To the dismay of Philip Pullman fans, Chris Weitz is tampering with an important theme in a movie adaptation of his books.

In his award-winning trilogy, His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman deals with the theme of organized religion and portrays 'The Church' as a corrupting and coercive force upon society and is actually described as "wrong and bad".

On the strength of the theory that the film would suffer financially if such a viewpoint were advanced in it, New Line Cinema has decided to alter that side of the books considerably in order to appease American Christian groups.

Director Chris Weitz told a fansite of the books, bridgetothestars.net: "New Line is a company that makes films for economic returns. They have expressed worry about the possibility of His Dark Materials' perceived anti-religiosity making it an unviable project financially.

"My job is to get the film made in such a way that the spirit of the piece is carried through to the screen, and to do that I must contend not only with the difficulties of the material but with the fears of the studio.

"Needless to say, all my best efforts will be directed towards keeping His Dark Materials as liberating and iconoclastic an experience as I can.

"But there may be some modification of terms. You will probably not hear of the 'Church'."

As a fan responded on the site's forum: "The Authority represents the particular kind of blank, unconditional faith humans put in religion and their total unwillingness to question it. Having a Communist Authority, as Weitz actually dares suggest, would be utterly ridiculous."

As well as being an excellent and compelling story for children and adults, Pullman's His Dark Materials is also a very thought-provoking work in terms of social criticism. Unfortunately it seems that the film adaptation will be somewhat dumbed-down to suit the Church, which goes some way to reinforcing Pullman's point.