Narnia Fans » 2008 » February

Re-creating scenes of author C.S. Lewis’s famed literary fantasy world of “Narnia,” Becker Group, in partnership with Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures and Walden Media will bring to worldwide audiences “The Chronicles of Narnia: International Museum Exhibition,” a fantastical state-of-the-art educational exhibit. The massive interactive experience will premiere June 2008, to coincide with the opening of the new film, “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian,” the second installment of the blockbuster film series based on Lewis’s beloved fictional books.

The 10,000-square-foot educational exhibit will appear at internationally renowned museums and learning institutions in a minimum of 10 cities around the world over a five-year span, escorting guests of all ages on a tour of myth, magic and adventure that so embodied Lewis’s fantasy world. Incorporating the movies’ original props with newly created interactive elements, “The Chronicles of Narnia: International Museum Exhibition” will allow visitors to enter three-dimensional settings of both fantasy and reality, including a recreation of Lewis’s personal study. Visitors will also be immersed in environments such as the famous attic and wardrobe that serve as the portal into the Narnia adventures. Once inside, guests will be transported into a wintry Narnia world complete with falling snow and cold wind, as seen in the series’ first film, “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.” The tour then continues through other spectacles from the series including the White Witch’s ice palace, Cair Paravel, an actual trebuchet that was used as a catapulting weapon in medieval days, and additional sets and environments from the upcoming film, “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian.”

First published in 1950, over 100 million copies of “The Chronicles of Narnia” series have been sold in over 48 languages. The series’ first big screen adaptation, “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” grossed over $745 million worldwide. Since the book series has long been a regarded source of reading inspiration, merging fantasy and historic knowledge, a special teacher’s guide that also includes information on weather and climate will be available to academic communities in each of the exhibit’s touring cities.

“This truly is a multi-faceted, educational exhibit that stimulates the senses, and illuminates the mind,” said Glenn Tilley, president of Becker Group. “This immersive experience promises to leave audiences young and old with lasting memories.”

“Walden Media is pleased to be partnering with Disney and the Becker Group to create what we know will be a faithful adaptation of C.S. Lewis’s original story,” said Micheal Flaherty, co-founder and president of Walden Media. “The ‘Narnia’ exhibition is a natural extension of the world that C.S Lewis created, and we are thrilled that we have helped to take Narnia from books to films and now to interactive experiences.”

The new touring experience will appear throughout the theatrical and video runs of “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian,” as well as the scheduled third film in the series, “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.” Becker Group is currently in discussions with venues in markets worldwide such as, but not limited to:

London, Chicago, Sydney, Australia, Los Angeles, Tampa, Quebec, Boston, Denver, Philadelphia, Columbus, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Phoenix, St. Louis, New York

Produced in partnership with Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures and Walden Media, “The Chronicles of Narnia: International Museum Exhibition” is Becker Group’s sixth partnership with Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, the most recent of which was “The Big Cheese Tour,” which appeared at food and cultural festivals throughout the country to promote last summer’s Disney- Pixar animated smash film, “Ratatouille.”

About Becker Group

A subsidiary of Viad Corp , Becker Group is an experiential marketing company with over fifty years of experience creating immersive, entertaining attractions and brand-based experiences for a wide variety of clients and venues including top consumer brands, movie studios, retail centers, television networks, theme parks, museums and casinos. The award- winning company is headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland, and has operations in Los Angeles, St. Louis, Salt Lake City, Miami, Mexico City, Mexico and Sao Paulo, Brazil. For more information about venues for “The Chronicles of Narnia: International Museum Exhibition” inquiries should be made to Lisa O’Keefe, director of venue partnerships at 201-594-0582, or, lokeefe@beckergroup.com

About Walden Media LLC

Walden Media specializes in entertainment that sparks imagination and engages young people in the learning process. Walden Media creates films, books and interactive media for the whole family to enjoy together. By working closely with the best talent in film and publishing and by collaborating with educators and parents, Walden Media develops stories that delight and enlighten audiences young and old. Founded by Cary Granat, former president of Miramax Films’ Dimension label, and education reformer Micheal Flaherty, Walden Media is a subsidiary of Anschutz Film Group.

