We’ve had a lot of great new podcasts as of late, and we’d be on top of the news if Andy and I weren’t both so very busy with things outside of the internet. Sorry about that. Anyway, check out all of the new episodes on our Narnia Podcast page!

Those who listen through our feeds will be now enjoy the shows the instant they are released. Subscribing is free, so click on the link below to subscribe through iTunes!

Subcribe through iTunes

If you have a question that you would like to be answered on the show, please send them to NFC AT narniafans dot com

If you are interested in transcribing or editing our shows, send an email to NFC AT narniafans dot com with your name, age and why you would like to be on our staff. If you are applying to be an editor, please also include a sample of your work.

0 people like this post.

Like 

What is it? This conference will explore the relevancy of the Lewis legacy for the 21st Century. Do not miss a chance to hear top Lewis scholars at one of the premier conferences of its kind in 2007.

When is it? Oct. 26-27, 2007. Click here for a complete schedule.

Where is it? Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Wake Forest, N.C. Click here for directions.

Who can come? Literary, theological and biblical scholars alike are invited to attend this conference.

Who will speak? Featured speakers include Walter Hooper, Lewis literary executor and editor; Bruce Edwards, editor of C.S. Lewis: Life, Work, Legacy; and James Como, author of Remembering C.S. Lewis and Branches to Heaven. In addition to the plenary speakers, papers in three broad areas will be presented: Lewis and apologetics, Lewis and literature, and Lewis and culture.

How much? $125

What are the accommodations? Reduced rates are available for the conference at Hampton Inn (919) 554-0222, Sleep Inn (919) 556-4007, and Holiday Inn Express (919) 570-5550 in Wake Forest, N.C. Click here for more information.

For more information: Call 1-888-290-7787.

0 people like this post.

Like 

All those in Chattanooga who love the writings of C.S. Lewis will soon have an opportunity to meet and hear one of the most renowned C.S. Lewis scholars in the country.

The Rev. Dr. Lyle Dorsett is the featured speaker of the first annual conference sponsored by the C.S. Lewis Society of Chattanooga.

It will be held March 2 and 3 at the Chattanooga/Hamilton County Convention and Trade Center.

Dr. Dorsett is acquainted with several who knew Lewis and has written a number of books about him: Seeking the Secret Place – The Spiritual Formation of C.S. Lewis, The Essential C.S. Lewis, and he is coeditor of C.S. Lewis – Letters to Children.

He is also well known for his biography of Lewis’ wife, Joy Davidman, entitled A Love Observed.

He was for some time the director of the Marion E Wade Center, at Wheaton College, which houses an important collection of Lewis’ papers, some of his own books, and even has the wardrobe that stood in Lewis’s boyhood home. He is now the Billy Graham Professor of Evangelism at Beeson Divinity School in Birmingham, Ala.

The conference is entitled “We Would Be at Jerusalem,” which is the last line of Lewis’ autobiography, Surprised by Joy. The title represents the focus of the conference, which will be on the spiritual life of Lewis.

While plenty of time will be had for talk about Lewis and his writings in general, most of the discussion will concern Lewis and Christian living, officials said.

Others addressing the conference with Dr. Dorsett will be Dr. Paul DeHart of Lee University and the Rev. David N. Beckmann, Vicar of St. Andrew’s Anglican Church and Moderator of the C.S. Lewis Society of Chattanooga.

The C.S. Lewis Society of Chattanooga was founded by members of St. Andrew’s Anglican Church of Chattanooga in January 2005 to bring together people in the local area who share for Lewis a special admiration, love, and an active interest.

At their monthly meetings, they usually spend time discussing books written by Lewis. The Society was founded by St. Andrew’s out of a desire to make a contribution to the greater Chattanooga community. It was also a way for people to understand the kind of Christian ideals held by the church. Lewis himself was a member of the Anglican Church and St. Andrew’s Anglican Church seeks to provide for Chattanooga the best of that tradition, it was stated.

Those who are fans of the movie Shadowlands will especially be interested in the final session of the conference, Rev. Beckmann said.

