Narnia Fans » Interviews

Will Poulter talks Dawn Treader

Paul Martin — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:02:28 +0000

You’re filming The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of The Dawn Treader in Australia at the moment, how’s that going?

Will Poulter: Its really good fun thank you, I’m really enjoying myself but I am missing home quite a bit, especially my family and friends. Although I will be sad to leave I will be really pleased to be home for Christmas.

Your character, Eustace Scrubb, isn’t very well behaved and of course you played the ‘most badly behaved kid in school’ in Son of Rambow. How do you keep getting these type of roles?

Will Poulter: I know, I would really like to play a nice character for once! I feel quite bad about having to play those characters and I hope there is no one like Eustace Scrubb!

The famous introduction in the book by CS Lewis is: “There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it.” Would you say that’s a fair evaluation of your character?

Will Poulter: Absolutely. He is a complete brat, he’s obnoxious, rude, selfish and cowardly and has no respect for anyone other than himself. However he does become a much better adjusted person at the end of the book.

-read the rest of the interview at On the Box

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Ben Barnes talks Battles, Discovery in Dawn Treader

Paul Martin — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 13:29:58 +0000

His debut as the eponymous royal in the second Narnia movie, 2008’s Prince Caspian, helped the film to rack up over $400 million at the box office, and he will now reprise the role in the adaptation of Lewis’s third book in the series, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

“There are some big pitched battles in this one, swords and action,” he reveals when pondering his forthcoming adventure, “although this film is more about magic, creatures and discovery. I am looking forward to seeing Caspian a few years later, as a king, playing a character that isn’t so vulnerable and fragile this time around. And playing a king, I think that has to be pretty cool. The king is in charge, for a start, although then the kids turn up and they kind of piss on his bonfire a bit!

“But I am looking forward to it. After all, as a kid you dream of wielding swords in a fantasy adventure.” He smiles.

“I definitely didn’t grow up wanting to play a young dad, with a child in a coma, searching for the answers!” The role of a young dad searching for the answers comes courtesy of the film he’s just completed in Boston, which carries the temporary title of Valediction. “It has a very adult theme and I am playing my own age for the first time ever,” says Barnes, “a 28-year-old man with a daughter. It felt like a lot of films that I have loved but also didn’t feel like anything I have read in a long time. It’s hard to describe. How would describe The Three Colours Blue or Blue Velvet or Momento? They are hard to pigeonhole. They are films about people. It is certainly the most real film I have done, it’s my second contemporary film, and it just kind of screamed at me to come and do it.”

Read the rest at the Telegraph

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Narnia films producer Douglas Gresham visits FOX 35

Paul Martin — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 05:01:30 +0000

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Prince Caspian and all the stories from the Chronicles of Narina are some of the most beloved children’s stories and the movies have recently become major motion pictures and blockbuster hits. The movies’ producer and Lewis’ step-son Douglas Gresham visited FOX 35 to talk about how Lewis has influenced his life, both through his writings and as an adopted member of Lewis family. He also mentions that he’s just come from the set of the Lone Islands from The Voyage of the Dawn Treader in Australia, and that he hopes to make all seven books into films.

The Chronicles of C.S. Lewis Conference, will be held Aug. 14-15 at Northland, A Church Distributed in Longwood. Click here for more information

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Gary Sweet talks about The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Paul Martin — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 07:30:52 +0000

Gary Sweet, who plays Drinian in the film The Voyage of the Dawn Treader spent a few moments talking to Spencer Howson at the Radio United broadcast. I’ve taken the time to transcribe what was said in the interview, here.

Spencer: You’re also currently filming the next Narnia movie on the Gold Coast.

Gary Sweet: That’s right, yeah. I’m on the Gold Coast for another sixteen weeks now.

Spencer: Tell me what you’re doing in Narnia, then.

Gary Sweet: Ah, well, I don’t know if I can actually tell you that, cause I actually did sign a confidentiality agreement, but look, there’s a ship involved and of course somebody has to be in charge of that ship. Let’s just leave it at that.

Spencer: So anyone who’s read the book will know full-well what you’re saying.

Gary Sweet: Yeah, exactly.

Spencer: That’s a film that’s going to have huge international appeal as part of this series. That’s gotta be pretty exciting to be working on.

