Fans of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy will be very interested to know that Chris Weitz has found a suitable girl to play the lead role of Lyra Belacqua. Empire today reported that Dakota Blue Richards is a newcomer to the industry and was chosen from the 10,000 girls that auditioned. The first film in the series, which is to be entitled “The Golden Compass” will commence filiming on 4 September and is expected to reach cinemas by 16 November 2007.