Dr. Dorsett, Joy’s biographer, will address the depiction of Mrs. Lewis in the movie.

For more information on the conference, you may visit the conference website: www.atjerusalem.org.

For more information on the local C.S. Lewis Society, visit www.standrewschattanooga.org and see the link there.

Or, you may call Rev. Beckmann at 825-1444.

0 people like this post.

Like 

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian is looking for tall black males and females to play centaurs.

Applicants should be resident in Prague. Men: age 20-30 with height of at least 185cm. WOMEN: age 35-55, height at least 175cm.

Please send an email with photo to casting@nancybishopcasting.com.

Shoot in Prague is from March – July, 2007

0 people like this post.

Like 

From Jim Hill Media comes this conceptual teaser poster artwork for Prince Caspian. One part features a look at Peter’s Sword, Rhindon, with a cloak over it and a field behind it. The other features a castle. Perhaps the castle home of King Miraz?

0 people like this post.

Like 

We’ve just posted the twenty-second edition of the NarniaFans Mailbag. We’ve answered eight letters this week from such topics as Tilda Swinton appearing in more Narnia films, who the other children on the train were, the background music on disc 2 of the 2-disc edition, “Epic Movie” and more.

Click here for the twenty-second NarniaFans Mailbag!

0 people like this post.

Like 

I think I understand why so many people have difficulty simply saying “Aslan IS Jesus, period.”

Persons hostile to Christianity have a plain, up-front reason for wanting to change Aslan’s identity: they don’t want to owe anything to the orthodox Biblical Jesus, and they want to hijack Aslan (or perhaps, in their minds, liberate Him), making Him a small-g pagan god in an ultimately humanistic fantasy. (As I wrote elsewhere, it’s actually understandable why some want Aslan to be less than omnipotent, precisely so that He can be seen as MORE heroic when opposing evil that MIGHT be able to defeat Him.) But the case of Christians disliking the idea is more subtle. Every Christian (except for those pharisaic types who call all fantasies uniformly demonic) is willing to recognize Aslan at least as embodying the personality traits of Jesus; but in spite of such powerful narrative clues as Aslan taking the form of a LAMB in addition to that of a lion, many balk at agreeing that Mr. Lewis meant Aslan unequivocally to BE Jesus, none other than the same Jesus Who is found in the New Testament.

I believe I have grasped the cause. These Christians resist calling Aslan Jesus for the same reason as even well-intentioned people at the fringes of Christendom resist calling Jesus God.

If you don’t understand the Trinity, the claim of Jesus to be God can sound like blasphemy–the presumptious attempt of a man, who started out as a man, to elevate himself to Godhood. This, in fact, was the very charge brought by Our Lord’s enemies. But when you do understand the Trinity, you realize that Jesus didn’t CLIMB UP to “become” God; he already WAS one of the three co-existing aspects of God, and He CAME DOWN to become human.

If you don’t understand the conscious intent that Mr. Lewis formed after God’s mental suggestion to him for the character of Aslan took hold, the claim that Aslan is Jesus can sound like blasphemy–the attempt of an author to take a character he happened to enjoy inventing, and endow this character with the dignity of the Savior. This, in fact, is exactly what the malicious Philip Pullman has accused Mr. Lewis of doing with Aslan. But when you do understand the intent of Mr. Lewis, you realize that Mr. Lewis wasn’t indulging in turning a talking lion into a Christ-figure at the expense of Biblical doctrine; instead, he was imagining what form THE ACTUAL CHRIST might assume if ENTERING such a mythic world as the Narnian world.

Mr. Lewis asserted in his essays that there is not, and cannot ever be, ANY being ANYWHERE, other than God, who is eternal from eternity-past, uncreated, omnipotent and absolutely self-sufficient. Therefore, when Aslan is described in “The Magician’s Nephew” displaying the attributes of Almighty God, creating something out of nothing, and on top of that being seen doing the creating by persons from the real world, Mr. Lewis CANNOT be inviting the reader to conclude, “Okay, there IS someone omnipotent besides God after all.” Mr. Lewis took God’s exclusive Godhood too seriously to blur it.

