15 Awesome Scenes From Trailers That Were Stupidly Cut From The Film

2. The Golden Compass

From Russia With Love didn€'t pick up with the death of Dr. No and The Chamber Of Secrets didn€'t open with us seeing Harry finally getting the Philosopher€'s Stone. And yet, if The Golden Compass had been a success, The Subtle Knife (or The Magic Blade or whatever name it would have been given to make it more marketable), would have opened with the final act of the first novel in Phillip Pullman€'s His Dark Materials.

New Line Cinema, the producer of the big budget fantasy adaptation, had previously found success with The Lord Of The Rings, with which Peter Jackson played free and loose with the narrative pacing of Tolkien€'s text (Boromir dies and Shelob attacks Frodo in The Two Towers). But in Pullman€'s case the series hadn€'t been planned out beyond the first film and major changes at all seemed odd given his narrative was notably more commercially friendly. The original ending director Chris Weitz intended before the studio did their edit of the film (done to add an off kilter happy ending) can still be seen heavily in the film€'s trailer, hammering home how slapdash this change was.