美国国家公共电台 NPR 'His Dark Materials' Producer Jane Tranter Stays True To The Story

 

MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:

Turn on HBO this Sunday night, and you will see an epic¹ adventure unfold. It's a perilous² rescue mission set in a fantastical world filling a "Game Of Thrones" sized hole in the network's programming.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "HIS DARK MATERIALS")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) I am the western king, and I'm asking you to ready yourselves to travel north, ready yourselves to fight and ready yourselves to bring our children home.

KELLY: "His Dark Materials" - it was originally a classic trilogy of books by author Philip Pullman. Adapting such beloved stories for the screen is no easy feat³, and our co-host, Audie Cornish, spoke⁴ to the woman who pulled it off.

AUDIE CORNISH, BYLINE⁵: Hi. Ms. Tranter?

JANE TRANTER: Hello.

CORNISH: How are you?

TRANTER: I'm good. Thank you very much.

CORNISH: OK. In an alternate universe, Jane Tranter never ended up in television at all. Back in 1985, she was about to take a job with the Royal Shakespeare Company. But then another offer popped up - secretary in the radio drama department at the BBC.

TRANTER: They were working with Arthur Miller⁶ at the time. And I thought, oh, my God, if I'm a secretary in radio drama, I might get to pick up the phone to Arthur Miller. So I took that job instead.

CORNISH: Tranter never did speak with the famous American playwright⁷, but she also didn't answer the phones for long. She learned the art of dramatic production and jumped to the television side, eventually became an executive. Thirty-four years later, she's one of the most prolific⁸ producers around. She rebooted "Doctor Who." She helped launch hit dramas like "The Night Of" and "Succession." "His Dark Materials" might be her most ambitious project yet, one that required a deft⁹ hand to bring a complex drama to life.

TRANTER: It's about staying true to the story that you're telling, no matter whether or not you're doing a contemporary piece or whether or not you're doing a big fantasy like "His Dark Materials." It's all about text and performance and a really good story with something to say.

CORNISH: I want to come back to that in a moment, but I want to get a little bit to the story itself, which is super complicated (laughter), in my opinion, to put on screen. You have this young girl...

TRANTER: Yes.

CORNISH: ...Lyra. She's at the center of the story. Her friend has been kidnapped, and this connects to a broader kind of conspiracy¹⁰ of kidnapped children. Can you describe what Lyra is like, this girl at the center of the story?

TRANTER: She is a spirited girl who will zig when everyone else is zagging, is prepared to stick up for what she believes in. But more than anything else, really one of the great gifts that Philip Pullman gave us in this adaptation was to create a heroine who is the age that she is. So he's created a heroine who is a 13-year-old girl.

So often in these kind of fancy pieces where you have a youngster at the heart of it, the young children who are behaving like adults, who make adult decisions or have a sense of understanding that is an adult's understanding - Lyra does what she does because she is a 13-year-old. Her decisions as to who to trust or who not to trust are essentially¹¹ quite childish decisions.

And I think part of Philip Pullman's ability to do that for us is because, at the time he was writing these books, he was a middle school teacher and was interested and inspired by this particular age group and wanted to find a way of telling their stories.

CORNISH: I didn't realize that because - I have to admit - there were moments where her behavior took me back to that time, personally. Here's a clip in which she's having an argument with an adult caretaker.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "HIS DARK MATERIALS")

DAFNE KEEN: (As Lyra) How am I supposed to trust you when no one tells me the truth?

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) The truth is complicated. Some things you're better off not knowing.

KEEN: (As Lyra) I am so bored of being told that.

CORNISH: Now, I feel confident I can play that out of context because it applies to...

TRANTER: Yes, brilliant.

(LAUGHTER)

CORNISH: ...Literally¹² any context when you're that age - and frankly¹³, some days, as an adult, I feel that. But can you talk about this theme in young adult novels and in her answering by saying, I'm so bored of it - you know, not that I'm frustrated¹⁴, but I'm bored with that answer.

TRANTER: Well, actually, the first thing I should say is that I would not categorize "His Dark Materials" as young adult novels. Philip Pullman always says about the novels that he has written adult novels that children should and could read.

