The last flurry of news we got on the Narnia sequel was back in December, when Mark had reported that filming for The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian was set to begin in England and New Zealand. The film's start date was just around the corner, and there were still some substantial gaps in the cast. Several cast members have been falling into line recently, however, and Moviehole.net is reporting that at least one more part has been safely filled.

The latest addition to the ever-expanding cast is Peter Dinklage (The Station Agent) as Trumpkin the Dwarf. Dinklage will play a leader in the resistance to King Miraz and supporter of Prince Caspian X as the true king. The cast list on NarniaFans.com also lists Vincent Grass as Doctor Cornelius and Alicia Borrachero as Queen Purnaprsmia. Ben Barnes will play Caspian and William Moseley (Peter), Anna Popplewell (Susan), Skandar Keynes (Edmund) and Georgie Henley (Lucy) will all be returning as the Pevensie clan. (Liam Neeson will also back as the furry Jesus figure Aslan). Although, this will probably be the last we see of Mosely and Popplewell, since their characters are getting a little long in the tooth for Narnia. Shooting was set to begin this month; so if Andrew Adamson wants to keep to his schedule, casting is going to have to be completed sooner rather than later.

Walden Media is chugging along in their efforts to bring Susan Cooper's excellent young adult fantasy The Dark is Rising to the big screen. They announced today that they have hired David Cunningham to direct the film, straight off of his controversial The Path to 9/11 television movie. The film had previously been in development by Jim Henson Pictures, going as far back as 1997, although Walden acquired the rights to the five-part series in May of 2005.

Cunningham is a talented director, but has yet to prove himself in features. Additionally, most of his credits come from documentary work, or from adaptations of true stories. Before 9/11 he directed the miniseries version of Little House on the Prairie , and his next film is a documentary about urban explorers called After ..., which is about people who sneak into "the planet's most dangerous man-made structures, just because they can." Hopefully he can make the leap into fantasy from the real world he's so used to covering.

I read The Dark is Rising when I was just starting junior high school, and it set the bar for all of the fantasy books I read afterwards. Cooper's Rising series is very dark (no pun intended), and focuses on young Will Stanton who finds out on his eleventh birthday that he must take on the Dark by himself, while looking for and gathering six different Signs of the Light. This isn't a Harry Potter book, which would be considered light and cheerful by comparison, but it is extremely rich in story and detail, especially for a book meant for young readers.

This also shows just how far the success of The Lord of the Rings has swung the gate open for the fantasy genre. Since then studios have acquired and greenlit book adaptations like Eragon, His Dark Materials, The Chronicles of Narnia (which had been in development for a long time, but the success of LOTR helped serve as a catalyst), and others are sure to follow. It's a great time to be a fantasy fan, as long as the adaptations can stand up to the rich source material.

Do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of The Dark is Rising at your local bookstore or library and read it before the movie comes out. Hopefully you'll enjoy the story in both forms.

• Bee Season - Richard Gere as a rough-boy sailor in An Officer and a Gentleman? OK. Richard Gere as a singing and dancing attorney in Chicago? Convincing enough. Richard Gere as a Jewish husband (of Juliette Binoche) and father exploring the mysteries of God through the flawless spelling of his daughter? Oy. Many parts of this existential drama about the ways in which a brilliant 11-year-old (Flora Cross) affects her family are sketchy, as no one of the characters is well-drawn enough for us to care about them too much. Genius was captured far better in films like Little Man Tate and Searching For Bobby Fischer.
 

Buena Vista Entertainment has announced a DVD release date for the currently still-in-theaters The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. The Narnia flick has been steadily closing in on the box office returns of Harry Potter, but as it nears the close of its run it is still unclear if Witch will pass Wizard in B.O. sales. The two will continue the fight in DVD sales (where the real money is often said to be), drawing largely from the same audience.

Buena Vista will avoid the fan-scorned "double dipping" that some companies use in the attempt to gouge their fans for extra cash, instead opting to release both the standard one-disc and special edition two-disc version of the DVD on the same day- April 4th. Both versions will include audio commentaries by director, cast, and crew, as well as a "pop up" facts mode which will display interesting/amusing facts about the books and the film onscreen while you watch. The special edition will apparently feature ten hours of extras on a second disc, ranging from the usual blooper reel and behind the scenes featurettes to a 3D explorable map and a feature or two on Lewis himself. It'll also have "a booklet and special packaging." Yay for that.

Am I the only one who likes my DVD case to look like it is expensive? I love it when a special edition actually looks special, and isn't just two discs crammed quickly into a regular old case with the words "special edition" or "Unrated Edition!" tackily stamped somewhere over the cover art. I also love it when the special edition and regular edition of a DVD release at the same time, so that the casual user can just get the standard DVD while the true fan doesn't have to waste twenty bucks or agonizingly wait several months for the real deal. Yes, I'm looking right at you, Sin City.

Shrek 2 director Andrew Adamson says that he is determined to stay as true to author C.S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia book The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe as possible. He says that he was terrified when producers Walden Media and Disney approached him to direct, as he feared there would be some major studio tinkering going on. "The books were very important to me as child," he notes. "I was worried they'd try to modernize it. When I finally agreed to meet them they said they wanted to be really faithful, too." This is good news, considering that many Narnia fans like myself were fearing Disney might add excessive jokes featuring boogers and farts, giant smart-talking robot villains and a soundtrack by Hilary Duff. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe opens in theaters in the U.S. on December 9, 2005.

Where do you think the greatest chance for book-to-movie awfulness lies here?