About Walt Disney Studios

The Walt Disney Studios is a unit of The Walt Disney Company and distributes motion pictures under Walt Disney Pictures — which includes Walt Disney Feature Animation and DisneyToon Studios — Touchstone Pictures, Hollywood Pictures and Miramax Films. Buena Vista International serves as the studio’s international distribution arm. Buena Vista Home Entertainment and Buena Vista Home Entertainment International together distribute Disney and other film titles to the rental and sell-through home entertainment markets worldwide. Buena Vista Theatrical Productions is one of the largest producers of Broadway musicals, and the Buena Vista Music Group distributes original music and motion picture soundtracks under its four record labels: Walt Disney Records, Buena Vista Records, Hollywood Records and Lyric Street Records.

We’ve been given a Prince Caspian Widget for the US. The previous widget that we found was released for the european release of the film. This widget has been granted to the fan sites for release to all of you. Feel free to grab this widget to place it on your websites and myspace pages (or any other page that you can post widgets to).

Disney sat [MSN's Hollywood Hitlist columnist Gregory Ellwood] down with director Andrew Adamson and producer Mark Johnson to watch a good 45 minutes of the upcoming flick. And, not surprisingly, there is a lot about the new movie for audiences to get excited about.

Caspian is pretty cool: It’s hard to introduce a new main character in the second installment of a franchise, but Adamson may have pulled it off with Caspian. The movie begins with the prince’s life on the line after the birth of a younger male cousin. Caspian’s evil uncle is king, and with the new heir his dashing nephew is expendable. The chase scene that follows is far more dramatic than most of “Wardrobe” and makes Caspian immediately sympathetic. The fact that newcomer Ben Barnes has some genuine charisma doesn’t hurt either.

No surprise, this is the last of Peter and Susan: One dramatic plotline Adamson has played up is the tension between Peter, the oldest of the children, and Caspian. Peter hasn’t adjusted to living back in the real world after ruling a kingdom and is eager to prove he’s the rightful ruler of the land. This could come across a little too heavy-handedly, but in the scenes I previewed it seemed subtler than most moviegoers would expect. Adamson says it all ties into why Peter and Susan realize this will be their last visit to Narnia. Edmund and Lucy return in the next film, “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.”

New influences for classic enemies: C.S. Lewis conceived the Telmarines as the descendants of pirates, but Adamson has taken it a step further by clearly portraying them with Spanish influences. He says he was looking to differentiate them from the British characteristics of the Pevensie children, but it was a little too obvious for this columnist.

Hardcore fans are a tough crowd: Adamson has had to change a number of things from the original book, including certain plot points, in order to make the story more cinematic, and he expects to hear grumbles from some of the hard-core fans. “There [are] always fanatics who will have that response,” Adamson says. “How true to the book does the movie have to be? I think for me it’s finding the key points, the key individual characters and the key themes and staying true to those.”

Read the rest at MSN Movies

We are delighted to announce the second C.S. Lewis Today conference to be held in Sydney!

Date: Saturday 24th May 2008, all day.

Venue: Wesley Centre, Pitt St, Sydney.

Cost: To be advised, but affordable for families, students and all Lewis fans.

Program: A day of talks, movies, panel discussions and workshops, including keynote addresses from Professor Alan Jacobs (author of The Narnian) and Dr John Dickson (popular Australian Christian author and speaker and Director of the Centre for Public Christianity).

Stay tuned for more information about the release of the film Prince Caspian and Lewis events at the Sydney Writers’ Festival.

C.S. Lewis Today

C. S. Lewis’s classic novel, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was recently voted the best children’s book of all time, and with the new Narnia film Prince Caspian out this summer, 2008 will be a big year for the author’s fans.

To celebrate, publishers HarperCollins employed Diane Simpson, a professional graphologist, to analyze samples of his handwriting, taken from some of his letters. She did not know whose script she was studying.

Here are her results.