So you can understand the novels as a fantastic roller coaster adventure ride, or you can take it down a level and see that it's actually a story about a 13-year-old girl who literally goes through puberty during the course of the trilogy, which I certainly haven't seen before. And I think that's what suggested to me that actually this could play out on HBO. I think the complexity¹⁵ of the piece, I think the provocation¹⁶ of idea and theme and topic of the piece, fulfills¹⁷ quintessentially HBO. And after "Game Of Thrones," I will...

CORNISH: I was going to say, there has to be some pressure there because people have talked about the future of HBO.

TRANTER: Yeah.

CORNISH: Did you feel that?

TRANTER: I did not feel that. I would have felt that if I was making an adult male fantasy, full-throttle sex and violence, battle and intrigue¹⁸, thrills and spills piece in that "Game Of Thrones" vein¹⁹. I would not want to step into the shadow of "Game Of Thrones."

CORNISH: (Laughter).

TRANTER: All I was doing was adapting "His Dark Materials."

CORNISH: You still have your own pressures, though. I mean, I know that there was this big-budget adaptation in 2007, movie, "The Golden Compass" - didn't do that well. Was that in the back of your mind at all as you were trying to create this series?

TRANTER: You are right that we certainly do have our own kinds of pressure, but the film wasn't one of them. It was impossible to make a good film out of these novels. They're too big.

CORNISH: Oh. Oh, OK.

TRANTER: I think that they're too big. They're too detailed²⁰. There was too much stuff left on the floor. And the plot had to be sort of generalized, and you couldn't go into all the complexity and all the twists and turns. So therefore I felt quite confident about it. I have always felt that "The Golden Compass" was very suitable to television adaptation. It was just a question of waiting from 2007 to 2015, when I got the rights, for television to catch up and to suggest that that might be the case.

CORNISH: Your description of the show and just talking about all the different elements in it, it's very clear this has all the elements of a good drama. I know you didn't get to meet Arthur Miller...

(LAUGHTER)

CORNISH: ...Or pick up the phone and talk to him, but, you know, going this many years on, do you feel like you've come a long way, you know, from secretary of the radio drama department (laughter)?

TRANTER: Yes. I mean, put like that - hugely. I'm not a person who's particularly prone²¹ to looking back and thinking about the journey. I'm normally sort of just too hellbent, driven on the journey that I'm on.

CORNISH: You sound like Lyra when you say that (laughter).

TRANTER: Well, I always think of - I mean, and certainly, I thought like this while making "His Dark Materials." I think that often in life. You know, it's like you're on a tightrope²². And I am the sort of person - I get on that tightrope, and I will look ahead at the vision of what is there on the other side and call to everyone, get on this tightrope as well, but whatever you do, don't look down. So it's kind of exciting and terrifying at the same time. But I don't look back very much because I think if I did I probably would fall off that tightrope.

(LAUGHTER)

CORNISH: Well, Jane Tranter, thank you so much for telling us your story and - as well as the story of His Dark Materials. Much appreciated.

TRANTER: Thank you. Thank you.

(SOUNDBITE OF SUNLOUNGER'S "SUNNY TALES [CHILL]")

1 epic   

n.史诗，叙事诗；adj.史诗般的，壮丽的

参考例句：

• I gave up my epic and wrote this little tale instead.我放弃了写叙事诗，而写了这个小故事。
• They held a banquet of epic proportions.他们举行了盛大的宴会。

2 perilous   

adj.危险的，冒险的

参考例句：

• The journey through the jungle was perilous.穿过丛林的旅行充满了危险。
• We have been carried in safety through a perilous crisis.历经一连串危机，我们如今已安然无恙。

3 feat   

n.功绩；武艺，技艺；adj.灵巧的，漂亮的，合适的

参考例句：

• Man's first landing on the moon was a feat of great daring.人类首次登月是一个勇敢的壮举。
• He received a medal for his heroic feat.他因其英雄业绩而获得一枚勋章。

4 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

5 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

6 miller   

n.磨坊主

参考例句：

• Every miller draws water to his own mill.磨坊主都往自己磨里注水。
• The skilful miller killed millions of lions with his ski.技术娴熟的磨坊主用雪橇杀死了上百万头狮子。

