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NarniaFans Mailbag #45

Jonathon Svendsen — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 20:23:08 +0000

As many of you may know, our fearless webmaster, Paul is currently on vacation and cannot respond to the mailbag. However since he’s been gone, the mail has piled up on the kitchen counter here at NarniaFans. After cleaning out the fridge, I figured I’d hold up some of your letters to the light and see what you all sent in and answer for him.

Hello my name is Lucy. I live near Cleveland where the set for the voyage of the dawn treader is being made, and I love Narnia. I realised, that I look like Georgie Henley (Lucy) and I was wondering if she needs an understudy because I would love to be it. I can talk English, I look like her and I have acting experience in movies and ads. It would be such a delight if you wrote back. Thanks you! -Lucy (that IS my real name)

Unfortunately, we do not have any power in cast/crew selections like that. Also, while Georgie may need a body double, or a stunt double, she wouldn’t need an understudy. Those are only employed in stage, not film. The main reason for that is if someone gets sick or hurt during the production of a movie they can shoot the scenes they won’t need them in while they recover, but you don’t have that luxury on stage. Sorry! Best of luck in your acting endeavors. -Jonathon

Hey just wondering i live in Australia and wanted to no when the Dawn treader premiere was? i really want to go…me and best friend are so obsessed…anyway if you know please let me know. thank you very much – Harmony.

I just did some checking on that one and Voyage of the Dawn Treader should premier in “The Land Down Under” on December 9th. Lucky Ausies. -Jonathon

I was wondering if and when they were coming out with a new movie? -Lacian

Your question has a two part answer: First , yes there will be a new movie, and Voyage of the Dawn Treader is currently in production. Second it will be released in the States on December 10th. -Jonathon

Dear Susan, Peter, Edmund, and Lucy, My name is Rachel. I saw both movies, and I love them!!!!!!!!!!!! I saw them two times each and had them both memorized!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You were the perfect actors, I should know I’m an actor also. I wish I could meet you in person but I dream that I know you! Thats the good thing about being an actor!!!!!, You can dream of every thing you want to! I have not met you but I LOVE YOU ALL BUNCHES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOVE -RACHEL

Well, Rachel, on behalf of Susan, Peter, Edmund and Lucy, they love you too. Thanks for writing! -Jonathon

That’s it for this week! Keep them coming folks.

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NarniaFans Mailbag #44: Filming Order, Regina Spektor and Invisible Army

Paul Martin — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 17:35:44 +0000

This week has been flying by. I just remembered that it was Thursday, and that I hadn’t written this week’s mailbag. So I’m spending lunch time writing this week’s installment. I spent Tuesday riding roller coasters at Cedar Point, and around that day there were some really huge things happening in the world of Narnia. The third film started shooting, and we’ve gotten some great photos of the Dawn Treader nearing completion. I’ve got a couple of e-mails to answer this week, but before I do, I just wanted to give a status update on the secret project. I’m currently working on speed issues on it, but it’s moving forward. I have guests up from Florida so it’s going to take me a little longer than I had initially anticipated, but I hope that it’s worth the wait.

And a quick update on Chesterton’s The Everlasting Man that just came in from a woman named Barbara: “C.S. Lewis’s appreciation for Chesterton’s The Everlasting Man in correspondence is well known. Tolkien borrowed the idea for Ents from Chesterton’s The Trees of Pride! I hope these facts were brought to your attention.” Thanks Barbara!

Q: Currently, the Chronicles of Narnia are being filmed in the order that corresponds to their publication order. However, Douglas Gresham has expressed interest in filming “The Magician’s Nephew” before “The Horse and His Boy“, instead of vice-versa. What is your opinion on this?

-Skulblaka_Shur’tugal

Paul: This is a great question! I am of the opinion that, when you first read the Chronicles, you always read them in the original publication order. As far as the filming goes, however, wherever they end up shooting The Horse and His Boy, it is the one story that doesn’t really seem to matter when they shoot it. It takes place during the reign of the Pevensie children in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. They could easily shoot it prior to The Magician’s Nephew, but shooting it after could afford them some story things that carry over, giving it more weight in the Narnia film series. This series is made up of books that all take place in the same world, but they are very different from one another in substance. The filmmakers are likely to, as we have seen, invent things that provide more continuity for the sake of the audience. If they did, in fact, shoot them in that order, it would give them an opportunity to introduce something in The Magician’s Nephew that has great weight in The Last Battle and, perhaps, have the Pevensie’s part in the story during The Horse and His Boy revolve around that particular thing, in some way. It would help to make that more of a trilogy, in some ways, and when the films would eventually be viewed in chronological order by super fans like us, we might notice some through lines to the overarching story of Narnia.

