After a little controversy and confusion, New Line Cinema has officially greenlit a movie adaptation of the first novel in Phillip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" children’s series: The Golden Compass.

In a press release issued today, New Line CEO's Bob Shayne and Michael Lynne call The Golden Compass "the most ambitious film that New Line has undertaken since The Lord of the Rings trilogy". They're planning to shell out an estimated $150 million to make the film, and stocking the movie's production team with Oscar-nominated designers like Dennis Gassner (Road to Perdition, Big Fish), Ruth Meyers (L.A. Confidential), and Mike Fink (X-Men).

The books are the story of a girl named Lyra living in a fantastical, alternate world where magic is a reality and everyone is born with an accompanying, shape-shifting animal companion called a dæmon. Lyra gets swept up in a complicated game of politics, religion, magic, and science and ends up in a sweeping journey across her slightly skewed world. The Golden Compass is the first of three books. The others are titled The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass.

New Line has already cast their lead in the film, a 12-year-old actress named Dakota. No don’t worry, not that Dakota. Her name is Dakota Blue Richards and she’s absolutely nothing like a dirty little Muppet, at least according to the film’s director Chris Weitz: “We wanted a completely new face for Lyra, but I was surprised that any young girl, especially one without training, could light up the screen as Dakota does.” Her name may sound like a bottled water, but New Line’s team seems to have confidence in the unknown as a young actress.

The Golden Compass is now set to start shooting soon, with a projected release date of November 17, 2007. Unless the first movie is a complete box office turd, it’s likely New Line will make the others as well. At least let’s hope so, since the first book ends rather abruptly and doesn’t work very well as a single, self-contained story.

His Dark Materials was really written for younger readers, but like “Harry Potter” or “The Hobbit” works well enough for the young at heart too. It’s certainly not on par with the quality of those writings though. I just finished reading the first book, and was so unimpressed I doubt I’ll bother with the others, despite “Golden Compass’s” unresolved, cliffhanger ending. The books have plenty of obsessive adult fans (as just about any fantasy property seems to), but how much does that really mean these days when even low-quality sci-fi/fantasy properties like Charmed spawn crazed geek-groups? If you write it, they will come (even if it sucks).