A support crew is busy in the hills near Duntroon, preparing for the filming of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. But most of the activity is taking place in hidden, limestone outcropped valleys around the Anatini and Elephant Rocks fossil sites, overlooking the Maerewhenua River.

Yesterday, when the Otago Daily Times visited the area, photographs were not allowed on the farms of John Hore and Norman McKenzie, where filming of one of C.S. Lewis’ seven books from the Chronicles of Narnia is expected to start in November.

The only visible sign that there is something different to normal farming operations is a large marquee, about a dozen vehicles coming and going and shipping containers forming a base beside the Oamaru-Ngapara Rd.

But, if you take the time to look, down in pastured valleys among huge outcrops of limestone, crews are at work building sets and unloading items needed for filming.

Tracks have been put in and gravelled to provide access into areas where filming will take place. Lamp-Post Productions’ Ernie Malik, publicist for the film, said yesterday when contacted in Auckland, about 100 people would be involved when filming started. He was not sure how many were working on the site at present.

The production, a joint venture between the Walt Disney Studios and Walden Media, is the first liveaction adaptation of Lewis’ book for the motion picture screen, and represents one of the biggest undertakings mounted by both companies. Shrek director Andrew Adamson is to direct the film. The Anatini and Elephant Rock sites are part of the Vanished World fossil trail, and have already been closed for the film. They are expected to remain closed until early December, when filming is due to be completed and the area returned to what it was before Hollywood arrived.

The Narnia chronicles were written in the 1950s and rank alongside J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe tells the story of four children who stumble into Narnia through a wardrobe, finding a snow-covered land ruled over by the cruel White Witch, Jadis. But a saviour emerges in the form of Aslan, the Lion.

Filming is being done over five months, in North and South Island locations, including North Otago, north Canterbury and Queenstown. Already in the planning and pre-production stages for two years, the project is due for worldwide release in December next year, through the Walt Disney Studios distribution division of Buena Vista Releasing.

The film crew is one of an increasing number coming to North Otago. The BBC is just completing filming on a television series, Kidnapped, using Oamaru’s historic Harbour St. That same area in June was the set for another film, Perfect Creature.

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We have a new Narnia logo for you today, as well as links to a few more reports from some internet Entertainment sites. We’ll be collecting these here, so if you want to stay ahead of the game on Narnia news, stay tuned to Narnia Fans!

Some of the reports that are already live include:

Dark Horizons
IGN Film Force
JoBlo

These sites and others will be hosting additional reports over the coming weeks. So be sure to visit often, as I will be updating every time a new report is posted!

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Tehanu returns with an actual set piece this time. While last time, the set looked very Narnian, it turned out to be for Hercules. This time, it’s for real. A picture of the top of the London house where the Pevensie children lived.

Well, I’m being a bit more cautious naming the sets that are springing up around town here in West Auckland, New Zealand. The first one HAD to be a Narnia set– it was sticking out above the fence around the Lion, Witch & Wardrobe lot where the soundstages are. And to make doubly certain, I asked their publicist Ernie Malik about what you see in these first two pictures, and he confirmed that it’s the London house that the Pevensie children lived in before going to their uncle’s house in the country where their adventure started. In one photo it looks like a very ordinary house with a few roses peeking over the fence. In the other photo it’s a bit clearer that only the front half of the house exists, and in the background are the warehouses that house the soundstages for the production. It looks grey and drab and wartime-y.

Pictures!

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Now, this is a HUGE Rumor. Nothing confirmed about it at all as of yet, but it would add another big name to the production of Narnia. It seems someone involved in the production is spreading a rumor that Sean Connery wishes to lend his voice to Aslan, after turning down both The Lord of the Rings and The Matrix.

While this is a very interesting rumor, we’ll have to wait and see just how it pans out, as a Scottish accent might not be what they are looking for, when it comes to Aslan.

We’ve been discussing the voice of Aslan for a few months now in the forums. Take a look at all the names we’ve been throwing around.

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Taylor said they had to reach into many of the other books from the Narnia series to give a sense of the richness of the imaginary world.

One character that proved particularly challenging was the iconic lion, Aslan. His development was a combination of animatronics and computer generation, Berger said. The physical model had only been recently completed, but it was something he was immensely proud of it. A scene with Aslan on a stone table was shot on Saturday and the child actors had been amazed by the model.

Berger, who recently worked on Kill Bill, said the movie was a nice change of pace. He had enlisted the help of his own children to get a more authentic reaction to the characters he had crafted.

The Stone Table is a scene that many were wondering if it would remain intact, due to the symbolic nature of that part of the book. It is great news to know that this part will definitely be there.

Another thing to note is that we’ll most likely be seeing features in Narnia that could reappear in future Narnia films. These are probably details of the landscapes of Narnia, different features that we don’t really know of from the first book alone, that will help make the world really breathe and really become the Land of Narnia.

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Howard Berger of KNB EFX, Richard Taylor from WETA and Dean Wright who was the Visual Effects Supervisor on LOTR and is the same on Narnia as well as a representative from Disney were all on hand to report on the progress of the film, and Prince Caspian!

Disney started with THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE because it’s the most well known of the series, even if it isn’t the beginning of the story. The big news is that Disney is about to hire a screenwriter to begin work on second film in the NARNIA series, to be PRINCE CASPIAN. That’s really super cool, but he did make sure to stress that production on that won’t be greenlighted until Disney sees how the first film does. But the fact that Disney’s taking the step to hire a screenwriter while the first film is only half-way through production means that they want to hit the ground running, so to speak.