But who knows, this is all conjecture that I’m thinking about only seconds before I’m typing it. A stream of consciousness about Narnia filming, I suppose. It’s really quite intriguing to think about the possibilities.

Q: Hi! Somewhere I heard that The Call was nominated for an award. When will we find out if it won it – or do we already know??? Thanks.

-Dyanthius

Paul: I could not find information about this. Does anybody know if The Call by Regina Spektor was nominated for an award? I deserved to be. It was one of the best songs on the soundtrack, if not the best. If you know more information about this, please comment below!

Q: Hey, I was just wondering if you could give me a quick rundown or if you knew any links for a brief overview of what the Invisible Army is about? I’m doing extras work on it and I’d love to know what to expect in August.

-Dee

Paul: Wow, Dee! That’s fantastic that you’re doing some extras work on the film! It’s one of my dreams that you’re fulfilling. Best of luck to you on the film, and I hope that it goes well for you. If you would like to get a great look at what Invisible Army is all about, pick up the book The Voyage of the Dawn Treader or a copy of the audio book. I believe that the audio version is about 3 hours in length. The book itself is not that long and can be read fairly quickly. I will tell you, though: it’s an epic adventure on the high seas, with many locations and troubles along the way. I don’t want to say too much about it, though you can likely find plot synopses all over the web, and you can find chapter summaries here on NarniaFans.com if you look in the book section of the site.

And that’s it for this week’s mailbag! Be sure to send in your questions by using the contact form listed on the menu.

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NarniaFans Mailbag #43: Dragons Prow really Dawn Treader? Horse and His Boy contradiction?

Paul Martin — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 01:35:45 +0000

Wow, it’s funny how a week can get away from you. Especially when you’ve got a talkative painter working on your house, and you’re working from home simultaneously. It’s been a busy week, and people have been informing me about my Harry Potter question from last week. The interesting thing is that they pointed out some very interesting things. See the previous mailbag for more details of that. We’ve also had some very exciting things happening in the way of set photos and things.

Filming on The Voyage of the Dawn Treader should be starting in the next week or so. I had heard rumors pointing this way, instead of having filming start on July 15th. My thoughts? I think the actors had to get there earlier to start training, table reads, and costume fitting and the like. It takes more to make a film than showing up a week before filming. Especially on a film as big as this: you need more time for preparation.

Time to answer some letters from the last week:

Q: I’m curious about a possible contradiction between “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” and “A Horse and His Boy.” In the end of the LWW, the Kings and Queens come across the lantern in the forest and try to recall why it seems so familiar. However, in H&HB it mentions Queen Lucy telling the familiar story of how the 4 children originally came into Narnia.

I’m a huge fan of the Chronicles of Narnia, and was curious if anyone had noticed this as well!

ASlan

Paul: Very good question, I believe that this is the passage that you’re talking about:

“And Lucy told again (they had all, except Aravis and Cor, heard it many times but they all wanted it again) the tale of the Wardrobe and how she and King Edmund and Queen Susan and Peter the High King had first come into Narnia.” (The Horse and His Boy)

And it was set the same year as the Hunt for the White Stag. If you take a look at the following dialogue at the Lamp-post, you’ll see something interesting:

And as soon as they had entered it Queen Susan said, “Fair friends, here is a great marvel, for I seem to see a tree of iron.”

“Madam,” said King Edmund, “if you look well upon it you shall see it is a pillar of iron with a lantern set on the top thereof.”

“By the Lion’s Mane, a strange device,” said King Peter, “to set a lantern here where the trees cluster so thick about it and so high above it that if it were lit it should give light to no man!”

“Sir,” said Queen Lucy. “By likelihood when this post and this lamp were set here there were smaller trees in the place, or fewer, or none. For this is a young wood and the iron post is old.” And they stood looking upon it.

Then said King Edmund, “I know not how it is, but this lamp on the post worketh upon me strangely. It runs in my mind that I have seen the like before; as it were in a dream, or in the dream of a dream.”

“Sir,” answered they all, “it is even so with us also.”

“And more,” said Queen Lucy, “for it will not go out of my mind that if we pass this post and lantern either we shall find strange adventures or else some great change of our fortunes.” (The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe)

There are two things that can almost be surmised about this apparent contradiction:

First, that Lucy did remember the lamp-post for her story, though it was not as she remembered when they came upon it in the woods.

