Word is out that Nicole Kidman is up for the main villain in the His Dark Materials trilogy starting with The Golden Compass (Northern Lights for us UK people).

UK IGN present the news from the BRITISH paper Daily Mail (not England's paper, we have it in Scotland too you know).

Kidman has been offered the key part of Mrs. Coulter - scientist, socialite, and conspirator...apparently Pullman himself has endorsed her for the role. As of yet, however, there's no word - official or otherwise - that Kidman has accepted the part.

Interesting if you think of Tilda Swinton as the White Witch and then Kidman as the villain of the other major fantasy trilogy coming out...ach, just reading too much into that I'm sure.

They also have news from another BRITISH paper The Telegraph, where they state that the Government have recently lowered the taxes required to be paid by films and as a result this series will film in the UK instead of Prague as previously reported. Now that is really good news to hear, for the UK anyway.

Still, the idea that the central theme of religion has been pulled right out of the story bothers me, then there's the director who said he couldn't cope and pulled out, and now he's back in...perhaps this is all just down to pre-production jitters.