Narnia Books Being Made Into Movies? ROCK ON!

[Rosie Gamgee]

Pippin Skywalker... YOU'VE MET ANDY SERKIS?!!?! *simmers with envy* Not fair, not fair!!! How do we know what it's got in it's pocketses?! Good on you!

Yeah, I think Lewis did get a bit preachy in the last book. I think that The Magician's Nephew (which, by the way, I consider the first book) and The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe to be the best books. The Horse and His Boy is good too, but the rest of them seem kind of superflous.

I'm curious to see the movies. I wonder how good they will be. I must admit that I think that TCON is very shallow compared with LOTR, and I can't imagine how they are going to make these movies something interesting enough to sit and watch. Not that Lewis was boring (actually, I take that back. The Silver Chair was very boring), it's just that the content of his books is very much reading kind of stuff, not really movie kind of stuff, if you know what I mean.

[Nurvingiel]

I am not looking forward to them at all. I'm sick of books being made into movies. Hollywood needs to come up with an original ideas already. I am going to avoid all book-movie adaptations for a while (probably a long while), especially those that I have read and loved (like the Chronicles of Narnia).

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here is some narnia movie news

Nicole Kidman reportedly toured part of the possible New Zealand set of this film, which heightens pundits' suspicions that she may be in talks for the role of the White Witch.

[The Ben]

Cool! I love the narnia books and I'm going to see the movie as soon as possible.

[Elvengirl]

Nicole Kindamn as the White Witch? haha I have to see that.

Never much liked her........

[Bombadillo]

Hey! Nicole Kiddman is just how I thought of the White Witch.

Is each book being translated to the screen? That would be a lot of sequels and stuff, but it seems like each one would be necassary. (maybe it was stated already, but it's too late for two whole pages)

Are you Catholic, Elfhelm? :P

[hectorberlioz]

Elfhelm left, he's not coming back. though I do know he came back to shut off his pm thingie because I was still pming him.

The Silver Chair is the best!! however I dont think these movies are in any way going to be special or more special than the books. so many fantasy movies are coming out these days...they'll all look alike in some way.

[Bombadillo]

*gasp!* I can't believe I missed that. Poor Elfhelm, slain.

Well, this thread actually had me start re-reading, and The Magician's Nephew reads too much like a children's book. I guess it's been quite a while since I read it. I'm not looking into the rest though, but I remember Voyage of the Dawn Treader being my second favorite (mainly because of Reepicheep, who made me want to keep a pet mouse [until we got a pet snake instead. That wouldn't have worked out.]). And then Silver Chair, followed by Prince Caspian. The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe just seemed so different from the rest of them in a way, I don't even rate it like the rest, not higher or lower than any of the others for some reason.

That's why I think separate movies are so necassary.

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Release Date: December 25th, 2005 (wide)

Release Date Note: (10/14/03) When this project was first announced, the target release date was sometime in the summer of 2004, but the production has now given itself another 15 months by shooting for December, 2005 instead. Another New Zealand/WETA Digital production is also aiming for that month: Peter Jackson's King Kong.

Title Note: (3/11/04) In the tradition of the longer titles that entries in multi-film epics have been taking recently, 'The Chronicles of Narnia' has been added to this movie's title.

Distributor: Walt Disney Pictures

Distributor Note: (3/23/03) Nothing's been officially announced yet, but Walt Disney Pictures is the top contender, after also distributing Walden Media's Holes and Ghosts of the Abyss. Walden Media acquired the rights to the Chronicles of Narnia in late 2001 after they had long been in development at Paramount Pictures. (2/17/04) Walt Disney Pictures confirmed that they are handling this movie in a recent press release.

Production Company: Walden Media (Holes, Ghosts of the Abyss, Around the World in Eighty Days), Frozen Lake Productions

Special Effects Company: Rhythm & Hues (Garfield, Around the World in 80 Days)

Special Effects Notes: WETA Digital (Contact, the Lord of the Rings trilogy) (according to IGN FilmForce, by way of Dark Horizons) (8/10/03) On the subject of special effects, it's important to note that the production company plans on using a real, live lion for King Atlan (though I suspect they will probably use some sort of effects/CGI to move his mouth when he talks). (3/29/04) It turns out that WETA's involvement was only in doing initial character designs. Rhythm & Hues has signed on to handle the actual work, with 18 months to do hundreds of shots, on a schedule that is expected to stretch all the way until October, 2005.

Cast: Tilda Swinton (The White Witch); other cast not announced yet.

Cast Notes: (3/11/04) There have been some recent rumors that Nicole Kidman might have signed on to play the White Witch, but that has been debunked directly by Walden Media while talking to Australian press. (5/14/04) With an ethereal face and presence like hers, it was probably inevitable that Tilda Swinton would eventually land a role in one of this decade's big fantasy franchises, and sure enough, she's landed one of the classics: she's our White Witch.

