By Carol Memmott, USA TODAY
Hello, Harry Potter – but move over to make way for The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

The movie version of C.S. Lewis’ beloved children’s story, part of The Chronicles of Narnia series, won’t be in theaters until Dec. 9. But some booksellers are getting ready to pull out artificial fir trees, fake snow and Narnia-inspired stuffed animals.

So much for waiting until, say, Halloween to start hawking the Christmas merchandise.

And in the world of Narnia, there’s plenty to hawk.

HarperCollins, which owns the rights, has 145 Narnia-related books to choose from. Some have been available for years, but with Hollywood coming into play, an additional 24 movie tie-ins have been added to the lineup.

At Anderson’s Bookshop in Naperville, Ill., the front window is all about Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (due July 16), but a life-size blowup of Narnia’s lion king, Aslan, has already taken pride of place in the store near a table filled with Narnia books. Every person who buys Harry Potter will receive a Narnia bookmark.

Owner Becky Anderson says that soon after the Potter book goes on sale, she’ll waste no time transforming store windows into a winter-like “Narnia world.”

Discount chains also are getting into the act. Most Target stores began stocking shelves in their book department with Lewis titles in late May, says spokeswoman Lena Michaud. The book covers promote Lewis as “Author of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. A Major Motion Picture. Holiday 2005.”

Beginning Friday, Barnes & Noble stores will devote a table to copies of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. It’s timed to the expected increase in consumer traffic once the Potter book goes on sale. Right after the Narnia movie trailer was released in tandem with the May release of Star Wars, Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, “sales (of Narnia) have been doubling almost every week,” says Joe Monti, a children’s book buyer with Barnes & Noble.

At Borders book stores, Narnia titles can be found in the front of the store, on summer reading displays and featured prominently with other popular series such as Harry Potter. “With all of the media attention on the movie, it gave us the opportunity to take a stronger stand earlier than we normally would,” says Borders’ Beth Bingham.

HarperCollins has sold 15.5 million Narnia books since acquiring the rights in 1994, according to marketing director Mary McAveney. She wouldn’t be specific about how much of a sales boost a book gets when it’s turned into a movie, but Houghton Mifflin and Ballantine Books said they sold 27 million copies of J.R.R. Tolkien books as the result of his Lord of the Rings trilogy being made into films in recent years.

0 people like this post.

Like 

Each of the four children have specialized abilities. Peter is the classic fighter character, and is the primary melee warrior. Edmund is also a melee fighter, and can climb. (At one point, Mr. Jacob mentioned Edmund climbing the lamppost.)

Susan, unsurprisingly, is a ranged fighter. Before she gets her Bow and Horn from Father Christmas, Susan uses rocks and snowballs as her ranged weapons. She also has a set of panpipes, which can be used to put enemies to sleep. These panpipes, apparently, are replaced by the Horn, once she is given it.

Lucy is the healer of the group. Her ability allows her to heal the entire party. She also has a push attack which, when done correctly, allows her to climb onto the back of her enemy for a few seconds. During that period of time, you control that enemy. Mr. Jacob said that, in focus testing, this ability has made Lucy the favorite character to play.

To date, there are 30 creature types in the game. Each type has been modelled on the Weta creature designs. Mr. Jacob assured me that Traveller’s Tales has been working in cooperation with the production crew. The production has even sent them 62 DVDs of dailies and shots of the action from all angles as reference material.

Buena Vista Games is currently negotiating with Harry Gregson-Williams to get him to compose the score for the game as well as for the movie. Mr. Jacob said that the main issue in the negotiations is Mr. Gregson-Williams’ busy schedule, not a lack of interest. Mr. Jacob also said that Buena Vista is also talking with several other well-known composers, but declined to give any names.

The four child actors are scheduled to begin dialogue recording for the console games sometime in the next few weeks.

For the rest, go to the Source.

0 people like this post.

Like 

Stefan from Narnia-chroniken.de found a few new pics of the upcoming WETA collectibles and the German Magazine DER SPIEGEL published a new photo of the shooting, from behind the scenes shot of Lucy Pevensie and Susan Pevensie in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

0 people like this post.

Like 

Stan Mattson, Ph.D., president and founder of the C.S. Lewis Foundation, today announced that Pastor Rick Warren, renown best-selling author of A Purpose-Driven Life, has confirmed his participation in the upcoming C.S. Lewis Institute conference in Oxford and Cambridge, England, from July 24 through August 6, 2005.

