aslan Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Why We Can't Wait to See It: After waiting for years for a quality theatrical adaptation of C.S. Lewis's beloved Narnia series, the first film, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, didn't disappoint. Will the darker, more action-packed tale of Prince Caspian continue to impress fans of the books?

Why It Might Do Well: The best-selling series has a built-in fan base with families, Christians, and fantasy fans. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe grossed over $740,000,000 worldwide off an estimated $180,000,000 budget. This installment also boasts the addition of Ben Barnes as the handsome Prince Caspian, which could draw in the tween and teen market.

Why It Might Not Do Well: Producer Mark Johnson confirmed at the Narnia panel at New York Comic Con that the Mouse House plans to stop the franchise after filming Voyage of the Dawn Treader -- news that might not sit well with hardcore Narnia fans who were hoping to see all of the series brought to life. Also, the kid market has been rather flooded with fantasy films of late; The Spiderwick Chronicles brought in a dismal $70 million domestically off a $90 million budget, and Abigail Breslin starrer Nim's Island just over $32 million off a $34 million budget. Could interest in fantasy films be waning?

Fun Fact: Work on the script for Prince Caspian was started during the shooting of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, so filming on the sequel could begin as soon as possible, before the four children playing the leads visibly aged. Prince Caspian starts just one year in "Earth time" after the end of the first book.

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So it seems like Prince Caspian is nearly set to go, right? As we creep into 2007, the final pieces are falling into place for the Narnian team, and production is soon to begin on the second installment of the very popular fantasy franchise. But ... where, exactly? Many of you have probably heard the film plans on being local to London for most of the shooting. Just as many have probably heard the team will be doing the bulk of their work in New Zealand. So which is it, England or New Zealand? The correct answer for now seems to be "yes." Coming Soon just did a great job of wrapping up the various related news, and as it turns out, both sites are on target for some Narnian action.

The president of Walt Disney International has recently suggested the film will start soon in England. In the meantime, the chief executive of Film New Zealand denied reports that Disney was moving away from their country, instead suggesting the film would use locations in both England and New Zealand. Although this requires a fair amount of movement, it certainly isn't beyond the scope of a big movie like Prince Caspian. As a sideline, reports are also apparently being published suggesting Narnia is headed for Prague to share a studio with Babylon A.D. This one seems a little more silly, but who know what the team has planned. Aslan is on the move!

Past Prince Caspian news:

Caspian to Begin Soon With Reepicheep Goodness
Who is Prince Caspian
Narnia Lands Potter Effects Team
Adamson Takes Caspian Helm

The folks over at Narnia Fans have a great little interview with Doug Gresham, the stepson of C.S. Lewis. Gresham, for obvious reasons, is rather involved with the making of the Narnia movies, and had a bit to share about the progress of Price Caspian, the second movie in the franchise. According to Gresham, the film is in the late stages of "pre-production," and is inching ever-closer to starting the filming process, which they hope to do in February. Sets are being designed as we speak, and the team is narrowing down the list of possible location choices. As for casting, Gresham says it is in a very "advanced stage," and although Caspian (and others) have not been cast yet, the decisions could happen any time now.

Further, Gresham promises the movie will again be very faithful to the original source material, and discusses the possibility for a few more movies and what order said movies would be filmed in. Essentially, the natural order dictates the filming order. That is to say, they've already started with these kids, so they'll go ahead and film the books which include these kids (excluding Last Battle, presumably). So we're looking at a Dawn Treader film, and likely Silver Chair after that, to follow the Eustace thread. So really, we're getting books 1-4 in the original order, for those of you following along at home. If you own any recent set of Narnia books you may be confused, but that's because the books were rearranged into chronological order eventually. Lewis may have been quite fine with this, but I personally am very glad the movies are being shot in original order, and feel the choice says something about the value of reading the books in that order. If Magician's Nephew was really the best story to introduce the Narnia world with, don't you think the filmmakers would have gone there to start? Yeah, me too.

There's quite a bit more worthwhile and enjoyable information in the interview which we didn't touch on in this post. Go ahead and have a read.

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, was every bit as successful as any studio could have hoped. Box office receipts were great, DVD sales were fantastic and merchandising opportunities abounded. This immediately signified sequel for a franchise which has a total of seven books -- a true gravy train. The initial announcement was that we should expect a sequel -- The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian -- in the winter of 2007, a quick two years after the first film hit theaters. Soon, however, we were told we had to wait until the summer of 2008. Only a six month delay, but with always-aging child stars, a push back is always worrisome.*

Because of the delay, nothing significant is really happening right now with Caspian. However, an interesting bit of news just popped up. While the cameramen and actors may be idle for now, the special effects guys are not. Talented effects company KNB is now officially hard at work on the prosthetics and anamatronics for the next film, which is a hefty job indeed when it comes to Caspian. Just like the first film, part two is packed full of crazy talking beasties ... and living trees and rivers. And ... and ... Reepicheep!

* Two things make this less worrisome. First, the kids do some natural aging in the story anyway. Second, the kids aren't in all seven movies anyway.

• 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.