Narnia Fans » Creatures

Ben Barnes talks Battles, Discovery in Dawn Treader

Paul Martin — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 13:29:58 +0000

His debut as the eponymous royal in the second Narnia movie, 2008’s Prince Caspian, helped the film to rack up over $400 million at the box office, and he will now reprise the role in the adaptation of Lewis’s third book in the series, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

“There are some big pitched battles in this one, swords and action,” he reveals when pondering his forthcoming adventure, “although this film is more about magic, creatures and discovery. I am looking forward to seeing Caspian a few years later, as a king, playing a character that isn’t so vulnerable and fragile this time around. And playing a king, I think that has to be pretty cool. The king is in charge, for a start, although then the kids turn up and they kind of piss on his bonfire a bit!

“But I am looking forward to it. After all, as a kid you dream of wielding swords in a fantasy adventure.” He smiles.

“I definitely didn’t grow up wanting to play a young dad, with a child in a coma, searching for the answers!” The role of a young dad searching for the answers comes courtesy of the film he’s just completed in Boston, which carries the temporary title of Valediction. “It has a very adult theme and I am playing my own age for the first time ever,” says Barnes, “a 28-year-old man with a daughter. It felt like a lot of films that I have loved but also didn’t feel like anything I have read in a long time. It’s hard to describe. How would describe The Three Colours Blue or Blue Velvet or Momento? They are hard to pigeonhole. They are films about people. It is certainly the most real film I have done, it’s my second contemporary film, and it just kind of screamed at me to come and do it.”

Read the rest at the Telegraph

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Academy Award Update

Mike — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 03:28:25 +0000

The Los Angeles Times reports that “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian” has been eliminated from consideration for two Academy Awards: Best Visual Effects and Best Makeup. The visual effects finalists have been announced while as of this writing the best makeup nominees are not official.

No word yet on Best Song.

More Creatures In Dawn Treader

Paul Martin — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 09:37:47 +0000

Howard Berger, who has handled special effects and makeup for the Chronicle of Narnia movies, said that actors will have a chance to interact with more fantasy creatures in the expected second sequel, Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

And that will mean more models and animatronic characters on set to stand in for complicated computer-generated visual effects that will be added in post-production, he said while giving reporters a tour of his shop this week. That will include a mix of animatronic animals and realistic costumes.

The interaction between the actors and the fantasy characters is a lot more involved than in the previous two movies, Berger said.

“In Dawn Treader there will be a lot of dialogue, and you can’t have the actors act against nothing,” Berger said.

Disney Movie Surfers Prince Caspian Behind the Scenes

Paul Martin — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 03:20:00 +0000

Go behind the scenes of Prince Caspian with Disney Movie Surfers. This video features new footage, creature and set design and more.

Disney Movie Surfers

Narnia Production Blog #2

Paul Martin — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 11:59:00 +0000

A LOOK INTO THE CREATURES OF NARNIA
BY HOWARD BERGER
Makeup Effects and Creature Designer

Once in a lifetime, something so amazing happens and you are so grateful for it. But, to have it happen twice in a lifetime is unheard of. I am talking about the privilege of another journey into Narnia that the creative team at KNB EFX Group, Inc. gets to take for PRINCE CASPIAN.

The first film was a challenge, as we had never tackled a project so huge in scope and with so many creatures playing at once. It was important to bring all the Narnians to life and make it completely believable that they could believably live in this magical land. And here we are again, ready to meet up with the new Narnians that inhabit the land 1,500 years later.

The first step took partner Greg Nicotero and I back to the drawing board, as we wanted to mix things up a bit. We wanted to take another pass at what the Narnians would be like if they had become more wild in their appearance, seeing how they have been living in hiding within the forests all these centuries. What if they were all different age groups, sizes and races? We felt that the Narnians in the first film were all in their thirties, so we designed some study sculptures to demonstrate our concepts and approached director Andrew Adamson with the ideas. He liked our take and felt this could give Narnia an even more real existence.

In PRINCE CASPIAN, we have heavy set fauns, old age fauns, female dwarves, centaurs and their families. The minotaurs are now on the side of good. A new hag, a werewolf and the satyrs are back, but all newly redesigned to be more animal-like than the prior movie.