“At first glance this small, neat script appears to trot unprepossessingly across the page. His exceedingly small personal pronoun does indeed suggest that this man is a modest individual; but being modest does not mean ineffectual.

“There is evidence of strong personal discipline in this angular, firm script. Here we have a man who is far more likely to harbour a preference for detailed, factual understatement than ‘in your face’ floridity of wording.

“It seems to me that he takes himself rather seriously. He requires no outside criticism as he provides more than enough for himself. He is self-critical and self-monitoring… he really cares about getting things right. I don’t think he’s shy – but he chooses to keep himself to himself.

Read the rest at TimesOnline

Disney/Walden Media: The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

Howard Berger – Creature Supervisor

Shooting for Narnia was done in New Zealand and Czech Republic. This story is bigger in scope, with a new look and vision. “Darker and more savage” because of the storyline( the Narnia creatures have been exiled), but still family entertainment. One aspect as a director that returning to Narnia allowed was to change / do over the creatures. Felt that last movie all the creatures were 20 – 25 years old. This time wanted to make younger and older creatures to give a fuller back drop to story.

Showed a 5 minute video presentation of “Prince Caspian.” *Very* rough cut, with many special effects missing. Was funny to see actors with “green” legs, or with partially completed horse bodies. Arrow shots from Susan were blotching and fat. Reepicheep was not complete – very cartoony. Still – looks like its faithful to the story line and full of sword fighting action.

He’s hoping to be able to work on all movies made from the 7 books. They are starting pre-production on “Voyage of the Dawn Treader” right now. He mentioned that his company was one of several originally interviewed for “The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.” He was asked why he wanted to do Narnia, when KNB was not known for this genre. He mentioned he wanted to do a film his kids could watch.

The Telmarines armor was influences by Spanish Renaissance armor. To date, his favorite creatures are Mr. Tumnus (McAvoy) and the Minotaurs.

Side note: McAvoy was brought in at the last minute because they could not find an actor they were happy with. They weren’t sure about him because he was so young and they were thinking of an older Tumnus. Obviously he pulled it off.

ComingSoon.net for more WonderCon panel summaries!

From Aint It Cool News:

THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: PRINCE CASPIAN

Howard Berger came out and spoke about NARNIA. Howard’s a great guy and I’ve been fortunate to spend a lot of time with him and the other KNB guys on many of the sets I’ve visited. Disney threw him out by his lonesome to answer fan questions and give a little talk about the flick before starting the footage up.

- He looked at the first film and figured out what he wanted to change… he didn’t put it this way, but I got the impression that CASPIAN was an opportunity for a “do-over” on the creatures. He wanted a difference in age with the creatures… so this one we’ll see young creatures, old creatures and more wild beings, not so “coifed.”

-Weta is doing miniature and VFX work as well as a VFX company in London.

- VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER is already moving forward and they’ll do all 7 books if the Box Office stays strong.

The footage they showed had no dialog, only music over images. There were some really incomplete effects, ranging from animatic Reepicheep slashing bad guys and tying up cats to green-legged centaurs. There was also part of the mano-a-mano sword fight between Peter and King Miraz, the evil ruler of the Telmarines who have taken over Narnia while the Pevensies have been away (one year passes for them and it’s well over a thousand years in Narnia).

I’ll have much more detail on this next week… I was shown at least 45 minutes of the movie, so I’ll be able to spill a bit more then. I’ll just say that I wasn’t that keen on the first NARNIA, but this one has a darkness to it that I quite enjoy. I like that Berger, Andrew Adamson and co. have made the world feel a little more used and lived in.

Rediscover the magic of Narnia – the original fantasy adventure.

The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis has been voted the Best Children’s book of all time in a UK survey of over 4,000 parents.

The Chronicles of Narnia have enchanted generations of readers and in May 2008 HarperCollins publish a host of official tie-in books in advance of the release of the eagerly awaited movie sequel to The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe: Prince Caspian (Disney and Walden Media).

