Narnia Insiders go “Behind the Scenes” with Narnia’s Douglas Gresham, with Part 5 of the Narnia Insider’s series. I think we’ve seen this video before, but there have been so many, that I might be mistaken.
Douglas Gresham was interviewed on the Haven Today Radio program
yesterday: Haven Today
He was talking about his step-father and the The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
You can also listen to todays program where D. Gresham is going to talk a
little more about C. S. Lewis and hopefully Prince Caspian: Haven Today Archives
Thanks to Shad E. for the report!
Prince Caspian Official Illustrated Movie Companion
Title: The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian: The Official Illustrated Movie Companion.
Author: Ernie Malik
Publisher: HarperOne
ISBN-10: 0061435600
ISBN-13: 978-0061435607
Summary of the book:
The film adaptations of the Chronicles of Narnia are some of the most anticipated movies ever. Ernie Malik looks at the making of the second film in the series, “Prince Caspian”. From preproduction, to filming to post production this book goers every aspect of the filming of the movie, complete with exclusive behind the scenes photos from the movie.
Review of the book:
It was almost a given that with the success of the first film in the Narnia series, that a second would follow. This book looks at the making of the film and is great not only for film buffs interested in the process, but for fans of Narnia who want to know more about their new favorite movie.
The book begins with forwards from Andrew Adamson, Douglas Gresham and Mark Johnson. Appropriately it concludes with an afterward by newcomer Ben Barnes, who plays the titular prince. These forwards and afterwards are very inviting and welcoming and immerse you in the action of the film making process and make you eager for not only Prince Caspian, but for the Voyage of the Dawn Treader.
As expected the book has many biographies on the cast and crew, complete with great photos. This includes some amazing shots of Will, Anna, Skander and Georgie, who, in my opinion are looking more and more like Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy Pevensie and less like a bunch of actors and actresses chosen to play them.
Readers discover that the four young stars didn’t let their success on the first film go to their heads. What’s more these kids are clearly very good friends with each other, which will help so much in their performances in the film.
The new cast member profiles as just as enjoyable as the ones on the returning cast members. Ben Barnes recounts how he became the “fifth Pevensie” and fit right into their already jelled group of friends. This is great news for us fans when we go to the movie. If he can’t fit into the mix, then the movie would be a bust, but if he seems natural with them, the magic can continue. He even recounts how he grew so close to them that at times Will grew angry at him as it seemed Ben was usurping his role as Georgie’s on set older brother.
Warwick Davis recounts his work on the BBC Narnia films and how much he enjoys being back working on Narnia. There’s even a humorous anecdote about how on his first day on set, Howard Berger, blasted the Ewok theme from Return of the Jedi ( Davis played Wicket, the main Ewok who befriends Princess Leia in Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi) over the speakers on set to welcome him.
The book goes into full detail about the whole production process from making the props and costumes to designing the creatures. They continually emphasis how everything in Prince Caspian should feel more “used” and “worn out” as opposed to how new and fresh it all felt in the first film.
Casting is described to be just as hard as it was with the first film. The hardest character to design and cast ended up being Reepicheep who was cast at the time the book was being finished. From what we’ve scene already in trailers and sneak peaks, when you read this book, you’ll be glad they did.
The behind the scenes photos are visually stunning and at times are funny to see. You’ll see things like tennis balls, or fake lion heads standing in for creatures like Reepicheep or Aslan. There’s even one of the four Pevensies standing on their marks at the ruins of Cair Paravel, with Anna and Georgie in very modern sandals. In the case of Georgie, they are a clearly oversized pair of sandals.
And of course, lest I forget, our own Paul Martin is mentioned in the Special Thanks section in the back of the book as he helped contribute some information for the book.
This books is nothing short of an exciting look at the magic behind the magic of the Prince Caspian film. It was well written, well researched, the photos were great and in short it had everything you need in a “behind the scenes book.”It is certainly well worth the read. However, when you buy it, make sure to read it after you see the film. There is plenty of juicy spoiler info inside. One thing becomes more sure after reading this book, you will want them to make the rest of the series.