Director: Andrew Adamson (codirector of Shrek)

Director Notes: (3/23/03) During this film's development, two other directors who were considered for the job were John Boorman (Excalibur, The Tailor of Panama) and Rob Minkoff (Stuart Little 2, The Haunted Mansion).

Screenwriter: Ann Peacock (she's making her feature film debut with Country of My Skull)

Based Upon: The popular children's fantasy novel (first published in 1950) by C.S. Lewis (AKA Clive Staples Lewis) (1898-1963), which is actually the second volume in the 7-part epic, "The Chronicles of Narnia" (despite being the first to be published; 1955's 'The Magician's Nephew' is basically a prequel). Here's the order of the seven books, all of which Walden Media holds the feature film rights (and they *are* planning on making this the first in a new series of movies adapting the septet): 1) 'The Magician's Nephew'; 2) 'The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe'; 3) 'The Horse and His Boy'; 4) 'Prince Caspian'; 5) 'The Voyage of the Dawn Treader'; 6) 'The Silver Chair'; and 7) 'The Last Battle'. The Narnia novels have been adapted as 3 TV movies: 'The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe' (1979), 'Prince Caspian and the Voyage of the Dawn Treader' (1989) and 'The Silver Chair' (1990).

Premise: Four children (Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy Pevensie) who are sent to live with an old professor in the country during World War II air raids on England, and soon discover that they can walk into a strong wardrobe closet and find themselves in a strange fantasy land called Narnia filled with a wide variety of magical and fantastic people and creatures. With Narnia frozen over by a winter that never stops, the children are enlisted to help Aslan (the Great Lion who founded Narnia hundreds of years ago) defeat the evil White Witch (Swinton), break her evil spell, and free the people and magical beasts of Narnia.

Filming: Production is scheduled to start on June 26th, 2004 at the Hobsonville Airbase in Auckland, New Zealand, and wrap up in December, 2004. There will also be some filming in the Czech Republic, and the budget is in the $100 million range. The original target start date was the fall of 2003.

Genre: Action, Animals, Based on a Book, British, Eye Candy, Fantasy, Historical, Kids, Sequel, War h of narnia movie

[IronParrot]

Here's something you didn't mention that I think is notable: the composer doing the score is Harry Gregson-Williams, who co-wrote the lovely music for both Chicken Run and Shrek and really hasn't received the recognition he deserves (mostly because in the case of Shrek, his work was only there for half the movie). He's a perfect fit for Narnia, and if he delivers, it might be the film that finally gives him an Oscar.

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new news!Four child actors revealed.

July 12, 2004 - The New Zealand Herald has revealed the identities of the four English children who will be playing the main roles in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. As expected, the four choices are almost complete unknowns in the film world; that, however, is likely to change if the first Narnia is a success.


The four young leads are: Georgie Henley, 9, who plays the young sister Lucy; Skandar Keynes, 12, who plays Edmund; Anna Popplewell, 15, is the older sister Susan; and William Moseley, 17, will be the older brother Peter. Popplewell is the most experienced of the group, having appeared in Girl with a Pearl Earring, Mansfield Park, and a few television shows. Moseley and Henley have never appeared in film before.

The four were announced during a visit to the set in Hillsborough by New Zealand's prime minister, Helen Clark. Clark expressed her pleasure at meeting the stars of the film, and reiterated how much films like The Lord of the Rings and Narnia have done for the island country's film industry.

Filming is expected to continue in and around Auckland for another 10 days before moving to the South Island. Hillsborough, which is near Auckland, is the location of the country estate where the children discover the magical wardrobe.

Several photos from the Hillsborough set are available at the Herald's website. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe will open in theaters around Christmas, 2005.

[Grey_Wolf]

Are you sure they're not gonna cut and slash as they did in the
LOTR-movies?

[brownjenkins]

Originally posted by Grey_Wolf
Are you sure they're not gonna cut and slash as they did in the
LOTR-movies?

it's kinda the nature of film to cut 'n slash... the question is, will they do it well

narnia might lend itself better since it doesn't have quite the same time-scale and plot complexity of LoTR... it's a fairly linear story

[sun-star]

I agree, and also more about the story can be conveyed visually - there's not as much history to explain as there is with LOTR.

So much depends on having good child actors though... I hope they've picked ones who can do a bit better than the Harry Potter kids.

[Nurvingiel]

I saw Prince Caspian, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, and The Silver Chair in a (Swedish) movie rental store today. Coolness.

[hectorberlioz]

Example # 4 of the Mods' Incompetence....Vive Sun-Star! Sun-Star for CSL Mod!