AceShowbiz -

Giving a great opportunity for moviegoers to get an early look at its forthcoming big-budgeted flick "The Golden Compass", New Line Cinema is going to present special sneak previews of the fantasy adventure prior to its worldwide debut on Friday, December 7, 2007.

Announcement was made Thursday, November 29 by the studio's President of Domestic Distribution David Tuckerman, informing the previews will be held on Saturday night (Dec.1) in 800 theaters around the States. Pic, based on the first book in Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" trilogy, recently scored four-star reviews in U.K.'s Guardian, the Daily Mail, and the Sun following its London premiere.

Written and directed by Chris Weitz, "Compass" is set in an alternative world populated by talking bears who fight wars, witches, Gyptians, and daemons, the physical manifestations of the soul of conscious human beings. Story centers on a 12-year-old girl named Lyra Belacqua who starts out trying to rescue a friend - and winds up on an epic quest to save not only her world, but ours as well.