Second, that Lucy did not remember the lamp-post part of the story as she re-told it. We, as an audience, do not hear Lucy re-tell the story, and can only make our own assumptions of the story that she told. It could, or it could not, include the lamp-post.

But that’s only my own quick analysis of it. Does anyone else have some thoughts that I can add to this? You can either comment below or use the contact form and I’ll add it to the answers here.

Q: Did they start filming VTD on the 15th? Also, is it certain that the film “Invisible Army” is The Voyage of the Dawn Treader?

-Arvan

Paul: Personally, there is little evidence to suggest that filming did, in fact, start on the 15th. The actors did show up prior to that date, but, as I said above, they had a lot to do, and later schedules that I’ve heard had filming start toward the end of July or early August. Either way, shooting is happening, if not now then soon, and it’s very exciting.

And yes, Invisible Army is certainly The Voyage of the Dawn Treader’s filming pseudonym, created by the temporary filming company called Dragons Prow.

And that’s it for this week. I’ll try to be on time next week, but I’m going to have company from Florida, so we’ll see!

NarniaFans Mailbag #42: Harry Gregson Williams’ Complete Narnia Scores, and Harry Potter 6

Paul Martin — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 06:29:50 +0000

Welcome to the mailbag, where we answer fanmail that you send in, over the course of the week. For those that don’t know, we’ll take your questions, and if we don’t know the answers, we’ll try to get the answers from people that would know. We might even make something up! I have a very broad sense of humor, on top of a vast knowledge of film, music and comics with a wide range in taste and a great memory that serves to bring great comparisons or answers to your questions.

This afternoon, I saw the latest Harry Potter film, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I have to say, having never read any of the books but the seventh, it connected the rest of the movies to the seventh book very well. However, I do have a question, which I posed on my facebook status today, getting a string of hilarious responses. If you’ve not seen the movie, avoid this paragraph:

“When Harry and Gandalf go to the Mines of Moria, why couldn’t Harry use the the Patronus on the Dead Marsh creatures, when Dumbledore was all Odysseus. Instead, he had to cast a Balrog to fight them, when the Balrog is made of light, just like the patronus.”

The point of this paragraph was two-fold. First, it was to point out just how much J.K. Rowling ‘borrowed’ from The Lord of the Rings and repackaged into her own work. However, she also borrowed from some Greek / Roman mythology having them cross over what I instantly thought was a representation of the river Styx, followed by a spell that replicated a scene in The Odyssey. It was set in the Mines of Moria from The Fellowship of the Ring, though, as well as in the Dead Marshes, where Frodo falls in among the dead and Gollum swims in after him in The Two Towers. And then, Dumbledore looks exactly like Gandalf when he’s fighting the Balrog on the Bridge of Khazad Dûm. And with the fire behind him, it looks like he’s summoned a Balrog to fight.

This brings us to the second part of the question: could Harry have used his Patronus on the Dead Marsh things? Arguably it is a light based magic, like fire, and does work on creatures of darkness other than just Dementors. I think that Harry just needs to be in trouble now, so the patronas has been limited.

Anyone have some insight for me other than “read the book?” I don’t plan on reading those books. Too many great books to read.

Let’s get started with this week’s mailbag:

Q: When I bought the Prince Caspian Soundtrack I was looking forward to hearing Reepicheep’s theme. Instead I only got a few seconds of it in The Door in the Air. Are they planning to come out with a more complete soundtrack?

-Collin Layman

Paul: Unfortunately a complete recording of Harry Gregson-Williams’ score for either The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe or Prince Caspian is very unlikely. Perhaps someday there will be a limited print run of a thousand or two copies of the complete recordings. Perhaps this letter will help to generate some more interest in owning all of the score from either film.

Who’s up for complete recordings of the Chronicles of Narnia scores by Harry Gregson-Williams? I sure am!

And this was a light week, with only the one letter. Better one than none, I say.

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NarniaFans Mailbag #41: Stunt Doubles, Andrew Adamson and Set Visits

Paul Martin — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 04:43:30 +0000

Welcome to this week’s mailbag! With all of the news and excitement from the last week, it’s hard to believe that the Dawn Treader is actually kicking into gear. We’re getting our third Narnia film, folks, and that is very exciting.

Thanks for all of the prayers for my sister. She is clear of cancer where they thought there could be some, around where her thyroid used to be.