Organized by the California-based C.S. Lewis Foundation, this conference is entitled “Making All Things New: The Good, the True and the Beautiful in the 21st Century. “Set in the medieval university cities of Oxford and Cambridge, Oxbridge 2005 will feature presentations by leading scholars and artists representing many Christian traditions and interests from around the world, in the arts, humanities, sciences and social sciences, and interlaced with music, dance, theater and worship.

Pastor Warren’s presentations will be first, in Oxford, “The Good, the True and the Beautiful-To What End?” and second, in Cambridge, an informal interview by former national radio host Dick Staub.

“Pastor Rick Warren brings a wonderful pragmatic dimension to this conference,” explains Mattson. “Our desire is that people will return home and integrate what they receive in a meaningful way within the context of their own individual vocations and circumstances. Pastor Rick helps reinforce that probability with his special talent for translating important and lofty ideals into practical, easy-to-understand, actionable principles.”

Other speakers include Susanna Caroselli, Chuck Colson, David Cook, Jean Bethke Elshtain, Richard Foster, Dana Gioia, Malcolm Guite, David Lyle Jeffrey, Bishop James Jones, Peter Kreeft, Vishal Mangalwadi, Louis Markos, Alister McGrath, Kathleen Norris, Joseph Pearce, Tony Thiselton, Dean Trulear and Kallistos Ware.

Afternoon seminars feature topics on C.S. Lewis, the Inklings, contemplative prayer, peacemaking and reconciliation, political engagement, the Christian scholar in the secular academy, the Oxford libraries, medical and business ethics, social justice, cultural apologetics, science and theology, philosophy, architectural and art history. Workshops include creative writing, theater, dance, choral performance and the visual arts.

Special events include evensong service at Ely Cathedral, a traditional English country dinner dance at Chilford Hall, performances by the Riding Lights Theatre Company of York, England, Oxford City Orchestra, the Institute Chorale, dramatic portrayals of C.S. Lewis by British actor Joss Ackland and American actor Tom Key, and a final eucharistic service of dedication at Kings College Chapel. Optional day trips include Warwick Castle, The Cotswolds, Stratford-upon-Avon, Blenheim Palace, Lewis’ beloved home, “The Kilns,” (now owned and beautifully restored by the Foundation) and an evening of Shakespeare in the park.

For more information or to register for Oxbridge 2005, please visit www.cslewis.org, or call toll free 1-800-CSLEWIS.

About the C.S. Lewis Foundation: Founded in 1986 by a small group of Christian scholars, and inspired by the life and legacy of renowned English professor, author and speaker C.S. Lewis, the C.S. Lewis Foundation is dedicated to advancing the renewal of Christian scholarship and artistic expression throughout the mainstream world of learning and the culture at large. For more information, please visit www.cslewis.org

0 people like this post.

Like 

Here’s the latest Narnia Music news from around the web:

Jeff Kepple: “Let It Go,” the second album by Jeff Kepple featuring 17 original and inspiring songs. Experience the journey…unfold the story…Let It Go. The fouth song, “Just Behind Those Doors” is another Narnia inspired composition.

Order “Let It Go” here, or his first album “God in a Box,” another album with C.S. Lewis/Narnia inspired songs

Jeremy Camp, Bethany Dillon: Award-winning singer/songwriter Jeremy Camp recently publicized he will be headlining “The Restored Tour” this fall, hitting almost 40 cities across the nation.

Sparrow Records’ Bethany Dillon, also on the Narnia Soundtrack, will be one of the tour’s special guests, and Inpop Records’ band Tree63 will appear on the first leg of the highly anticipated tour. Simple/INO/Epic Records band The Afters will take the place of Tree63 on the second leg.

In addition, more dates have just been added to the tour The tour, acquiring its name from Camp’s current release on BEC Recordings, Restored, is Camp’s third time to headline in his career. “The Restored Tour” will begin September 2nd and run through November 21st. This summer, Camp is appearing on the main stages at all the major summer festivals.

Camp has a song featured on Music Inspired By: The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, the soundtrack to the upcoming film. Camp penned the song featured on the soundtrack, titled “Open Up Your Eyes,” and is also scheduled to be shipped to radio. Music Inspired By: The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe is releasing through EMI CMG Music.

2nd Chapter of Acts: There is a CD out that first came out in the early 80’s called “Roar of Love” by the 2nd Chapter of Acts, a Christian Group. You can still get this CD at Christian Book Distributors. 2nd Chapter of Acts is a group that was very popular back in the 80’s amongst the Christian Community.

0 people like this post.

Like 

The acclaimed Nairn-based actress Tilda Swinton talks to the Arts Journal about her unconventional film career, from her early ground-breaking association with Derek Jarman through to her role in the the forthcoming adaptation of C. S. Lewis’s “Chronicles of Narnia”

ARTS JOURNAL: Tilda, you have been filming in New Zealand on a new version of C. S. Lewis’s much-loved “Chronicles of Narnia” – was that a book that played a part in your own childhood?