Gary Sweet: Yeah, it is. Yeah, it’s very exciting. One of the great pluses for me is the director, a guy called Michael Apted whose just a legendary British director. [...] Just the scope of this production, Spencer, is amazing. The digital stuff and the computer graphics and all that sort of stuff. It’s mind blowing. I missed all that, you know, I’m too old for that, plus I’m a technical moron. I’m not really good with all the technical side of things but geez they can do some amazing things now.

Listen to the full interview here, at ABC Brisbane

Interview with Narnia Storyboard Artist Mike Vosburg

Paul Martin — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 13:53:33 +0000

MundoNarnia has interviewed Storyboard Artist Mike Vosburg about his work on The Chronicles of Narnia. He did work on each of the films, including spending about a year working on The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. He has also spent some time working on Harry Potter as well as Walden Media’s Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D.

MundoNarnia.com: Tell us about your work in the storyboard of The Chronicles of Narnia

Mike Vosburg: Doing storyboard for Lion/Witch was my first experience working on a big budget project and was certainly of of the highlights of my career. Working with Andrew and everyone connected with the project was always a very gratifying experience. Our work was respected, we were well taken care of, and the final creative product was something we were all very proud of. That doesn’t happen in all your working experiences; unfortunately, it happens only rarely.

When I started working on the movie, I was assuming it would be about three months work. But we missed the deadline for shooting the winter scenes in the planned production sites, and I wound up working for a least a year and half, including a very pleasant stretch in New Zealand.

My favorite scene that I boarded was the death of Aslan in the first film, and the fight in the shrine to the Stone Tablet where the White Witch is resurrected in the second film. Since I had the time, I actually did some of the boards in full color. The big change for me on this project was that when I normally boarded sequences on other projects, there might be a few changes, and then that was the last you saw of it. On the Narnia material, we would do it over and over until Andrew felt it was right. And it shows in the final product.

MN: And what about the project for the new movie, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, any news or challenges?

I spent about a year working on Dawn Treader., including a sequence I did a couple months back just before they moved to Australia to start shooting. I was producing some drawings they could use when looking for locations.

MN: Has Walden Media already contacted you for the production of other movies of The Chronicles of Narnia series?

I’ve always had a great working relationship with Walden. I also storyboarded the Journey to the Center of the Earth film, so certainly hope they call me for any future Narnia work.

MN: On your website we can see on the portfolio works such as Hellboy and Harry Potter. What other productions have you worked?

Hellboy was created by an acquaintance of mine, Mike Mignola, and I’ve always been a big fan of the work. Tom Nelson and I both boarded sections of the animated material they did.

MN: What final message could you leave to Narnia and fantasy movies fans?

I hope that Narnia fans have enjoyed watching the movies as much as I enjoyed working on them. One of my more rewarding memories was watching the films with my friends Zahra and Jim Beihold (Jim was another board artist on the first film) and their daughter Emily and her two friends. The girls would recite the dialogue along with the characters…they had watched the film enough times that they knew it by heart!

-via MundoNarnia

Interview with Narnia Storyboard Artist Tom Nelson

Paul Martin — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 00:17:35 +0000

Portugese Narnia Fansite MundoNarnia.com had the opportunity to interview Tom Nelson, a storyboard artist who has done work on all three Narnia films so far, including the upcoming Voyage of the Dawn Treader. How the interview came up is one thing, but they’ve alerted us to it, which you can read here.

MundoNarnia.com: Your work is discrete, but very important to the beautiful results that appear on the screen when we talk about adaptations of Narnia for the cinema. And you work on the storyboards since the first movie. Tell us about who Tom is and about being an artist who develops storyboards.
Tom Nelson: I started working in animation many years ago, after a while I wanted to work on projects that had a little more drama so I started to work on movies the Narnia chronicles being among them.

MN: Which are the major storyboard projects you took part?
Tom: The Narnia movies are probably the biggest.

MN: How was the production of storyboards for Prince Caspian and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe?
Tom: The first movie was very special. Everyone was contributing to the movie, we knew we were working on something amazing. I met a lot of interesting people and found a very special place in my heart for New Zealand. I will always remember it.

MN: Have you ever read The Chronicles of Narnia or got in touch with them only by scripts?
Tom: I read the books when I was a child, and remembered them fondly, I never thought I’d be working on the movies!

