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Big Brother winner Pete Bennett has been cast as a new character, introduced by New Line in an epilogue that, it is hoped, will placate Christian groups.
"Pete will play Nick Brother, a friend of Will's from school," director Chris Weitz explained. "We discover that Will is haunted by Nick's death, and there's a beautiful scene where he explains to Lyra that he lost faith in Heaven when Nick passed on. As he talks about Nick, we dissolve to a flashback of Pete falling down some stairs and tragically breaking his neck. It's here that Pantalaimon first approaches Will and lets someone else touch him. It's going to be a really powerful moment."
[VT]
Will: He was a really mental friend. The best. [he struggles to hold back tears]
Lyra: Oh, that ent right. [touching his hand] There must be an 'eaven, Will. And your mate's there, I knows it!
Will: If I could just see him again, I'd believe. I'd believe there was a Heaven!
[/VT]
Dakota Blue Richards, playing Lyra, explained that the scene was a late addition to the script. "We'd just wrapped on the death of the Authority, showing the collapse of Heaven and the death of God? So we were kind of drained and it was pretty emotional... then Chris brought out the new scene and said we were shooting it right now, so we were like [laughs] OK... whatever!"
The epilogue reveals that the "Authority" was only a false God, and that the true Heaven is infinitely more glorious than the kingdom that just seemed to collapse. Jim Weddon of SFX house Cinesite explains that "we did this huge CGI extravaganza of Pete [Bennett] tumbling down the spiral stairs from Heaven, and landing at Will and Lyra's feet. To be honest, it's not quite up to the standard of the other CGI cause we had to do it overnight, and we took most of it from [1998 Robin Williams movie] What Dreams May Come. But [shrugs] just do what you're paid for, don't you."
Pete takes up the story. "It was mental, man. *koff WANKERS!* I just had to, hurrm! fall down this, like, staircase *koff*, it was just *twitch* y'know, hrrn! be yourself, really *WANKERS!*"
"Pete told us he'd had a vision that he'd be paid £25 million for his two minute appearance," Chris Weitz went on. "It would have been really out of keeping with the integrity of Phillip Pullman's story to let him down." |
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