TILDA SWINTON: Do you know, it seems to me the world is divided between those who know that book really well and those who don’t, and I had just never read it. I don’t know how that happened. I was aware that it is a kind of talisman for so many people, but I only read it when they asked me to do the film, so I came to it completely fresh at that point.

AJ: That is interesting in itself, coming at it with no real preconceptions?

TS: It is. I’m in the business of reading stories to people these days, and my fairy story literacy at the moment is pretty high. It would probably have been on the list for the twins a bit later, and was maybe a little early for them at this stage, but I read it to them anyway and it passed the test!

AJ: What was the attraction in this role?

TS: The thing that really sparked my interest in making it was that there is a rather anaemic American cartoon version from the 1970s, which starts off with this little American voice saying “we went to stay with the professor”, and it was just all wrong. First of all they weren’t American, and they didn’t go and stay with the professor, they were evacuated during the blitz. This film establishes that background right from the start – this is a group of children who are sent away to a parent-less place, and find this land behind the back of a wardrobe where they can actually make a difference. I found it moving that the film placed that so iconically at the beginning, and that gave me confidence that it was going to be a responsible adaptation, which I think it will.

AJ: You play the wicked White Witch?

TS: I do, and of course she is the epitome of all evil. The White Witch is not even a human – she is the essence of all evil. It is quite a task to think about what is really incomprehensible to small children, and it occurred to me that what they find most difficult is not anger, because children get angry all the time – it is coldness. We built it around that idea, really. She creates coldness everywhere, a kind of perennial winter, and that was the starting point and also the ending point of my work.

AJ: You also took on the role of a fantasy character in your previous film, “Constantine” – is their much difference in creating a “fantasy” made-up character as against a “real” made-up character?

TS: I don’t think there is any difference at all. Every story that you are part of telling is still a construct – even if you are playing someone in a setting that is very realistic you are still making something up, and you have 90 minutes to get across the idea of someone. If you are only in it for a couple of scenes, you have to work really fast, and the point is that it is never a real person you are playing. In that respect playing the White Witch and playing a housewife washing dishes is pretty similar, really. It actually helps when they are not human – it is more honest somehow.

AJ: How did you get on with the director, Andrew Adamson?

TS: Fantastic. He made the “Shrek” films, of course, and they are now among the biggest earning films ever, but he was a first-time filmmaker on our film, because he had never directed a live action film before. He was king of special effects – before he made the “Shrek” films, he was effects supervisor on “Batman”, and he is a computer geek through and through.

AJ: That isn’t an obvious point of connection with your own work, is it?

TS: It was really interesting to me that when we started to talk about this he made it very clear that what he wanted to look at was the reality of the story, and I think people will be interested to see how this first Narnia film is much “realer” than effects films like “The Lord of the Rings” have been. You will get a lot of real people in real heads being real monsters, rather than the kind of scaling up of a set of extras to repeat as a huge crowd, as in “Lord of the Rings”. In that sense I suppose this film is lower-fi, and it was interesting that he of all people was interested in making it real again, having pioneered so much in the effects world. There are only six human characters, but there is relatively little in the way of computer generated effects. That is interesting, because there is so much of that around now that I wonder how children will react to it.

AJ: One thing it has in common with “The Lord of the Rings” is shooting in New Zealand – how did it work out as a location?

TS: It has this fantastic landscape, and it is perfect for Narnia. It was quite extraordinarily apt for us – I suspect people may assume some of the landscapes are actually computer generated images, but that isn’t the case. It looks a bit like a mythical Scotland, actually, and it is quite an extraordinary place. Andrew is a Kiwi himself, and for sure it must have made financial sense, but it was a wonderful place to go and work.

0 people like this post.

Like 

The world of Narnia was recreated at a loft in New York City to introduce booksellers to THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE: The Official Illustrated Movie Companion by Executive Producer Perry Moore on June 3rd during the Book Expo Convention. At the event, guests were treated to a screening of the trailer to the major motion picture from Disney and Walden Media The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe scheduled for release December 2005 and then they were invited to walk through a custom-built wardrobe and a blizzard of faux snow to a wintry landscape that appeared almost as a picture from the imagination of C.S. Lewis. The room was adorned with large, realistic-looking boulders and real pine trees stretching eight feet tall, both of which were flocked with faux snow and guests made their way through a vast array of actual props used in the film’s production, along with sketches and storyboards. Mark Johnson, the Academy Award-winning producer of “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe” also addressed the crowd along with Moore. The evening was introduced by Jane Friedman, President and Chief Executive Officer of HarperCollins.

THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE: The Official Illustrated Movie Companion by Perry Moore will be published by HarperSanFrancisco in November 2005. The only official behind-the-scenes book on the making of this year’s Christmas blockbuster family movie, written by the film’s Executive Producer. This sumptuous and heavily illustrated book is the ultimate companion to the first Narnia film. Written by the film’s Executive Producer, Perry Moore, the book charts the very personal story of how this movie came into being. Moore writes candidly and personally on why he pursued this project, what intrigued him about the novel, what challenges they faced, how they cast the movie, and how it was filmed. By going beyond the usual sound bites which make up traditional “Making Of” books, this insider’s account allows for the real personality of the project and its people to shine through its pages. Every spread is packed with major visual elements such as movie stills, storyboard art and behind-the-scenes photos, and these are accompanied by panels of information about the back story, CGI breakthroughs, director’s comments, cinematography notes, interviews with cast and crew, and more.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Perry Moore fulfilled his lifelong dream of bringing his favorite childhood novel to the big screen as the Executive Producer of “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.” He played Peter in his second-grade class presentation of “The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe,” and he blames his mother for starting this whole thing when she gave him the book to read as a boy. Moore resides in New York City

Also from HarperSanFrancisco: THE NARNIAN by Alan Jacobs, a new biography that delves into the creative mind of C.S. Lewis to be published in October 2005.

More Narnia Books coming this year

0 people like this post.

Like 

As promised, here are the banners from the L!CENSING 2005 International convention! Anyone attend? Send us more, if you have it!

0 people like this post.

Like 

Here it is! The first official Narnia poster! And it is a thing of beauty. It’s amazing how fast the time flies. December will be here before we know it, and we’ll be watching The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe come to life before our very eyes! This poster should reach theatres this weekend.

0 people like this post.

Like 

We have some more information on the forthcoming Narnia project…

EMI Music – the world’s largest independent music company – recently announced plans to partner with Walt Disney Studios and Walden Media to produce two soundtracks of music inspired by what is one of 2005’s most anticipated films, a live action adaptation of C.S. Lewis’ best-selling classic, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.

EMI Music’s Nashville-based EMI CMG will release both “inspired by” soundtracks and has announced an all-star line up for the first in the series of releases: an Inspirational soundtrack CD, Music Inspired By: The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, featuring recordings from artists that combined have sold in excess of 23 million albums.

Five-time Grammy Award Winner Steven Curtis Chapman leads the pack with the project’s debut single and video, “Remembering You,” which will release to Christian radio formats nationwide on August 5th. Jars of Clay (”Waiting for the World to Fall”), Jeremy Camp (”Open Your Eyes”), TobyMac, Nichole Nordeman (”I Will Believe”), Rebecca St. James (”Lion”), Delirious (”Stronger”), Kutless, Bethany Dillon (”Hero”), Chris Tomlin (”You’re The One”) and David Crowder Band round-out the line up thus far. The Inspirational CD will release on September 27th.

A second soundtrack of songs inspired by the film will release October 25th and feature mainstream pop and rock artists.

Regarding his participation in the soundtrack, Steven Curtis Chapman commented, “So much has already been brilliantly communicated by C.S. Lewis with this story, so writing for it was kind of an overwhelming task,” said Steven Curtis Chapman. “This story leaves me with wanting to remember what it means to experience Spring or new life. “Remembering You” is a song from the perspective of a lot of the characters at the end of the story saying, ‘whenever I see the first signs of spring, I’ll be remembering you, Aslan, the story and what is to come.’”

“EMI CMG’s partnership with Disney and Walden Media holds an unprecedented visibility and marketing opportunity for the participating artists, allowing their music to reach a global audience,” stated EMI CMG’s President and CEO, Bill Hearn. “Disney and Walden Media have shown a tremendous amount of passion for the music and we are excited for them to incorporate this ever-expanding genre that perfectly compliments the theme of the film.”

Promotions for the Inspirational Inspired-by project began recently, when HarperCollins, publisher of the Chronicles of Narnia book series hosted a celebration in New York for the forthcoming movie release in conjunction with the American Booksellers Association.

Sparrow Records singer/songwriter Bethany Dillon premiered her song, “Hero,” from the project at that celebration. Promotions will also include soundtrack music being featured as part of the interactive marketing plans with www.narnia.com and its development of NarniaMusic.com, which will feature artist interviews, shots from the studio, song samples, promotions and more.

Read More about the artists involved!

0 people like this post.

Like