Oscar® winner Howard Berger and special make-up effects artist Gino Acevedo have been added as guest speakers for the International Make-Up Artist Trade Show (IMATS), held Sept. 12-13 at the Sydney Convention Centre in Sydney, Australia.

Berger, who won an Oscar® for his work on The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, will take the stage along with the make-up team from Narnia. A Los Angeles native, Berger was hired by Stan Winston to work on Predator and Aliens. Later, Berger was hired by Rick Baker to work on Harry and the Hendersons. In 1988, after working for various studios, Berger and Gregory Nicotero formed their own studio, KNB EFX Group, Inc. in Los Angeles.

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This week’s mailbag is a little bit late, and I apologize for that.  I had some stuff to get done this week, and I’ve started doing a new project.  Not to mention that I have been a little sick, so I’ve gotten a lot of extra sleep lately.  Not that it has anything to do with this.  Anyway, let’s get to it, some interesting letters came in this week.

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Producer Mark Johnson has spoken about how they were putting the promotion together for Prince Caspian and what thoughts they had for how to capture a wider audience for the film than the first had.

When Mark Johnson was producing “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe,” released in 2005, he and Walt Disney Pictures were careful to hew to a PG rating.  ”We were always concerned that we didn’t want to make it too young, and were worried in our campaign about exposing some of the talking animals. We thought an older audience might say it’s just for little kids,” Johnson said.

He found the problem reversed for last year’s film sequel, “Prince Caspian.”  ”The second was accused of being too old. What happened [is that] it was less about the Narnian creatures than human creatures,” Johnson said.

The second film grossed $420 million at the global box office, while the first raked in $745 million.

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Weta Cast is a brilliant podcast created by the folks at Weta.  This episode features a pair of interviews with a couple of guys you may have heard of: Richard Taylor and Shane Rangi.

Richard Taylor is behind the weapons and armor you see in both The Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia.

Shane Rangi is a great friend to NarniaFans.com, and he played at least seven roles in Prince Caspian as well as a couple in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe including both major Minotaurs: Asterius and Otmin.

Download and listen to Weta Cast here

Thanks to Magnus for writing us about it!

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Union Station’s newest exhibit and summer sensation for families opens Friday, May 22. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Exhibition is produced by the Becker Group, Ltd., which recently combined operations with Exhibitgroup/Giltspur, in partnership with Walt Disney Pictures and Walden Media. Based on the blockbuster film series and C.S. Lewis’ beloved fictional books, the 10,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art entertainment and educational experience offers visitors the opportunity to tour scenes from the famed literary world of Narnia. Through authentic costumes, props and set dressings from the magical Narnia films, visitors will enter a three dimensional world that combines the wonders of science with aspects of fantasy. Tickets are on sale now at unionstation.org.

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We now present to you, this week’s mailbag.  I’m losing track of the days of the week these days.  It’s been one crazy week, that’s for sure!  Look out for Kansas City’s Union Station launch of The Narnia Exhibition, opening tomorrow!  A press release will be available shortly.  Just to give you the heads up on other stories that I’m working on: both involve Narnia art.  Look for those as well, this evening.  Let’s get to the letter answering!

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I apologize for being late with this week’s mailbag.  Wednesday was the season finale of Lost and then Thursday was the season finale of The Office.  It was a very busy week besides all of that as well.  Anyway, let’s get started.

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KNB EFX has opened their official website detailing the incredible body of work that the company has achieved over the years.  I must say, though, that it is a site that is definitely for adults only, as the company does do work with scenes that depict blood related events.  It’s not for the faint of heart, that’s for sure.  Parental guidance suggested.

One thing of definite note to Narnia fans, and a very good thing indeed, is that they are ramping up to start work on The Voyage of the Dawn Treader this summer!  Their work on The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe earned them an Academy Award, which was well deserved.  Though they were passed on for the excellent work on Prince Caspian, one would assume that’s because it looked so natural, that people forgot that it was the work of an effects house.  That’s how good KNB EFX is.

The website features some Narnia concept art that they created that hasn’t been seen anywhere else.

If Howard Berger is reading this, I’m looking forward to running into you sometime this year!

Take a look at KNBEFXgroup.com

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In recent years, there have been two different fantasy series that share similarities. They have the same basic plots, the same basic creatures, and so on. Looking at the posters, cases, and trailers, you would think they were very alike, but when you look deeper, you see that they are very different indeed. This fact shows itself through the success of the books and films of their names. (more…)

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For this week’s Mailbag, I looked in my inbox and realized a couple of things: first, there was only one e-mail for this week’s mailbag.  I could take this to mean that it’s not a good feature to bring back, but that would be ridiculous.  I enjoy the chance to answer e-mails and also to put my own voice into the site just a little bit.

On a related note, I share Andrew Adamson’s birthday.  Who knew?  Andrew, if you’re reading this, that must be the reason we have similar creative minds.

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