Oxford Lights

I have to tread carefully here because you have to sign a non-disclosure agreement to get a day pass to get on set. (Which fact I think I am allowed to disclose.) Anyway ...

• There is a film currently being filmed in Oxford, based on the first volume of a children's fantasy trilogy set in multiple alternate worlds. Atheism and the death of God play a small part in the plot.
• Ly- The young heroine is indeed played by a young girl. Panta- Her good metamorphic friend is occasionally played for shooting purposes by a stuffed cat. (For purposes of the part the girl has to look like she shares the DNA of Daniel Craig and Nicole Kidman, which she could do. Well, she comes closer than Keira Knightley in last year's Pride and Prejudice, whom we had to believe shares the DNA of Donald Sutherland and Brenda Blethyn. Nah.)
• Her attic bedroom looks atticy and bedroomy.
• Unless it ends up on the cutting room floor, at one point a cat runs down a stone passage. As that's all I saw being filmed, I'll be very cross if it does end up on the cutting room floor.

And there you have it. The inside goss on next year's blockbuster, no less.