No more does the "next Orlando Bloom" crown descend than Ben Barnes begins racking up the lead roles. Currently onscreen as the titular Prince Caspian, Barnes is set to tackle a literary classic -- the title role in The Portrait of Dorian Gray.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Gray is actually in really good hands. It's being helmed by director Oliver Parker, and produced by Barnaby Thompson, the team behind An Ideal Husband and The Importance of Being Earnest. I thought both were splendid, so I'm immediately intrigued. (Others may disagree, but that's what the comments are for.)

Parker plans to "make a visceral, dark horror story" and says the themes of stardom are as relevant as ever. It's set to begin filming at the end of July.

I haven't seen Prince Caspian yet, so I can't judge Barnes' acting ability. Neither Jette nor Jeffery had anything too negative to say about him in their reviews, apart from his accent. My sister, who beats me to nearly every movie, said he was gorgeous but unremarkable. (Actually, what she said was meaner, but I'm not going to repeat it.) So, what say you Caspian watchers -- think this nice looking boy is Wilde material?

Frankly, I think if they're going to tackle Dorian Gray, they ought to have an actor who really must have a portrait rotting in his garret. I'm thinking primarily of Leonardo DiCaprio and Johnny Depp. The way they look just isn't right.

One thing I've noticed about most epic sci-fi/fantasy stories is that they're essentially about war, albeit disguised and softened with weird monsters, robots and other creatures with funny names. There's usually a bad guy (with a really sinister sounding name) who wants to take over the world or something similar, and a reluctant hero -- plucked from his comfortable, yet mundane home -- who has to stop him. The trick is to make it all fun. Because let's face it, we humans love war. If we didn't there wouldn't be so many movies and books about war, as well as -- you know -- real wars. (More specifically, I think, we love watching them, rather than fighting in them.) The Lord of the Rings trilogy worked so well because Peter Jackson projected his own twisted glee into every frame; he loved making those movies and it showed. The characters felt an anxious anticipation toward the battle, like a buildup, and the battles themselves were explosive releases. The new film The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, the second in an unfortunately ongoing series, treats war as if it were already played out, rather than happening before our eyes. It's a dead dog dull bore of a movie, but that won't stop it from making a fortune. (See also Jette's review.)

It's been two-and-a-half years since we watched the Pevensie children come to life on the big screen in Disney's splashy adaptation of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, but for the characters, only a year has passed between those adventures and the ones in the new movie, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. Well, time is funny like that when you're dealing with the magical land of Narnia, as the storyline of this movie amply illustrates.

The structure of events in the movie is actually an improvement on the C.S. Lewis book, opening with a captivating chase scene as young Prince Caspian (Ben Barnes) attempts to escape from his Uncle Miraz (Sergio Castellito). Miraz has been scheming to steal Caspian's throne and now wants him dead. But Caspian's tutor gives him a magical horn, the horn of Queen Susan, to summon help in time of need. When Caspian blows the horn, suddenly Lucy, Edmund, Susan and Peter are pulled out of a London Tube station (which was the first scene in the book) and into a world of wild, wooded ruins that turns out to be Narnia, thousands of years after they've left. However, Caspian thought he was summoning kings and queens, not British children, and how can these kids help him regain the throne and help Old Narnia? And where is Aslan the Lion in the middle of all this?

Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian is almost here -- we've got just under four months until the Pevensie children galavant on the big screen once again. This time around, the kids have been out of Narnia for a year when they find themselves back -- 1300 years later. The Golden Age is gone, and the evil King Miraz is in control. Of course, they do what they must -- team up with Prince Caspian to get him back in the throne and restore Narnia's glory. I can't help but wonder: Would world peace be possible if you gathered together all of the literary, heroic children of the world? They seem to accomplish a heck of a lot.

The above picture comes from Cinema Blend, and you can head over there to see some battle scenes, and a Caspian close-up for you Ben Barnes fans out there. Prince Caspian opens on May 16.

v

Last time, the Pevensie children (Lucy, Edmund, Peter, and Susan) journeyed into Narnia through the infamous wardrobe, and with the help of a lion named Aslan, they fought the White Witch to free the world from eternal winter. Now they are back for part two -- The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. This time around, only a year has passed in our world, while almost 1,300 years have gone by in Narnia. The evil King Miraz is preventing the rightful king, his nephew Prince Caspian, from taking on his sworn duty. So the Prince uses the magic horn to summon the Pevensies to help Narnia once again.

With the movie scheduled to hit theaters on May 16, 2008, we've finally got a trailer to check out, courtesy of Yahoo. It starts off pretty Harry Potter-like with the eerie train station -- just what is it with magic, children, and trains anyway? From there it starts to play out normally -- the kids discover ruins in Narnia and realize that much time has passed since they were last in the fantastical world. Prince Caspian (Ben Barnes) shows up, and it looks like the typical historic war scene until the fantasy sets in -- creatures, magic, and one heck of a powerful lion. Watching the trailer, I can't help but think that they must be grateful for the steps made by the Lord of the Rings and Potter films. You can spot styles from both in the trailer, and I wonder what this would look like if it came first. But either way, I imagine this will be another sweet money maker for Walt Disney.