Find out more at the official HarperCollins Narnia microsite – launched today – at www.discovernarnia.co.uk

In the first video Traveller’s Tales explains the console versions of the game. What is most interesting is that the first part of the game takes place between the events of “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” and “Prince Caspian.” The C.S. Lewis Estate gave them permission to fill in the gaps of what might have happened to cause the overthrow of Cair Paravel in the 1300 year gap between the films.

Here’s a video from GameSpot with the team leader talking about the Prince Caspian DS game.

The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis’s fantasy novel first published 58 years ago, has been crowned the ultimate children’s book.

Despite making its author JK Rowling richer than the Queen and sparking a worldwide publishing phenomenon, Harry Potter came a relatively lowly sixth place in the survey.

CS Lewis’s 1950 tale of four children who enter the fantastical world of Narnia through a wardrobe beat contemporary favourites such as Harry Potter and The Gruffalo.

The top 50 children’s books included much-loved classics such as the Wind in the Willows, Alice in Wonderland, the Secret Garden and the Railway Children.

:: Top 50 Best Children’s Books

1. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, C.S. Lewis
2. The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Eric Carle
3. Famous Five, Enid Blyton
4. Winnie the Pooh, A.A. Milne
5. The BFG, Roald Dahl
6. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, J.K. Rowling
7. The Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
8. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
9. Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
10. The Gruffalo, Julia Donaldson
11. The Tales of Peter Rabbit, Beatrix Potter
12. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
13. Matilda, Roald Dahl
14. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
15. The Cat in the Hat, Dr Seuss
16. The Twits, Roald Dahl
17. Mr Men, Roger Hargreaves
18. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
19. The Malory Towers series, Enid Blyton
20. Peter Pan, J.M. Barrie
21. The Railway Children, E. Nesbit
22. Hans Christian Fairy Tales, H.C. Andersen
23, The Wizard of Oz, L. Frank Baum
24. The Witches, Roald Dahl
25. Stig of the Dump, Clive King
26. The Wishing Chair, Enid Blyton
27. Dear Zoo, Rod Campbell
28. The Tiger Who Came to Tea, Judith Kerr
29. Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Jan Brett
30. James and the Giant Peach, Roald Dahl
31. A Bear Called Paddington, Michael Bond
32. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
33. Where the Wild Things Are, Maurice Sendak
34. Aesop’s Fables, Jerry Pinkney
35. The Borrowers, Mary Norton
36. Just So Stories, Rudyard Kipling
37. Meg and Mog, Jan Pienkowski
38. Mrs Pepperpot, Alf Proysen
39. We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, Michael Rosen
40. The Gruffalo’s Child, Julia Donaldson
41. Room on a Broom, Julia Donaldson
42. The Worst Witch, Jill Murphy
43. Miffy, Dick Bruna
44. The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupery
45. Flat Stanley, Jeff Brown
46. The Snail and the Whale, Julia Donaldson
47. Ten Little Ladybirds, Melanie Gerth
48. Six Dinners Sid, Inga Moore
49. The St. Clare’s series, Enid Blyton
50. Captain Underpants, Dav Pilkey

Kotaku is reporting that Disney is launching the DGamer feature with the Nintendo DS version of The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. This makes is possible to put yourself into the land of Narnia, at least virtually. Really cool concept, although it is not confirmed that you’ll be able to do that in the DS version of the game. From Kotaku:

Hoping to get the jump on any attempt from Nintendo to bring features made popular on the Wii and Xbox 360, Disney is adding a feature called DGamer to future Nintendo DS titles. The first game to support the DGamer service will be The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian bringing the Disney equivalent of Miis, Achievements (called “Honors”) and an online Pictochat-esque instant messaging app.

The DGamer service will integrate with with Disney’s already established online programs at Disney.com and other owned properties, allowing for a unified sign-on requiring only a PIN to check in. The avatar customization we saw at GDC allows for basic clothing choices and color options, in addition to Mii-style character editing. Well-known Disney costumes, such as a Buzz Lightyear get up, will also be available when unlocked.

Visit Kotaku for screenshots of DGamer in action