Five out of five shields.
Narnia Fans Spy Shad E. writes: Right now I am listing to a radio broadcast of Focus on the Family, where they are interviewing Douglas Gresham on C. S. Lewis and Prince Caspian!
You can listen to it any time here: Focus on the Family
We’ve seen and read many interviews with Mr. Douglas Gresham, Co-Producer and creative consultant of the Narnian films, now Mr. Gresham is interview by the very people Narnia is meant for. Children. Special thanks to Sabrina O’Malone at Workingmom.com for the interview link. Here’s a brief excerpt:
Do you have the “real” wardrobe and did you ever look inside it and see anything?
[This question generates a stern look from the older siblings with the reminder that she's on the wrong movie and there isn't any wardrobe in Prince Caspian. Mr. Gresham graciously responds anyway]
Angelica, there is actually no “real” wardrobe, Jack took that idea from a book by E. Nesbit (and if you haven’t read her books yet then you have a great treat in store for you) called “The Aunt and Amabel”. There was no wardrobe that stimulated the idea at all. Despite that fact, there are two colleges in America both of whom claim to have the “real” wardrobe. One has a wardrobe from Warnie’s [C.S. Lewis' brother's] room at The Kilns, and the other has a very fine wardrobe hand carved and made by Jack’s grandfather. It used to stand in the hall of The Kilns. Neither of these wardrobes has any relationship at all with Narnia.
When a cherished book becomes a movie, the book fans usually cringe. Yet, three years ago, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe burst onto the screen, satisfying even the most ardent fan of C.S. Lewis’ literary classic.
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, comes to the screen this month. Thus, the question in the minds of Lewis fans is, “Can they give us a film that’s faithful to the book again?”
Movieguide® recently chatted with Douglas Gresham. In his eloquent and affable manner, he gave us insight into the upcoming movie.
Considering himself to have a “moral, sacred duty to protect the essential messages of the books,” Gresham has worked hand in hand with director Andrew Adamson to make sure that the spirit of the book will make its way onto the screen. Gresham says that during production of the first movie, he had a steep learning curve due to his ignorance of the filmmaking process. Gresham credits Adamson with being the “world’s best teacher.” This time around, the learning curve has not been as steep for Gresham, but he said they found Prince Caspian presented unique challenges not found in the previous book and movie.
For one thing, the book’s plot is darker, taking place when an evil tyrant rules the land at a time of civil war. The movie then needs to reflect that more somber era in the history of Narnia. The other challenge is the simplicity of the book’s plot.
In Gresham’s words, “The four kids arrive 1,300 years later. Things are different. They rescue a dwarf named Trumpkin, and then, while sitting around the fire, Trumpkin tells them about Prince Caspian. Now, that doesn’t make for a great movie.”
To fully tell the story, more action sequences have been added to make the movie more epic in nature. Gresham believes that this makes Prince Caspian more exciting than the first movie.
Even with these scene changes and additions, he asserts, “The underlying message is what Jack (C.S. Lewis) put in there. Faith, truth, justice, courtesy, chivalry, honor, personal commitment.”
Gresham believes that Lewis most likely would not have worried about minor or even major changes as long as the movie stayed true to the message and spirit of the book.
Gresham’s journey with Hollywood has actually been a very long road. Some of the biggest names in filmmaking have been interested in and even developed scripts for The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe. However, in the “wisdom” of Hollywood, changes were made which gutted the spirit of the book, and Gresham kept those scripts from going forward.
Not until Walden Media and Andrew Adamson become involved did Gresham have the confidence that the books would make a faithful transition to the screen. Gresham also sees in hindsight a side benefit of waiting. For only now with sophisticated computer animation can the regal lion Aslan really come to life.
So, if Lewis himself were able to sit next to Gresham at the premiere of Prince Caspian, would Lewis like it?