MN: I promised you not to make “embarrassing questions”, but could you tell us something about the emotions for the forthcoming movie, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader?
Tom: In some ways its a different feel from the first two if only because of the setting of which a large part is the ocean. I think they’ve crafted a great story and can’t wait to see it!

MN: I truly want to thank you, in the name of all Portuguese-speaking Narnia fans who access MundoNarnia.com, for the interview and let you know that your work is a gift for us, a gift that makes a dream come true.
Tom: Thank you! Its great to work on something that so many people have a great love for.

Thank you to Lucy and the gang at MundoNarnia.com for tweeting us about this!

Ben Barnes talks Promotional Tours and Prince Caspian

Paul Martin — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 13:46:36 +0000

Ben Barnes is a very down to earth guy, and provides a really good example of what he went through on the promotional tour for Prince Caspian. He mentions New York, where I saw him about four out of the seven days that I was there, and sometimes twice in one day, so I can attest to what he says about his experience there.

It can be hard work being a Hollywood hero. Just ask Ben Barnes, a.k.a. Prince Caspian, star of the billion-dollar-grossing Chronicles of Narnia franchise.

There’s the grinding tour of world premieres (”Travelling for three months, sitting on your own in a hotel room in Taiwan, thinking, ‘what am I doing here?’ Just weird.”) and the red-carpet appearances where your every move is greeted by an electric storm of flashbulbs (”I don’t think there’s any way of ever being comfortable with it. You put on a perma-grin, which is so unnatural, and the lights make you squint. I get very anxious.”). There’s the frankly disconcerting experience of seeing your very own toy action figurine for the first time. “My own was absolutely awful, shamefully bad. I was a bit upset by that. How many times do you get an action figure made of you? Mine looked like a cross between Adrien Brody and Javier Bardem – but ill.” There’s the tireless and tiresome conveyor belt of press junkets and interviews.

“They take as much out of you as filming does”, sniffs Barnes. “I thought, ‘it’s only chatting, how hard can it be?’” As it turned out, the New York round of Prince Caspian promotion very nearly wiped this swashbuckling regent out: he did 90 interviews in one day, woke up the next with no voice and found he had to do 70 more, dosed up on a cocktail of vitamin C, honey and lemon, and Chinese potions. “I didn’t really have a choice. The film was called Prince Caspian, there was no hiding.” Appearing on Jay Leno’s sofa was a rare highlight. “Have you seen it? It’s definitely the best interview I’ve done…”

[...]

Today, arriving at his agent’s office and blaming his late arrival on the Piccadilly line, Barnes doesn’t really look like a star. Tall and slim and dressed in a white T-shirt, leather jacket, jeans and biker boots, he’s sporting some patchy stubble and “ridiculous” long hair in preparation for the [Chronicles of Narnia]: Voyage of the Dawn Treader shoot in July (”I do not want extensions again.”).

[...]

It has not always been an easy ride; Barnes already has one dispute under his belt, when he left The History Boys six months into its West End run to play Caspian, annoying the National Theatre. “I’m still hugely regretful about it and I still haven’t heard a peep out of them. I didn’t feel like I was leaving anyone in the lurch but I did feel like I was letting people down. And I felt like I was going to vomit for three and a half weeks between getting Prince Caspian and leaving. It was always my dream to work at the National: I’d been going there with my Dad since I was 10. I’d love to round it off one day by going back. It’s still the most gratifying job I’ve ever done.”

Prince Caspian, he implies, was not quite so gratifying. “It’s more to do with the contrast between the marketing and what I was asked to do. I was trying to do this awkward character who wasn’t sure he wanted the responsibility of being a leader. I don’t think that tested so well, so they tried to tweak him into a hero.” Did they Hollywood-ise him? “Just a little. Yeah. Which is completely fair and it made a lot of money so they know what they’re doing. But at the same time, as you can see by all my other choices, it’s not particularly what I’m going for. I want to play characters that are interesting to watch.”

-via The Independent

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Aslan’s Country interviews concept artist John Dickenson

Paul Martin — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 04:42:30 +0000

A new Narnia fan site has just launched and they have an interview with John Dickenson, who worked as a concept artist for Prince Caspian. He also spent some time working on The Voyage of the Dawn Treader:

How goes work on the Dawn Treader?

