I expect Pullman 'approved' it in the sense of selling the rights to it long, long before the script used for this version was even finished. Which leaves him smiling and nodding, ignoring it entirely, or coming out like Alan Moore and looking like a raving lunatic. I haven't seen which he's doing, BTW.

From the interviews I've seen, I know that the eventual theme they thought they were going for was Lyra building herself a new family. Which. Huh. How do you get that out of the original books?