I think in every film there is one character you fall in love with. The first movie had Mr. Tumnus, played by the great James McAvoy. This time it is Peter Dinklage who plays Trumpkin the Dwarf. The character is so wonderfully written, and once you see Peter as Trumpkin, he becomes alive and real. We gave Trumpkin his look, but Peter gave him his heart, and the collaboration brings to life a new and interesting addition to this rich world.

A lot of the same crew from the first film have joined us, including my co-winner for the Best Makeup Oscar last year, Tami Lane (with key support from our third team member, Sarah Rubano). We are all excited and thrilled as there is an evolution that has occurred in Narnia and we are all privileged to be here to experience another wonderful adventure.

Read the rest at Narnia.com

MovieWeb Interviews Howard Berger

Paul Martin — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 02:21:00 +0000

MovieWeb has interviewed Howard Berger. This is a very good interview that I’m sure you’ll all enjoy. Take a look at the excerpt below, and click on the source link to read the whole thing.

On a film like The Chronicles of Narnia, do you come in with specific ideas for how you want the film to look? Do you read the script and then go, “Where do I begin?” Or, did you draw a lot from the C.S. Lewis book?

Howard Berger: Well, it’s a lot of everything to tell you the truth. What we did was, WETA Workshop in New Zealand, Richard Taylor’s company, had been hired almost a year and a half prior to our involvement. So they had done a lot of design work and conceptual artwork for Andrew Adamson, so when we came on that was already there, but we needed to still take that artwork and redesign it to kind of fit in the real world. It was a combination of illustrations from the original book and WETA’s original artwork.

The two big things for me were Andrew Adamson’s recollection of the characters in the book when he was a child and he read it. That was a really, really big influence and I wanted to recreate that world that was in his mind when he was small; and also my three children had a lot to do with it because they were such gigantic fans of the book. I did not want to disappoint them and I utilized their imagination and their purity as far as designing a lot of the characters as well.

How much of this movie were you on the set?

Howard Berger: I was on set every single day. We prepped in LA, here at KNB EFX for six months, then I took off to New Zealand and I was there for eight months. I was on set every single day. (Laughs)

Which character was your personal favorite to design makeup for?

Howard Berger: I had two that I really, really loved. The Narnia inhabitants are basically broken up into two groups. There’s the good guys being Aslan’s camp and the bad guys being the White Witch’s camp. I’d say on the good guy’s side, Mr. Tumnus was by far my favorite. I loved Mr. Tumnus. He was also the most difficult for me. He was the first character to film on the show and it was a lot of hard work. Once Andrew had hired James McAvoy, I felt a lot easier about it. I felt James was Mr. Tumnus.

As far as bad guys go, I loved General Otmin who was the White Witch’s Minotaur; big, giant, black Minotaur. I just think he’s so supercool and I remember sitting on set with him on the first day going, “I love this creature. It’s so awesome looking. It’s such a great combination of everything I love. He’s got a little bit of buffalo, he’s got a little bit of gorilla, he’s kind of apish and best of all he’s very Where the Wild Things Are.”

[Read the rest at MovieWeb]
[Check out OUR Exclusive Interview here]

Behind the Magic VI: The Score and VII: Creatures

Paul Martin — Thu, 22 Dec 2005 22:44:00 +0000

Behind the Magic of Narnia VI is now available at ComingSoon.net. This one is called “The Score.” It’s just over 3 minutes in length and shows an interview with Composer Harry Gregson-Williams.

You can view the video on this page (be patient, you have to sit through a 15 second commercial first). Windows Media Player is required.

A 10-minute version of this clip is on the DVD included with the Special Editon of the soundtrack.

In Behind the Magic VII, listen to Howard Berger, Richard Taylor, and Andrew Adamson discuss how the different creatures for the film were created through a mix of costumes, puppets, and digital effects. The clip (over five minutes long) also has some great behind-the-scenes footage of Tumnus on set, the witch’s camp, and the stone table.

Click here to watch the clip at Moviefone.com

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