“It’s been over a year since I worked on it up in L.A. They are now shooting it down in Australia. It was my highlight so far in my career to be a part of. The 3 of us(Justin, Vance), got to work with Director Michael Apted, who was amazing to work for. We really liked the way he went about making a movie. And we also got to work with an amazingly talented Production Designer named Jan Roelfs. He had some great takes on the way this film should look and feel. We also met with Wetta’s Richard Taylor for an afternoon. He was a great inspiration. We hope to get the chance to work with him in the future. He left when we did, so I have no idea how the new PD will do on it. But the work we created was some of our best I feel. Once the movies out, I’ll post all my art on my website.”

Read the rest of the interview at Aslan’s Country

Ben Barnes talks Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Paul Martin — Thu, 14 May 2009 16:53:59 +0000

ComingSoon.net has a fantastic interview with Ben Barnes about his role in Easy Virtue. Be sure to read the whole thing there. In the interview, though, the questions turn to The Voyage of the Dawn Treader where Ben reveals… nothing about the movie! However, he is very excited to finally film the movie, which was supposed to start shooting twice in the last two years. We concur with that excitement.

CS: Of course, you’re going to go shoot “Dawn Treader” very soon. Have you read a script or started training or anything for it yet? Obviously, it was pushed back six or seven months.
Barnes: Twice. It was supposed to go the January before last, that was the original plan.

CS: You’ve known for a long time that you were going to do the movie eventually.
Barnes: But yeah, I know nothing about it. I know as much as anyone who has read the “Dawn Treader” book. Literally, that’s how much I know.

CS: Is there anything in the book you’re excited about doing?
Barnes: Yeah, there’s a lot of it! Obviously, I’m hoping Ramandu’s daughter is hot… there’s the beginning where he dives in and saves Lucy, there’s all the cool stuff with the golden pawn. I think the Lucy stuff, and the monopods where she goes to the Professor’s room and sees her past, that’ll be cool. The sea serpent and the mermaids and mermen will be cool.

CS: A lot of that stuff is visual FX though.
Barnes: It’s all very fantastical though, and I think just to be a part of that will be exciting. Make it a bit younger again and more fantasy world like the first one, more kind of discovery.

CS: Have you met with Michael Apted again since the first time?
Barnes: I met him on the set of “Prince Caspian” and I met him once after that.

CS: So they’ve just been off doing their own thing preparing.
Barnes: Yeah, I assume they’ve been working hard on it. I just don’t really know. I don’t have any information for you, I’m afraid, because I’m in the dark myself. I WISH I was one of those people who knew everything and were still like, “I’m afraid I can’t tell you.” I wish I was that guy.

CS: Well, I’m assuming that it’s basically the book.
Barnes: Yeah, but I’m still very intrigued and anxious about what stuff they’re going to leave… because “Dawn Treader” is such an episodic book. Read a chapter and that’s a kid’s book, and it doesn’t link together as a story. Apart from the fact they’re on this voyage, but you need motivation in a film, so the way they sew it together is going to be the interesting thing.

CS: Do you have your sea legs together to be able to do a lot of stuff on water? Or are you just going to have to…
Barnes: (shaking head) Wing it. I swim a lot. I swim most days. So no, I like that.

Read the full interview at ComingSoon.net, the site that doesn’t sleep

NarniaFans.com Ben Barnes Interview Exclusive

Paul Martin — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 04:02:00 +0000

Last week, I got an e-mail offering the opportunity to interview Ben Barnes. He had played Prince Caspian in the latest Narnia film and will be reprising that role when they film Voyage of the Dawn Treader. He is looking forward to that film, greatly, as we all are.

I jumped at the chance to interview him again. Hanging out with him in New York for the Prince Caspian junkets and the premiere was a lot of fun and he was a really cool person, so how could I not?

What follows is most of the interview, but not all of it. We went off into so many tangents that it might even be a bit hard to follow. It was a fun conversation, but not all of it is required, nor would it make much sense.

The interview was set up because of the Narnia Exhibition that is opening at The Franklin in Pennsylvania next week. Tickets are available now. It’s a fantastic exhibition and you can see authentic props and things from the movie, and learn a little bit while you’re at it! Read the full press release following this interview.

Ben Barnes: Hi Paul!

NarniaFans.com: Hey Ben, how’s it going?

Ben Barnes: Excellent, how are you?