Jesus being God does not wrongly exalt mankind to Godhood, because Jesus WAS God first. Aslan being Jesus does not wrongly exalt fantasy characters, because the whole point about Aslan is Jesus Himself ENTERING a world purposely modelled upon myths and fairytales.

Ut fidem praestem in difficultate!

0 people like this post.

Like 

A team of top movie executives was understood to be scouting locations for the second Chronicles of Narnia movie, Prince Caspian, near Glenorchy yesterday.

A busload of about 40 people, all understood to be heads of department for the second Chronicles of Narnia movie from throughout the world, were driven around Paradise, the stunning backdrop for some of the most dramatic scenes in The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

The Southland Times understands Dart River Safaris vans had to transport the group up some of the narrow roads into the Paradise Valley, unable to be negotiated by the Pacific Travel coach they were believed to be travelling in.

Film industry sources were unable to confirm any location scouting in the Glenorchy area yesterday for The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian movie, based on the second of CS Lewis’s Narnia books.

However, Department of Conservation communications officer Nick Edwards said movie representatives had approached the department to discuss possible locations in the Wakatipu, particularly Glenorchy.

“We’ve just been talking to them about potential locations, but I don’t think the majority of it has any interest in our (DOC) land,” Mr Edwards said.

New Zealand line producer for the Narnia film Tim Coddington could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Some of the first movie, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, were filmed in the Glenorchy area two years ago.

0 people like this post.

Like 

At the Consumer Electronics Show, Disney’s CEO Bob Iger announced plans for creating Massively Multi-player Online games based on many Disney properties. He announced the possibility of living in the world of Toy Story, racing in the world of Cars, having superpowers like the Incredibles, entering the world of the Disney Princesses, and entering a world of Pirates. He also mentioned a little thing called Narnia…

Disney’s CEO Bob Iger told the assembled crowd at his CES keynote address yesterday that the company plans to bring it’s hottest properties to ‘the virtual realm’ with the first major MMO-game being Pirates of the Caribbean due to launch later this year.

Iger told the CES audience, “We plan to build more virtual worlds like Pirates, based on a broad range of our properties, where we will invite our guests to become a part of our stories. Imagine living in Buzz and Woody’s toy universe; joining an epic adventure in the lands of Narnia; racing Lightning McQueen through Radiator Springs; sharing the superpowers of the Incredibles or entering the magic world of Cinderella and the other Disney princesses.”

SPOnG has just spoken with Sandra van Vreedendaal, Disney’s corporate communications director for Europe, who was cagier about the keynote, telling us, “Bob’s speech yesterday was more about imagining where we are going in the future. Of course, we have many IPs [Intellectual Properties] such as Toy Story, Cars, Narnia, The Incredibles. We are imagining that these things could be possible but at the moment have no firm plans.”

0 people like this post.

Like 

This comes as no surprise, as filming is scheduled to start before we know it, but set building has started. Narnia creature designs have been in the works for a very long time, and should be finalized very soon, if they haven’t been already. Anyway, here’s one report:

Word has it that Prince Caspian production work is commencing on the Coromandel Peninsula in New Zealand. According to our spy, huge props are starting to appear and what appears to be a castle set is currently being built. Cair Paravel or King Miraz’ castle, perhaps? Production in the region will be continuing throughout January and February.

Now, this report makes a little less sense. Pippa Hall confirmed to all those involved in the casting that they had chosen their Prince Caspian. However, I believe that Andrew Adamson does have the right to overrule that decision, and he may have, but just take this with a huge grain of salt, unless you can confirm or deny it. If you have any more details, don’t hesitate to e-mail us an update on the situation.

According to our sources, Caspian has not been cast yet! We’re hearing that although proceedings are at the short list stage, director Andrew Adamson is insisting that a boy of Spanish appearance (aged mid teens to early twenties) be selected. It is also rumoured that Caspian may indeed be fancied by Susan in the film. The casting directors are seeking fresh talent this week, asking agents not to send them actors who have already been seen for the role.

0 people like this post.

Like