British author Pullman admitted such objections may have hit US box office sales. The film met with middling success in America when it opened last December but made over £150 million ($300 million) worldwide.

The Oxford-based author said he had received no confirmation that the second book, The Subtle Knife, would be made into a film. New Line Cinema had hoped the trilogy would mirror the success of The Lord of the Rings and The Subtle Knife was pencilled in for release in 2009.

He said: "People are talking about it. I think there might be a script. People are very busy. When there's a development I will hear about it."

However, Pullman insisted it was quite normal for potential films to remain in limbo for some time before a final decision was made.

On its rumoured 2009 release, he said: "I think people were hoping it would be out then but without the film actually having a production start date there can't be a due date."

Pullman claimed religious attacks on The Golden Compass were misdirected but admitted: "I've no doubt to say it did influence a number of people not to go to see it."

Denying His Dark Materials was anti-Catholic, he still argued: "When religion gets its hands on the levers of power - whether to go to war, hold people prisoner or decide what they can or can't do - that is when it is dangerous.

"I find it very hard to understand how anyone can disagree with that. "In the world we live in, both Catholics and Protestants have wielded that power to the detriment of very many people."

He said he remained "hopeful" The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass would be made into films.

Source: The Independent

A musical set in 1920s New Orleans, the film was supposed to feature Maddy, a black chambermaid working for a spoilt, white Southern debutante. Maddy was to be helped by a voodoo priestess fairy godmother to win the heart of a white prince, after he rescued her from the clutches of a voodoo magician.

Disney's original storyboard is believed to have been torn up after criticism that the lead character was a clichéd subservient role with echoes of slavery, and whose name sounded too much like "Mammy" – a unwelcome reminder of America's Deep South before the civil rights movement swept away segregation.

The heroine has been recast as Tiana, a 19-year-old in a country that has never had a monarchy. She is now slated to live "happily ever after" with a handsome fellow who is not black – with leaks suggesting that he will be of Middle Eastern heritage and called Naveen. The race of the villain in the cartoon is reported to have also been revised.

The film studio began making changes a year ago, first to its title, The Frog Princess, which some had interpreted as a slur. Amendments to the plot followed.

Rodney Hinds, features editor of The Voice newspaper, said: "We are talking about a big company who has had to go back to the drawing board. It's disappointing... Some of the stereotyping of people from our community is still rigid in people's minds. We have our own dreams and stories like everyone else, and we want them to be portrayed positively. This is about how people are perceived and a princess is normally a positive character who most people aspire to."

Disney commented: "The story takes place in the charming elegance and grandeur of New Orleans' fabled French Quarter during the Jazz Age... Princess Tiana will be a heroine in the great tradition of Disney's rich animated fairy tale legacy, and all other characters and aspects of the story will be treated with the greatest respect and sensitivity."

Disney's efforts to be multicultural have not always gone according to plan. In 1993, there were protests from Muslims who said the animated film Aladdin depicted the Middle East as barbaric. One lyric included with the line: "I come from a land, from a faraway place, where the caravan camels roam, where they cut off your ear if they don't like your face; it's barbaric, but hey, it's home."