12 Films That Wasted Incredible Potential

The Golden Compass film from 2007 is one of many examples of how a studio's attempts to make a film franchise out of a successful book series ends in miserable failure.

Based on the first book in Philip Pullman’s best selling series, His Dark Materials, The Golden Compass focuses on an orphaned girls journey to save her kidnapped friend. Along the way, she encounters armoured polar bears, witches and the despicable Oblation Board, who are secretly experimenting on children in their attempt to better understand the properties of a magical substance referred to in the world as Dust.

The books offered everything a fan of fantasy adventure novels could ask for. Sadly though, the film would not live up to the same success as the books.

The decision to dilute or omit key elements of the original book's story did not sit well with fans. Things got worse when the studio stepped in to make multiple changes in post-production in order to make the film more appealing to wider audiences. The film would fail to make any lasting impressions and lead to the studio cancelling plans to adapt the other books in the series.