7 playwright   

n.剧作家，编写剧本的人

参考例句：

• Gwyn Thomas was a famous playwright.格温·托马斯是著名的剧作家。
• The playwright was slaughtered by the press.这位剧作家受到新闻界的无情批判。

8 prolific   

adj.丰富的，大量的；多产的，富有创造力的

参考例句：

• She is a prolific writer of novels and short stories.她是一位多产的作家，写了很多小说和短篇故事。
• The last few pages of the document are prolific of mistakes.这个文件的最后几页错误很多。

9 deft   

adj.灵巧的，熟练的（a deft hand 能手）

参考例句：

• The pianist has deft fingers.钢琴家有灵巧的双手。
• This bird,sharp of eye and deft of beak,can accurately peck the flying insects in the air.这只鸟眼疾嘴快，能准确地把空中的飞虫啄住。

10 conspiracy   

n.阴谋，密谋，共谋

参考例句：

• The men were found guilty of conspiracy to murder.这些人被裁决犯有阴谋杀人罪。
• He claimed that it was all a conspiracy against him.他声称这一切都是一场针对他的阴谋。

11 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

12 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

13 frankly   

adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说

参考例句：

• To speak frankly, I don't like the idea at all.老实说，我一点也不赞成这个主意。
• Frankly speaking, I'm not opposed to reform.坦率地说，我不反对改革。

14 frustrated   

adj.挫败的，失意的，泄气的v.使不成功( frustrate的过去式和过去分词 )；挫败；使受挫折；令人沮丧

参考例句：

• It's very easy to get frustrated in this job. 这个工作很容易令人懊恼。
• The bad weather frustrated all our hopes of going out. 恶劣的天气破坏了我们出行的愿望。 来自《简明英汉词典》

15 complexity   

n.复杂(性)，复杂的事物

参考例句：

• Only now did he understand the full complexity of the problem.直到现在他才明白这一问题的全部复杂性。
• The complexity of the road map puzzled me.错综复杂的公路图把我搞糊涂了。

16 provocation   

n.激怒，刺激，挑拨，挑衅的事物，激怒的原因

参考例句：

• He's got a fiery temper and flares up at the slightest provocation.他是火爆性子，一点就着。
• They did not react to this provocation.他们对这一挑衅未作反应。

17 fulfills   

v.履行（诺言等）( fulfill的第三人称单数 )；执行（命令等）；达到（目的）；使结束

参考例句：

• He always fulfills his promises. 他总是履行自己的诺言。 来自辞典例句
• His own work amply fulfills this robust claim. 他自己的作品在很大程度上实现了这一正确主张。 来自辞典例句

18 intrigue   

vt.激起兴趣，迷住；vi.耍阴谋；n.阴谋，密谋

参考例句：

• Court officials will intrigue against the royal family.法院官员将密谋反对皇室。
• The royal palace was filled with intrigue.皇宫中充满了勾心斗角。

19 vein   

n.血管，静脉；叶脉，纹理；情绪；vt.使成脉络

参考例句：

• The girl is not in the vein for singing today.那女孩今天没有心情唱歌。
• The doctor injects glucose into the patient's vein.医生把葡萄糖注射入病人的静脉。

20 detailed   

adj.详细的，详尽的，极注意细节的，完全的

参考例句：

• He had made a detailed study of the terrain.他对地形作了缜密的研究。
• A detailed list of our publications is available on request.我们的出版物有一份详细的目录备索。

21 prone   

adj.(to)易于…的，很可能…的；俯卧的

参考例句：

• Some people are prone to jump to hasty conclusions.有些人往往作出轻率的结论。
• He is prone to lose his temper when people disagree with him.人家一不同意他的意见,他就发脾气。

22 tightrope   

n.绷紧的绳索或钢丝

参考例句：

• The audience held their breath as the acrobat walked along the tightrope.杂技演员走钢丝时，观众都屏住了呼吸。
• The tightrope walker kept her balance by holding up an umbrella.走钢丝的演员举着一把伞，保持身体的均衡。