Next month the first film of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy is releases, and already campaigns against it are gaining momentum on Facebook.
In the books there is a strong anti-religious theme, and while this has been reportedly toned down for the film some Christians are very worred about the possible impact that this message could have on children. More background to the book and the controversy here
Facebook has become one of the focal points in the campaign against the film, and the largest group - Do NOT Support The Golden Compass - has doubled in members in the last week, now standing at 40,000 strong.
To quote the summary of the group:
"THE GOLDEN COMPASS, a new movie targeted at children, will be released
December 7, 2007. This movie is based on a the first book of a trilogy
by atheist Philip Pullman. In the final book a boy and girl kill God
so they can do as they please. Pullman left little doubt about his
intentions when he said in a 2003 interview that "My books are about
killing God."
The movie is a watered down version of the first book and is designed
to be very attractive in the hope unsuspecting parents will take their
children to see the the movie and that the children will want the
books for Christmas.
The movie has a well known cast, including Nicole Kidman, Kevin Bacon,
and Sam Elliott. It will probably be advertised extensively, so it is
crucial that we get the word out to warn people to avoid this movie."
40,000 is a strong level of support for a movement on Facebook, and this will no doubt grow significantly as the release date approaches. Facebook doesn't allow users to see where group members are from en masse, but I'm guessing that most are Americans. Expect a lot more fuss, and some organised protests from this group in the month to come.
Incidentally this also shows how Web 2.0 channels have taken over from the Web 1.0 channels - a couple of petitions exist online (unless you know of more), but so far they only have a few hundred signatures
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