People have also been asking about the secret project. It’s coming along. I’m currently busy with it, but other things have recently come up. There’s a guy’s retreat this Friday and Saturday that I’m helping to lead. Pray that it goes well! It’s looking like a great one. Now it’s time for the letters!

Q: Hi all, I was just wondering in the LWW when Lucy is approaching Mr Tumnus for the first time, when she is stepping towards him it shows a back view. And in the commentary Anna Popplewell says that Lucy’s stunt double is doing the walk. You can tell my the difference in hair and sock colour. I’m just wondering why a budget blockbuster needs a stunt double to walk a few metres. Whether this is because of Georgie’s ‘growing pains’ I just thought I’d ask, to keep you busy.

Also it is my personal obligation as a narniafan and a longtime visitor of Papuan New Guinea, Andrew Adamson should come and visit again!!! he said he was scared about seeing all the change, join the club. I returned here after a long absence and it is a place of opportunity and beauty. I know there probably isn’t much anyone can do. But if by some small chance Andrew Adamson can find out/ realize that returning to the place he lived in for his childhood will be a great experience!!!!

Thank you so much Paul, all my blessing to your sister.

-Jason Fotheringham

Paul: I appreciate the question to keep me busy! It’s a good one. There are many reasons they’d have a stunt double act in some scenes like that. For one thing, it really depends on where Georgie is needed at the time that they have to shoot that. They only have so much time to shoot child actors each day, and if time runs out, or she needs to work on her schooling, production has to keep moving forward. With a scene even that small, they can’t break the rules. If they need to keep the movie on schedule, they have to keep going. Every extra day can amount to extra thousands of dollars needed for the budget.

I, too, hope that Adamson returns there someday. Perhaps he’ll read this, and decide to go!

Q: Are you or one of the other NarniaFans members going to visit the set for VDT, like you did for the previous films? If so, please take lots of pictures and videos!

-Skulblaka_Shur’tugal

Paul: Funny that you ask this. I didn’t actually get to go to the set on either of the previous two films. As for The Voyage of the Dawn Treader? Well, that’s something that I’m not ready to talk about just yet. It’s looking more promising than ever, I’ll tell you that. Should it happen, it’ll be a dream come true.

And that’s all there is for this week. It was a slow week, probably due to the fourth of July. Or because there is a lot of news about Narnia and Lewis releasing these days. It’s only a matter of time before cast announcements start to hit the trades. I’m looking forward to continuing to bring you more Narnia coverage than ever before. The new system that this website is on allows for faster publishing of stories than I ever had before. Not only that, but if you have twitter, and want to know whenever we publish a new story on the site, you can feel free to follow us: @narniafans!

P.S. Happy Birthday, Georgie Henley!

NarniaFans Mailbag #40: Douglas Gresham on Lewis’ inspiration for Lucy Pevensie; Film Scores

Paul Martin — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 05:44:24 +0000

The last two weeks have been some of the busiest weeks I’ve had since re-launching the mailbag. Last week, in fact, was so busy that I didn’t get a chance to do the mailbag. I usually do it on Wednesdays, but there was something important that came up last week. You see, there was a movie that came out that has made nearly a half of a billion dollars worldwide, so far. Being a child of the 80s, I had to see it. Twice. On opening day. Yes, I am a geek, and no, I don’t recommend this movie for children to see. But I won’t be reviewing it entirely unless I am asked to write further on it, the film is Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, and I loved it. Not every minute, but I thought it was great overall.

Now for an update that many of you asked me to give. For those that didn’t know, my sister was diagnosed with thyroid cancer, and was to have surgery this week. The surgery lasted twice as long as the doctors had anticipated, and they wound up taking the entire thyroid out. Apparently she isn’t entirely in the clear, as of yet; but she’ll be having radioactive iodine treatments soon that should take care of the rest. Prayers are welcome. She also has a convent of 250 nuns praying for her. She plans on entering the convent this fall.

We’ve got some great letters this week, so let’s get to it.

Q: In the LWW Extended Edition, on disk 4 (Visualizing LWW, The Complete Production Experience) Douglas Gresham states that when Jack and Warnie were living at the Kilns during WWII, several children were sent to live with them, and that one of them was the basis for the character of Lucy Pevensie, and that she became a well-known actress in England, and was still alive today.

Anybody know who he’s talking about?

-Islandgeek

Paul: I went straight to the source on this one, and got word directly from Mr. Gresham himself!