A question was asked about how they were going to make a full length film out of THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE as it is one of the smaller stories in the NARNIA series. It seems that the beginning and the ending is going to be expanded. We are going to be seeing more of war-torn London at the beginning of the film, presumably before Lucy, Peter, Edmund and Susan are delivered unto Professor Digory Kirke. I’m actually a fan of that idea as a way to counter-balance the fantasy of Narnia.

The end battle for Narnia is also going to be expanded into quite a big battle, another expansion I’m a fan of. Richard Taylor made a comment about how he remembered reading THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE as a kid and how when he read the battle scene at the end… he felt like he finished a major tome, a hefty read… he felt like he accomplished something in getting through that epic battle. But then when he went back to read it as an adult it’s almost comical how he remembered the book as it’s only a few pages long.

Other tidbits: Aslan will be 99% CGI, with the only animatronic lion being used during the tied and bound Stone Table sequence. Apparently they’re also going to attempt to motion capture a real lion… hehe I don’t envy the poor bastard that has to apply those little mo-cap balls onto the lion! Mr. and Mrs. Beaver will be 100% computer generated whereas Mr. Tumnus will be half and half. Half prosthetics (supposedly very much keeping the actor’s human characteristics with only some pointy ears, different nose and goatee… oh, and his red skin) and half computer (for the goat legs, which start being CG about mid-thigh).

Apparently, the actor playing Mr. Tumnus (James McAvoy) didn’t win over Howard Berger upon first glance. He thought the young actor was too young for the role, but when he was brought to KNB’s studios and saw the giant Aslan they had in the studio he immediately went wide-eyed and reverently approached it before dropping to his knees and saying, “My Lord!” So, yeah… he’s a geek for the material, which gives me some joy as Mr. Tumnus can really use someone with that excitement for the world and material.

Those were the big bits from the panel… Oh, Aslan’s voice has not been found yet… that, too! I should be getting a tour of Weta soon, so look for a write-up on that in the near future, and I’m also working with Disney to arrange a set visit while I’m in New Zealand. I’m happy with what I’ve heard from the effects whizes and I hope I get blown away by what I see in Auckland. While NARNIA is not as ageless as Tolkien’s LOTR series, this could make for a fantastic film series to be enjoyed by all ages for many, many decades.

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Adamson was midway through shooting a scene adapted from C.S. Lewis’ classic children’s book, in which the children trek through the snow-covered fantasy world of Narnia and stumble upon a beavers’ cave. The action took place in a huge warehouse, thick with real pine trees and snow made from a fine paper product. The steam from the children’s breath will be added later using computer technology, as will about 50 per cent of the film.

Eighty-five people worked in Los Angeles for eight months before bringing the project to New Zealand, where Weta, the production team behind LOTR, worked on the project. “It’s bigger than The Lord of the Rings,” said special effects designer Howard Berger. “LOTR had orcs and trolls; this has 23 species.”

Production designer Roger Ford said “The hardest part for me is to not only satisfy the child but to exceed their expectations,” he said. “C.S Lewis leaves it to the child’s imagination a lot of the time, which is why it is so successful.”

Adamson said if the first film did well, he would consider writing the screen adaptations for the other books in the seven-part series. C.S. Lewis was good friends with J.R.R. Tolkien, just as Adamson is good friends with Jackson.

“I’ve talked to Peter many times. He’s got his hands full as well at the moment. I think we probably have completely different processes. I don’t really want to be shooting for 3 1/2 years. But there’s obviously some similarities in scale. On another level I think this is a very different film, and it deals with four individuals and it isn’t such an expansive story.”

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Next week, he can be seen in a small part in the Paul Bettany/Kirsten Dunst romance Wimbledon and, once he’s finished this interview, he’s going back to London to pack his bags for New Zealand, where he’s about to spend six months playing Mr Tumnus – a faun – in the big-budget adaptation of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe alongside Tilda Swinton and Rupert Everett. “It’s a cliche but it was one of my favourite books when I was a child,” he says. “It terrified me but I loved it.”

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It’s like the Pevensie children stepping through the magic wardrobe into Narnia. Before us is a Christmas card setting – pine trees and artificial snow, with rudimentary igloo shaped structures. It’s a scene from the $170 million film The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – all under the roof of a large shed in Wainui.

Producer Mark Johnson, who also brought Rain Man, Good Morning, Vietnam and Bugsy to the screen, walks out of the rain, which is making such a racket on the tin roof it’s too hard to film.

If we were hoping for a peek of the actors, we’re out of luck. Visitors are rarely allowed past the tight security and onto the set.

Mark’s only got a few minutes but obligingly poses for pictures. He singles New Zealand out as one of friendliest countries in the world – and he’s been to many others. “I’m very happy with the reception here. We’ve been made to feel welcome from the man-in-the-street to municipal level.”

Work started at Wainui in March and is expected to finish next month. Mark says 25 days of the 100-day shoot are in the shed. About 500 people are working on the production. “We had 10 full-time greensmen working for 10 weeks to set up 200 trees alone.”

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What are your influences?
English church music. Although I haven’t sung that music since I was a child and don’t listen to it any longer, harmonically I think that’s where I’m coming from. I was brought up with great English composers such as Stanford, Elgar, Vaughan Williams and Benjamin Britten. I also spent years roaming around the world teaching. I think the rhythms and sounds of Africa have stayed with me, although I haven’t really explored that in a composition yet, other than perhaps the flashback scenes that took place in Beirut in Spy Game. I think I brought to those scenes something that I wouldn’t have done had I not lived in Alexandria, Egypt.

What’s your dream project?
One I’m working on: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, a Christmas 2005 release. It has [director] Andrew Adamson, who directed Shrek and Shrek 2. It’s live action with a lot of computer-generated imagery, with characters that are half-man, half-beast, like Lord of the Rings. You never know what the future holds, because there are lots of books of Narnia.

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