NarniaFans.com: Very Good, very good. It’s been a little while since New York, and everything, that was fun.

Ben Barnes: Yeah, I remember, yeah, it’s been a while.

NarniaFans.com: Yeah, so how’s it been, since then?

Ben Barnes: Yeah, it’s been great. I managed to squeeze in another film and listening to all the gossip about moving on with these [Narnia films] and just waiting for that to happen, really.

NarniaFans.com: Right, and I trust you’ve been learning how to sail a ship in the meantime as well?

Ben Barnes: I wish I had been, yeah, I wish I had been. You know, we’re so unsure as to the scheduling that if I started training now, I might be training for years before we actually film it. But most recently I’ve been assured that hopefully we’re going to get going with it in early summer, which would be good.

NarniaFans.com: Excellent.

Ben Barnes: I’ve been looking forward to it since the end of the last one. This is the story I was really excited about when I got the part in the first place.

NarniaFans.com: Oh, of course! So, tell me, how did it feel going through the exhibition, like have you gone through it yet?

Ben Barnes: I’m going through it this afternoon, actually. Have you been through it already?

NarniaFans.com: I went through in Arizona.

Ben Barnes: Oh, okay, how was it?

NarniaFans.com: Oh, fantastic.

Ben Barnes: Great!

NarniaFans.com: People, because it’s Arizona and the desert, people would start to tear up as the snow starts to fall on them and they remember their childhood.

Ben Barnes: Oh, that’s fantastic. I mean, apparently you’ve got the wardrobe and then the snow and you can sit on the icy Witch’s throne and the Telmarine war machines and everything. Sounds great.

NarniaFans.com: So, did you bring any family with you to the exhibition?

Ben Barnes: No, they’re home in London. They’ve got their own very busy lives.. I’m looking forward to it!

NarniaFans.com: What are you looking forward to most? Because you’re seeing all of your stuff in a museum… and you know, it’s all of your old Prince Caspian stuff!

Ben Barnes: I think, obviously, from a very selfish point of view I think it will be kind of cool to see the costumes that I was wearing day in, day out, in a glass case. I think that’s kind of cool and interesting.

NarniaFans.com: You’d probably feel the urge to pick it up and put it on right away!

Ben Barnes: Right, exactly, I’m just imagining walking up to it and having a museum guard say “please don’t touch that, sir!” and I’ll be like “But it’s mine!”

NarniaFans.com: Like your old sword and everything.

Ben Barnes: Exactly, and I just finished shooting Dorian Gray, based on Oscar Wilde, and they got this fantastic portrait painted. This very expensive portrait painted. And I was like “can I have that, afterwards for my mom?” and they were like “absolutely not, do you know what this is worth? We’re giving this to a museum.” And I was like “but it’s a picture of me, what do you mean you’re giving it to a museum, it makes no sense!”

NarniaFans.com: Right, and that’s a huge movie for you as well.

Ben Barnes: I’m 27 and my world is already in museums around the world, it doesn’t seem to make any sense. It should be at least 50 years after you’re dead that things from your career end up in museums.

NarniaFans.com: Right, it’s like, you’ve done two big films and a couple of independents and you’re already in museums. Have you been able to stay grounded in all of this? Is Dorian Gray going to skyrocket you?

Ben Barnes: I don’t know, I don’t think so… I’m very lucky, I’m a quite private person, it’s actually quite good for me, I would much rather have it this way round. I find it very uncomfortable, really, reading about myself or watching myself on things, so I would rather have it this way round. And I’ve been very fortunate, the kind of attention I’ve been receiving has been mostly very positive and I get thousands of lovely letters from literally every country in the world about how much they’ve enjoyed the movies and things. And that part of it is wonderful, because that’s why you do it, you know, you do it so that there are people around the world who watch it and get something out of it and enjoy them and take something away from it and that is what, on the whole that they achieve. In the same way that that’s why C.S. Lewis wrote the books in the first place: to allow kids’ imaginations to run away with them and to deliver decent moral and ethical messages and I think that that’s an important thing, escapism.

NarniaFans.com: I’ve got a friend who babysits a little girl that has a pillow with your face on it, she’s like four years old.

Ben Barnes: So she’s the other one, because my mom has one and I know that they sold two.

NarniaFans.com: (laughter) Yeah, and she kisses it before she goes to bed every night.

