Watch the Golden Compass trailer

Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig attend the world premiere of the new film The Golden Compass tonight.

The £90million movie is based on the first book in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy.

Newcomer Dakota Blue Richards, 13, who was plucked from 10,000 schoolgirls in open auditions to play heroine Lyra Belacqua, will also be at the red carpet premiere at London's Odeon Leicester Square.

Kidman plays villain Mrs Coulter while Craig is adventurer Lord Asriel in the film made by New Line Cinema, the studio behind the Lord Of The Rings.

The movie has already come under attack for watering down Pullman's rejection of organised religion, in particular the Roman Catholic Church.

The National Secular Society - of which Pullman is an honorary associate - has condemned the decision to remove anti-religious references.

But the Catholic League in the US has also urged parents to ban their children from watching the movie.

The Golden Compass sees Lyra travel through a CGI-dominated universe of humans and their talking daemons as she attempts to rescue her kidnapped friend and fight the sinister Magisterium, which condones the surgical removal of children's souls.

The film, released on December 5, is certain to be a box office hit, despite having a troubled history.

Director Chris Weitz, best known for the movie About A Boy, originally quit the movie, but returned when his replacement Anand Tucker left the project.

Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy became a best-seller around the world, attracting adult and young readers, and has already been turned into a play at the National Theatre.

Pullman received the 2001 Whitbread Book of the Year for The Amber Spyglass, the final part of the His Dark Materials trilogy, and the Carnegie Medal for children's fiction in 1995.

Pullman, as well as the film's stars Eva Green, Sam Elliott, Jim Carter, Jack Shepherd and Freddie Highmore, will all attend tonight's premiere.

The Golden Compass is the US title of Pullman's novel Northern Lights.

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