Morrison Leads The Way For 'The Golden Compass'

The Christmas season’s blockbuster family film is hitting the screen's this week with an animated title sequence and end credits by titles Director Richard Morrison at London animation and mixed media production company 'Th1ng'.
The animated titles see a cosmic dust cloud blow across the screen. It coalesces into the film title’s bespoke typography, before dispersing into the cosmos backdrop onto which the film’s first scene begins.
The Golden Compass, directed by Chris Weitz, stars Daniel Craig and Nicole Kidman, gets its full UK release from December 7. Weitz also wrote the screenplay, from the novel by Philip Pullman.
The movie has provoked controversy in the US, where Catholic activists have called for a boycott due to their perception that the film promotes atheism to children.
Morrison, who joined Th1ng earlier this year, said the titles and eight minute end credits, for New Line Cinema (which produced the Lord of the Rings series), also included creating three foreign language versions which required new animation sequences. The head of typography was Dean Wears and the producer was Th1ng founder Dominic Buttimore.
Morrison said: “Hopefully The Golden Compass will go on to be a franchise, so to do the titles for the first film is a good thing. It’s the first of a trilogy of books, and New Line Cinema will be hoping the film is a success to enable the following books to also make it to the screen. I think the film is good and will perform well.”
Morrison’s previous film credits run from before his pioneering titles for Batman in 1989, through to current box office success Sleuth and the imminent release Sweeney Todd.
Another Morrison titled film, The Magic Flute, an adaptation of the Mozart opera, was released in the UK last week.
Dominic Buttimore, the producer who founded the Beak Street based Th1ng in 2003, said: “Once again Richard has come up with a quality title sequence, which has been delivered at Th1ng.”
(SP)