Douglas Gresham: The girl who was the model for Lucy was June Flewett, later to be known as Lady June Freud when her husband Clement Freud (Grandson of Sigmund Freud) was knighted. He died just a couple of weeks ago. June was an evacuee at The Kilns, and later volunteered to stay on there to help out.

Q: I was wondering if Harry Gregson-Williams was doing the soundtrack for The Voyage of the Dawn Treader film? I feel like I heard somewhere that he isn’t, since it has been taken over by Fox. If then he isn’t doing the soundtrack does that mean that all new music (with no recurring themes) would have to be created? I’m not sure if there are copyright issues there..?

Thanks!

~Marie

P.S. I thought of this question because I know that when a new composer did the soundtrack for the new Pirates of the Caribbean the old music was copyrighted and he couldn’t even use the old themes anywhere on the soundtrack.

Paul: Great question Marie, though this one is going to take some time for me to answer. Bear with me as I expound upon my knowledge of the film soundtracks to which you are referring.

Long ago, David Arnold was announced to be the composer for The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Harry Gregson-Williams won’t be back for this film, but that doesn’t mean that his themes won’t be reprised in some way. I don’t believe there are copyright issues, as the Narnia franchise isn’t Disney’s, it’s Walden Media’s; and Walden Media is still on the project.

When it came to the soundtrack for Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl, which was attributed to Klaus Badelt, it turns out that is a slightly misleading. There was actually a team of composers behind the soundtrack of the first Pirates film, and all of them did so as part of Hans Zimmer’s Media Ventures. Ramin Djawadi, James Dooley, Nick Glennie-Smith, Steve Jablonsky, Blake Neely, James McKee Smith, and Geoff Zanelli each composed snippets of music for the score. Klaus Badelt served as the music supervisor on the project, with Hans Zimmer acting as over-producer. Zimmer, himself, couldn’t take credit for having composed the score, because of an agreement with with another studio at the time.

Side note before I move on to the next film in that series: Alan Silvestri was the original composer on Curse of the Black Pearl, but his score didn’t match what producer Jerry Bruckheimer had in mind for the music. The movie’s score was written from the ground up by Media Ventures at a break-neck speed, with only two or three weeks to complete. They started with stock-music that Media Ventures already had, and built on that to complete the score.

Now, for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, Hans Zimmer had far more time to actually work on the score. He wrote themes for characters like Jack Sparrow and Davy Jones, as well as the Kraken. In much the same way that Prince Caspian had his own theme that didn’t appear in the first film, Davy Jones had his. There were rehashes of musical ques from the first film in both of the sequels, but Zimmer wanted to create defined themes.

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End did the same thing, expanding themes established in the first two films, while also establishing some new ones, such as the Will Turner / Elizabeth Swann love theme.

As you can see, it was never a case of copyright infringement. It could never be, as the same company and composer worked on all three films. What you witnessed was a progression. Think of it like a favorite band. A band such as Skillet or Relient K. Every album they release sounds like them, but it’s new music. If all they did was change the lyrics, but not much else, they’d be Nickelback. And that gets very boring, the more it is done.

There are many great examples of things like this throughout the film world. The Lord of the Rings is an obvious example, as it’s quite possibly the greatest music written for film in the history of the motion picture. But one film series in particular always starts the same, but different: Star Wars. John Williams will even tell you, the theme music that plays over the opening crawl is different for each film. He uses different instruments to emphasize different emotions for each film. It’s very subtle, yes, but it is intentional.

A good example to look at, though, is the Harry Potter series. John Williams was acting composer in the series for the first three films. The theme has been used, though, in all films since. The same will likely be true of Narnia, though each book is entirely different from the last, so it’ll probably sound pretty different each time.

And that’s all that I have time for, this week. I have a lot of projects to finish tomorrow, so I need some sleep! Contact us with your questions!

NarniaFans Mailbag #39: Dawn Treader Trailers, Stunts and More

Paul Martin — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 03:34:26 +0000

Sorry that this week’s mailbag is a day late. I had some business to attend to. Namely, there were ghosts to be busted, and I was the best Ghostbuster for the job. On Tuesday, a game that I had been waiting for most of my life to play was finally released. Not only that, but it was released in roughly three variations, two of which I know for sure used the actors from the original movies. Ghostbusters The Video Game was released for most systems, of which I got it for Xbox 360 and Wii as well as DS. I have beaten the game on the 360, and just started playing the Wii version, which is a very different experience from the 360 version so far. And I’ve loved almost every minute of it, save for some small problems, and the difficulty level of the game when sometimes, even on easy. When I was 8 or 9, I went to the arcade (!) to play the Ghostbusters game, only to be disappointed by it for not having a similar style of play to that of the movie, and it’s about time they’ve made the game that I dreamed up at such a young age. But this isn’t what you’re here to read about, you want to hear answer to Narnia fan mail, so here we go.