Ben Barnes: Oh, that’s so sweet. A little scary, but very sweet. Oh, and she’s four, that’s absolutely adorable.

NarniaFans.com: What are you looking forward to the most out of this whole exhibition?

Ben Barnes: You probably know better than I do, what was the highlight for you?

NarniaFans.com: I don’t know, there was a lot of great stuff. The ice wall, going into Narnia…

Ben Barnes: Let me ask you a question: have you played the Caspian video game?

NarniaFans.com: Oh yeah.

Ben Barnes: Have you finished it?

NarniaFans.com: I have.

Ben Barnes: Okay, cause I need help. I’m at the part with the White Witch and Nikabrik and the Werewolf are coming at me from either side and they keep running away and I can’t get past them. How do I kill them?

NarniaFans.com: I can’t even remember how that part played out, that was a long time ago.

Ben Barnes: I have it on the Wii and I am so stuck.

NarniaFans.com: Right, I do too.

Ben Barnes: I figure there must be six year olds who can do this, and I can’t do it. But you’ve been completely unhelpful and I’m gonna have to ask someone else.

(laughter)

NarniaFans.com: I’m sorry man.

Ben Barnes: That’s alright.

NarniaFans.com: Let me look it up and I’ll e-mail you or something.

Ben Barnes: Yeah… I’ll work it out eventually, I have to do it on my own, I have to learn to do it on my own.

NarniaFans.com: I mean, we’re both the same age, and I have problems with it too, you know.

Ben Barnes: Yeah, yeah, see, me and my brother sit there in my apartment and go “Come on, Nikabrik, die!” I mean, I’m literally calling up Warwick Davis going “how do I kill you?”

NarniaFans.com: Nice, I don’t know… the internet has a lot of good tips for it.

Ben Barnes: Yeah, I’ll have to go look it up there.

NarniaFans.com: So, what’s next then, for you?

Ben Barnes: Well, I don’t know, I’m hopefully going to try and fit in a movie or two before Dawn Treader if it’s going to be summer time. It could be a little earlier than that, in which case I might only do one. But I’d like to do something a bit more contemporary. And I’d like to do something American, too, so I’d like to do something like some kind of supernatural thing or a spy thing or something along those lines, but we’ll see.

NarniaFans.com: That’d be kinda cool.

Ben Barnes: I need to do a movie so I can tell my mates in London that I’m doing this, and they go “oh cool.” Yeah, so obviously you can say you’re acting opposite Jessica Biel and they get excited, and then you tell them it’s a Noel Coward adaptation and they lose all interest. So I have to do something where they get excited.

NarniaFans.com: Right. I mean, they’re doing Alice in Wonderland.

Ben Barnes: Yeah, Tim Burton’s doing that with Johnny Depp and Matt Lucas, yeah. That could be cool. I look forward to seeing that. But I’ve gotta stop doing things that are based on like high end British literature, because my last six projects have been Alan Bennett, C.S. Lewis, Noel Coward, Oscar Wilde, and I’ve gotta start being a little less precious about it, I think.

NarniaFans.com: Well, you did do Bigga than Ben.

Ben Barnes: That’s true, that is true. Which I was thrilled that it got actually a cinema release in the UK in five or six more artsy cinemas in London and then it got really fantastic reviews which I was really pleased about.

NarniaFans.com: Excellent. So you’ve got big things ahead.

Ben Barnes: Well, I hope so. Dawn Treader is going to be awesome because it’s my favorite of the books, I think it certainly has the potential to be the best of the movies.

NarniaFans.com: Have you kept in touch with the rest of the cast, since Prince Caspian?

Ben Barnes: Yeah, absolutely, I speak to Anna all the time, I saw William in Los Angeles last week. Less contact with Skandar and Georgie because they’re kinda doing school and everything, but I’m gonna get the whole next movie with them, so.

NarniaFans.com: Excellent, well it’s been great talking to you again.

Ben Barnes: It’s been my pleasure. I’ll talk to you soon!

“The Chronicles of Narnia: The Exhibition” will make its East Coast debut at The Franklin in Philadelphia on November 28, 2008, one of the biggest family weekends of the year. 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 exhibition will offer visitors the opportunity to tour scenes from the famed literary fantasy world of Narnia. Through authentic costumes, props and set dressings from the magical Narnia films, visitors will enter three-dimensional settings that combine the wonders of science with aspects of fantasy.

