish to hide and foreshadow – and even change – the future.

At that moment, Lyra realizes that she will have to break away from Mrs. Coulter and embark on her own journey to rescue Roger and stop the Magisterium. But fate puts her in the company and protection of a tribe of seafaring Gyptians led by Lord Faa (Jim Carter), Ma Costa (Clare Higgins) and Farder Coram (Tom Courtenay).

Banding together an unlikely alliance with the Gyptians, the mysterious witch Serafina Pekkala (Eva Green) and Texas airman Lee Scoresby (Sam Elliott), Lyra is flung into an adventure that will take her over sky and ocean, to the wilds of the icy north, where she gains a powerful ally in a great armored bear named Iorek Byrnison (voiced by Ian McKellen), who pledges to serve her in her campaign until she prevails.

A great war is coming – one that threatens not only Lyra’s world but all the parallel worlds waiting just beyond the northern lights. With her band of friends and allies, and the power of the Golden Compass, Lyra will need all her skill and all her courage, to stop it.

Release Date: UK (December 5, 2007), US (December 7, 2007), Australia (December 26, 2007).