Q: Why was the second trailer for “Prince Caspian” released only 2-3 weeks before the film hit theaters? If I remember correctly, the second trailer for LWW was out two months in advance of the film, and we got the nine-minute super trailer not long after.

That’s the end of my question. I hope they do a better job of trailers on VDT. I saw “Baby Mama” a week before “Prince Caspian” last year, and the theater was still using the teaser trailer. I never got to see trailer #2 on the big screen!

-Mike

Paul: That was part of the mis-calculation of the promoters of the film. They did a big event for the first Caspian trailer, which we were a part of, and then the second one was next to nothing. It seemed like they had, perhaps, decided to cut bait. But perhaps it really took them that long to get the second trailer ready.

One other theory that I have is the movies released early in the year don’t tend to pull in a lot of people, and they were waiting to launch it with the movies that would have the greatest possible impact. They could have, for instance, attached the trailer to Iron Man a couple of week’s prior to the release of the film, at that point.

Either way, however, I have no idea why they did things the way they did with film two. Perhaps they didn’t feel it’d have as big an impact as the first film, and that contributed to the level of effort used in the marketing.

Anyone else have some theories on this to contribute?

Q: Hi! I, like most Narnia fans, am really looking forward to “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader“. As most fans know, the filming has been set back several months, but is currently set for late July. If this schedule is kept, have you any idea when we can expect the official trailer? For “Prince Caspian“, it was about ten months. Is this standard for movies?

-Reepicheep, Knight of Narnia

Paul: With movies, there really is no standard for a trailer. The first teaser for The Last Airbender is attached to Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen this month, and the movie is scheduled for July 2, 2010. It seems that one year tends to be typical of bigger movies, while 3-6 months for smaller films. With Prince Caspian, the first trailer was released in the December prior to the release of the film, roughly six months. I believe what you were talking about is the set videos. We’re not sure, really, when we’ll start to see trailers for the film, but I’d expect that they will want to start creating awareness in December of this year. So I’d expect to see something this year, with a ramp up happening throughout 2010.

Q: Hi, Paul! This is a two-part question. In ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe‘ did William, Anna, Skandar, and Georgie have stunt or size doubles? How much of the movie do you think that these four actually did? As for the second part, it’s basically the same question only for ‘Prince Caspian‘: did the four ‘Pevensies’ and Ben have doubles? I know that William did most of his own stuff. Thanks a lot.

-Tarwe, the Narnian Elf

Paul: In both movies, as is typical of big films with action sequences, they all had stunt doubles. Not really size doubles, as that only tends to apply with movies that include things such as Hobbits, as far as I know. Sure, they’d do as much as they could, but for insurance purposes, there are big reasons for having the stunt doubles. If anything should happen, they save hundreds of millions in re-shoots and re-casting. I can’t really say percentages, as I wasn’t on set for the shoot, but I do know that they all wanted to do their own stunts from time to time, and they all got their chance, something that I’m really happy about, for them.

And that’s it for this week’s mailbag. That was short, but with good reason. My sister has Thyroid Cancer, and needs prayers that her surgery goes well, and I have a friend, who is pregnant, has to get her apendix out, and something might be wrong with her liver, too. So, that being said, keep sending the e-mails and commenting.

As for the secret project, I suppose I’ll give one more clue, but asking a question like “what is the secret project?” is a cleaver approach that will get you nowhere. Anyway, the secret project is web-based.

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NarniaFans Mailbag #38: Auditions for Dawn Treader, Aslan’s Nature and more

Paul Martin — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 14:17:27 +0000

This week’s mailbag is a little late because I was waiting for the upgrade to the software on which NarniaFans.com runs. It finally was released late last night, and by that time, I was too tired to write this. Not to mention that I’m working on a secret project that I think you’re all going to love. But there’ll be more time for that in the future. If you want to submit a question as to what it could be, hint free, be my guest. I’ll answer every question with one that brings you closer to the answer.