Tickets are now on sale to “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Exhibition,” which is presented by Walt Disney Pictures and Walden Media and produced by the Becker Group, and are available for purchase at www.fi.edu/Narnia or by calling 215-448-1254. The exhibition will run through April 19, 2009, at The Franklin.

“The scene displays and props from the Narnia films, coupled with the scientific and educational aspects of the exhibition, create an immersive experience that stimulates the senses and the mind,” said Glenn Tilley, president and chief executive officer of Becker Group. “It captivated audiences when it opened at the Arizona Science Center earlier this summer, and we are thrilled to now be able to share this exhibition with the people of Philadelphia.”

“The Chronicles of Narnia: The Exhibition” premiered at the Arizona Science Center (ASC) in Phoenix in June 2008, where it was one of the highest-rated guest experiences the ASC had ever hosted, receiving nearly perfect scores, according to a survey conducted by Jacobs Media. Philadelphia marks the second stop on the multi-city tour, which will include eight additional domestic and international cities during the next five years. As the book series has long been a regarded source of reading inspiration that merges fantasy and history, a special teacher’s guide that includes information on weather and climate also will be available to academic communities and school groups.

“We are honored to host the East Coast premiere of this exhibition,” said Dennis M. Wint, president and chief executive officer of The Franklin. “We know that people are drawn to our institution because of our dynamic approach to science and education, and we feel that ‘The Chronicles of Narnia: The Exhibition’ offers the perfect mix of education and entertainment.”

To help create the science portions of the exhibition, scientists from the California Institute of Technology and the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory were brought on board to review label copy for the exhibition text panels. Two of the scientists also appear in video presentations that play in corresponding areas within the exhibition in support of the science aspects, including a video that highlights how animals communicate. The video aims to teach visitors how and why animals choose their homes and how they use eye contact, color and sound, among other things, to communicate. Real world animals, such as chimpanzees, apes and dolphins, can be seen communicating with each other and with humans in a video in the forest section of the exhibition, accompanied by an interview with animal communications expert David Mizejewski, host of Animal Planet’s “Backyard Habitats.”

Visitors to the exhibition will view artifacts from C.S. Lewis’ personal study and experience exciting, iconic environments such as the famous attic and wardrobe that served as the portal into the Narnia adventures.

Once passing through the portal, guests will explore immersive, themed scenes, beginning with a wintry Narnia world, complete with falling snow and cold wind, as seen in the series’ first film, “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.” The tour then continues through other spectacles from the films, including the White Witch’s ice palace, Cair Paravel and additional displays and environments from “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian.”

Incorporating the movies’ original props with newly created engaging and educational elements, the exhibition allows visitors to enter three-dimensional settings that combine both fantasy and reality. Some of these interactive and instructive elements include:

• A replica of the Witch’s Throne that delivers a unique sensory experience, where visitors have the opportunity to sit on the iconic, icy throne and feel the chill. A nearby display describes the impact of climate change on our planet and investigates whether our planet could be frozen for 100 years, like the world of Narnia.

• An area featuring King Miraz’s Castle from the most recent film, “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian,” where visitors have the opportunity to build an arch, learning about the architectural structure and strategy involved in the design. Starting from the ground, visitors place pieces of the arch in their correct positions, complete the structure by placing the keystone at the top, and finally, step back to marvel at the architectural wonder.

• An area highlighting the mythical creatures of Narnia allows visitors to create their own creatures featured in the film. Three stacks of rotating, square blocks stand in 3-, 4- and 6-foot configurations, each level featuring different aspects of a creature – the lower level features creature legs, the center the torsos and the upper level the faces. By rearranging the different levels, visitors can create well-known characters from the Narnia films or mix and match the squares to create new characters.

• In an area of the White Witch’s castle, visitors have the opportunity to see and touch pieces of petrified history. Petrified specimens from around the world are featured in the exhibition, including a 5 million-year-old petrified cave bear tooth from Romania and a 45 million-year-old fish from Frontier, WY.

First published in 1950, more than 100 million copies of “The Chronicles of Narnia” series have been sold in more than 50 languages. The series’ first big-screen adaptation, “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe,” grossed more than $745 million worldwide. The second installment in the series, “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian,” was released this past summer and already has grossed more than $410 million.

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