Filming C.S. Lewis’ masterwork, the seven books that compose the Chronicles of Narnia, has been something of an impossible dream for decades. Ever since the first of the books, “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” was published in 1950, children and adults have adored them alike – they have been perennial bestsellers for more than 50 years. The history of Narnia has everything: magic, adventure, tragedy, humor, and triumph — it’s not surprising that Hollywood has longed to bring it to the big screen.
However, save for a few television adaptations, a Narnia movie never materialized – no one was able to find a way to convincingly capture Lewis’ fantasy world onscreen. Film technology had not caught up with the richness of Narnia’s gallery of creatures and enchantments until now. On December 9, we will all have the chance to venture through an enchanted wardrobe with four amazed British children and explore a magical land locked in eternal winter.
We’ll meet fauns, centaurs, talking animals, the terrible White Witch who has enslaved Narnia, and the magical magnificent lion Aslan who will rally the children to free this fabulous realm.
The man who helmed “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” is director/cowriter Andrew Adamson. He told “The Insider” about the creation of the film, his own love of Narnia, and what the movie holds in store.
The first thing we realize is that Andrew is as big a fan of the books as any child; in fact, he became a fan when he WAS a child, as so many readers did. And one of his inspirations in bringing Narnia to film was his own memories of how the book affected him.
“When I first became involved in the project I sat down and wrote out all of my memories, because before it got polluted by my adult mind, I wanted to get my childhood impressions,” he says. Only then did he sit down and reread the books.
One great surprise he encountered was the climactic confrontation between the four children with their army of good creatures, and the forces of the evil White Witch.
“I remembered this epic battle,” says Andrew. “When I came back to read the book as an adult, I read through it and thought ‘Where’s what I remember?’ Because in the book it’s about a page and a half, and it’s mostly Peter telling Aslan about it afterward. It would be kind of disappointing to build the movie toward this epic battle, and then be with Aslan through the whole thing. So I wanted to film the battle that my eight-year-old mind had imagined the battle. And I think Lewis counted on that; there are places in the book where he says ‘I can’t tell you about it because your parents wouldn’t let you read the book.’ As a kid you go this must be really bad, and your mind fills out what happened.”
A similar balance between the words on the page and the world they create in the imagination informed the creation of the White Witch (played by Tilda Swinton) and her castle.
“C.S. Lewis describes her in great detail in the book, and of course I think Pauline Baynes illustrations in the book give you an impression of her, but at the same time I think that over the years that character can become somewhat of a cliche. One way you can read the White Witch is the screeching Cruella DeVil or the evil stepmother, these evil female characters. I wanted to make sure she was evil that was as evil as Aslan’s good, she was as intelligent and sophisticated as our hero,” Andrew explains. ”Tilda Swinton was a huge inspiration to start from. She was the first person I wanted to cast, and I was lucky enough to have her agree to do it. But I also looked into the background of the White Witch, and the fact that she had come from the world of Charn – which is in The Magician’s Nephew, we get the backstory of how she came to Narnia at the inception of Narnia. I really wanted to try to capture the otherworldliness about her – she doesn’t come from Narnia, but at the same time she’s made it her world by freezing it. We worked with the idea that she’s almost not physical, and her dress changes throughout the movie as she does. We kept a lot of the specifics that Lewis mentioned, like the spiky crown, but we thought that making it out of ice was more interesting than how it was described in the book, so we started playing with that.”
Similarly, the White Witch’s castle has the jagged towers described in the book – but on film those towers are clearly icicles, a product of the wicked queen’s wintry reign.
Nothing in the film, says Andrew, was as challenging as bringing Aslan to life. The great lion is central to the story, the creator of Narnia and the only one who can help the children succeed in freeing it.
“I knew going in that one of the most technically challenging things was going to be Aslan. Because it’s a very complex thing to pull off, a fully furred realistic creature. And then you have to have him speak. And I didn’t want everyone to be thinking ‘Oh, that’s a great computer-generated lion.’ So he had to be photo-real, to just get the reality of Narnia,” Andrew explains.
“We started the research and development on Aslan two years ago, just to get the wind in the hair and eyes that really have soul. Saliva in the mouth. Those things are very important – not because you notice that they’re there, but when they’re not there you really notice the absence and stop believing in the character. First he had to look like a real lion, and secondly characterwise he had to fit in the story.”
That character is a complex one. “There’s a great line in the book, ‘Aslan is not a TAME lion,’ and yet he’s a very paternal character. He comforts and protects the kids, but you always know he’s capable of great anger and great strength. I think that’s why C.S. Lewis used a lion,” Andrew muses.“Both the villain and the hero have an attraction/repulsion thing. The White Witch is physically attractive, and yet she’s very evil. Aslan is very warm and approachable, and yet you know he could bite your hand off. Real lions have the same thing – I’ve been around a lot of them lately. You want to pet them, and at the same time you’re terrified of petting them. What Liam Neeson brought to the character is this incredible resonance and power in his voice.”
On December 9, the wardrobe will open and we’ll all be able to enter the world of “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.”
From hero to villain to the incredible cast of fabulous creatures that fill the screen, Narnia never ceases to amaze – both the four children who have stumbled upon it and film audiences alike. Andrew Adamson and his crew have brought the Narnia in the minds of millions of children to vivid life, and 55 years does not seem like it has been too long a wait.
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