Let’s get started:

When, and where, are your movie auditions for the Voyage of the Dawn Treader? thank you. :):D

-Camille Jones

Paul: We aren’t actually in charge of the casting, but there is a website that you can find out about casting calls for the film, called My Entertainment World. The production for The Voyage of the Dawn Treader has updated the listing, which you can see in it’s entirety if you are subscribed to the website. It’s looking more and more like the late July / August start for shooting the movie is actually going to happen!

CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER, THE – August, 2009 – Queensland, Australia; Details Are only Available By Subscription.. STORY: In the enchanted land of Narnia, Edmund and Lucy join King Caspian on a sworn mission to find the seven lost Lords of Narnia. So begins a perilous new quest that takes them to the farthest edge of the Eastern world on board the mighty Dawn Treader. Sailing uncharted seas, the old friends must survive a terrible storm, encounters with sea serpents, dragons, and invisible enemies to reach lands where magicians weave mysterious spells and nightmares come true. They need every ounce of courage and the help of the great lion Aslan to triumph in their most hazardous adventure of all. (Posted: May 8, 2008. Revised: June 4, 2009)

Now, let’s dig into the archives of letters that we were sent back in 2007. This is an interesting one that we all know the answer to.

Is PC going to be a love story between Caspian and Susan? The production blog clip seemed to me to indicate that, but could you find this out for me?

Shad Eash

Paul: No, there is not. There’s going to be times that they glance at one another, and help each other out. There will also be a couple of quick conversations between them, if even that. And then Susan is going to be herself and kiss him. Typical Susan.

Now, here’s a question that doesn’t seem dated:

Hey, great job on the site!! But I have a question on your opinion. I was watching LWW in the coronation scene where Lucy and Mr. Tumnus are on a balcony discussing Aslan’s departure and you can see Aslan walking down the beach. I noticed Aslan’s footprints behind him. But did anyone else see (a few frames after) that Aslan is gone… and his footprints end abruptly! You can still see them, but at the edge of dry sand there are none. I thought, maybe he just disappeared!?!? What do you think?

Rachel

Paul: Very good question. You know how Aslan appears when he is needed, and then leaves again when he is not? Well, we don’t know Aslan’s method of transportation, but we do know a bit about his nature. The simplest way to put it, is that Aslan is supernatural. In the Bible, we read about how angels would sometimes come to people within their dreams, just as Aslan appeared to Lucy within hers. For Aslan, and for Lucy, this is no less important than when she meets him face to face when she is awake, just as it was no less important for Joseph when the angel appeared to him.

Aslan, being supernatural, appears only when he is needed, and not more often than that. But if you’re paying close attention, you can see him working through all things, and where he is present even when not physically on the screen. He does this to teach us.

And that’s it for this week’s mailbag! Feel free to send in some e-mail for next week!

NarniaFans Mailbag #37: Academy Awards, Publicity and Casting

Paul Martin — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 20:26:55 +0000

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.

Q: When the list of eligible songs for the “Best Original Song” Academy Award was released, “The Call” was there but “This is Home” and the others weren’t. Can you explain this?

-Skulblaka_Shur’tugal

Paul: Good question. I’m not sure the rules on this, and even the official site for the Oscars doesn’t have the rules for eligibility posted in this category. There must have been a reason, but I just can’t find it. Can anyone else?

Q: I want to say something about the most recent mailbag; Skulbaka had a question about Fox’s handling of Narnia, and mentioned that Eragon was a poor film compared to the book. While I haven’t read Eragon and haven’t seen the film, so I don’t know anything about it, I do know that Fox has handled STar Wars quite well (which I believe you mentioned). HOWEVER, Fox will not be responsible for what’s in the script, am I right? Michael Apted and the screenwriter(s) are responsible for what goes into the script; the studios (Walden and Fox) will handle the distribution, marketing and publicity.

I also wanted to ask a question: since Disney has bailed on the films, do you think there will be better publicity for Voyage of the Dawn treader, like there was for Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe?

-Aravis Kenobi

Paul: Good additional points about the Dawn Treader script, and you are correct about that. I think that there’s a good chance for better publicity than Prince Caspian had. 20th Century Fox wants to make this a franchise and they don’t want to do one Narnia only to see it fail. Expect to see a lot in the way of publicity, this time around.

Q: Am I the only one who noticed the Narnia flag (rampant lion) on the opening shot of the Disney castle in the movie theater version of Prince Caspian? I was rather disappointed when it didn’t make the DVD.

Kelley

Paul: Now that you mention it, I sort of remember seeing it. Anyone have verification on this? I’m not sure I can find it. It is interesting if it really isn’t on the DVD. If I wasn’t watching the Ocean’s trilogy at the moment, I’d check the Blu-ray.

Q: Any idea on when we’ll hear casting announcements?
Do you think/know if TCF/Walden will market VDT to faith groups?

Mike

Paul: Casting announcements, if filming indeed starts in late July, some time this month. Keep your eyes on NarniaFans.com for these! I think that that Walden will market VDT to faith groups again, and hopefully with as much stress as they did LWW. The biggest problem is that the rest of the Narnia films don’t have as public a symbolic reference to Christ. Nor the name recognition. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe could have been released under that name alone. Calling it The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was pure marketing so that when future films in the series were released, people could see the name Narnia and remember the last film on the weight of that name alone.

And that’s it for this week’s mailbag. Keep sending us e-mails, and we’ll keep answering. If you have any answers, feel free to comment below, or send us an e-mail and we’ll post it in future mailbags.

NarniaFans Mailbag #36: The Fourth Narnia, Narnia Exhibition, Ben Barnes and Fox

Paul Martin — Thu, 28 May 2009 05:00:47 +0000

Here we are with this week’s mailbag! It’s been pretty exciting to see the response that we’ve gotten so far, and I’ve had a great time writing them. Hopefully the e-mails keep coming in each week so that I can continue.

The first question is a short one that I somehow missed a couple of weeks ago.

Q: What is the 4th Narnia?

-Matthew

Paul: This simple question has a bit of a complex answer. It depends on what you’re talking about, first and foremost: The books or the films.

If it’s the films, then it’s The Silver Chair.

The book version is a little more complex. But I’ll give you the original answer first: The Silver Chair. It was the fourth book published in the series. Later on, in the 1970s, the books were published in the chronological order of the story, based on the Narnia timeline. This put The Silver Chair in the sixth position in the series. Oddly enough, it also puts Prince Caspian as the fourth. However, this is something that I find rather odd, personally. Especially so because of the movies out so far.

Q: Hi! Love the Mailbag! Okay, so obviously as of May 22nd, the Narnia Exhibition rides into Union Station. (My friend thanks you for this info – she lives near there!) But is there, as of yet, any knowledge that the exhibition will continue AFTER Kansas City? I know this is a silly question, but so far this hasn’t come within quite a few miles of my area, and I might as well go to Kansas if it isn’t coming near me. Thankies! Oh and by the way, isn’t there a new movie that Ben Barnes plays in that is coming out soon?

-April G.

Paul: From what I was told in New York City a year ago, the Exhibition is meant to continue for a few years, traveling all over the country and changing after each film comes out. I just don’t know where. Perhaps someone involved in the Exhibition knows. I should have done some homework, but I haven’t had time in the last week.

Also, Ben Barnes is, in fact, in a couple of movies at the moment. Easy Virtue is currently playing in a limited release in the United States, and has been opening in many foreign territories since September 2008. It will continue to open in many foreign territories through August of this year.

Dorian Gray is the other film, and it doesn’t currently have a release date set in the United States, but it is scheduled to open in the UK on September 18 as well as Finland on December 25, 2009. It could be out any time in the fall, however, but there is no word on the scope of the release.

Q: What are your opinions about Fox taking over the Narnia series? Personally, I’m all for it; the only worry I have is they also adapted “Eragon”, which frankly was poor compared with the book. Anyway, thanks.

-Skulblaka_Shur’tugal

Paul: This is a difficult question to answer. It’s kind of a double edged sword. It really depends on how the film (series?) is handled by the studio. Their handling of the X-Men franchise is the only one that has me slightly worried. Apparently, there is a producer there that wanted to kill the franchise from the start, not really understanding why it’s a franchise worth doing well. (If it is true, then that producer should be removed from any type of control over the future of the series.)

Eragon isn’t worth getting concerned over. There is a different creative team than that which worked on Eragon. In fact, it is still pretty much the same team that worked on the first two films, save for the screenwriters, director and composer. It should feel like a Narnia film.

If there is one thing Fox has done really well, it’s letting outside creative teams have complete control of their franchises, such as George Lucas with Star Wars. Those were the terms of his contract with them, and I’m willing to bet that the Lewis Estate made it a big part of their contract with Fox as well.

All in all, I trust 20th Century Fox with the future of the franchise, and I think they’ll do a great job with it. Remember: Walden Media is still very much a part of this.

Alrighty, this is a little shorter than usual, but it’s all I have time for this week. Keep the e-mail coming!

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