Gresham is confident that he would.
He further says that Lewis saw the potential of the new, emerging technology of cinema and worried about the potential immoral use of the medium.
Gresham says that both Lewis and he believe that “the enemy of mankind has taken over the cinema. Jack (Lewis) would be overjoyed about taking it back.”
And what of the future? After Prince Caspian, what’s next?
Gresham reports that pre-production has begun on the next book, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, which also features the character of Prince Caspian. For the book which follows that, The Silver Chair, Gresham is in “initial talks” about it coming to the screen. He sees the day when all the movies will finally make their way to film.
Books such as “The Horse and His Boy” which feature grown-up Pevensie kids will have to wait for the actors to become the right age. The book that technically predates the events of “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” (in Narnia time anyway) is “The Magician’s Nephew.” Aficionados have often wondered if that book will become a movie. Giving hope to diehard Narnia fans, Gresham considers that book to be his “arch ambition.”
Gresham encourages Movieguide® readers to see the movie. “Take your friends, take your family and even take your enemies!” he prompted.
He is relying on the Movieguide® community to get out the message of the movie, he said. He further added a word for all Movieguide® readers, viewers and listeners, “You’re my kind of people.”
Thank you for those kind words, Mr. Gresham.
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As a complement to the movie, Dr. Ted Baehr has written “Narnia Beckons” available at www.movieguide.org or by calling 1-800-577-6684. It is a fascinating glimpse of the life and ideas of the man behind the beloved children’s book series. While many books have been written to coincide with the movie’s release, “Narnia Beckons” has been featured by a number of reviewers who recognize the book as the cream of the Narnia-commentary crop. Jean Peerenboom of the Green Bay Press-Gazette writes, “If you choose only one of these books, (”Narnia Beckons”) would be the one to go with.”
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Jeff Holder is an editor for MOVIEGUIDE®.
The National Federation of Catholic Youth Ministry talks to Douglas Gresham about Prince Caspian. Watch the video here!
ChristianityTodayMovies.com recently chatted with Douglas Gresham, 62, who had just seen a rough cut of the film—which he says might be better than LWW, even though it’s adapted from what Gresham calls a “poorer” book. Gresham spoke to us by phone from his home in Malta.
What has kept you busy since The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe?
Douglas Gresham: We started thinking about Prince Caspian the day of the premiere of Lion/Witch. We had a short respite, and then really got into Prince Caspian. And we’re already in preproduction on Voyage of the Dawn Treader.
I understand you recently saw a rough cut of Caspian. Your thoughts?
Gresham: It’s a fabulous film. I’m very, very pleased. It’s a film that portrays probably even more strongly than the book the essential message of Prince Caspian, which is a return to truth and faith and honor and justice after a millennium of corruption in Narnia. I almost hate to say it, but I think it’s a better movie than The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Prince Caspian started with a poorer story than Lion/Witch, but has worked out probably to be a better movie.
Why do you think Caspian is a poorer story?
Gresham: The book doesn’t have the power of the story The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, which is based on the greatest story ever told. You can’t really top that. Prince Caspian, when you look at it from a filmmaker’s viewpoint, is a story basically about a long walk in the woods with a battle at the end. As a movie that doesn’t really work.
We had some difficulty figuring out how to make Caspian work as a film. In the book, the children arrive in Narnia, and they all sit down around the campfire and Trumpkin tells them the story of Prince Caspian—which means that the four Pevensie children vanish for half of the book. If you made it into a movie that way, your protagonists wouldn’t be in half of the film. And that just doesn’t work as a movie.
But Trumpkin’s story makes for a thrilling flashback. Are you saying you didn’t want to leave the Pevensie children while telling Caspian’s backstory?
Gresham: The problem would be that you would have two entirely separate storylines going on, in separate timescales. You’d wind up with half a movie that’s Prince Caspian’s story, and all of a sudden you’ve got the Pevensie kids crashing back into the film. We had to find some way of integrating the Pevensies and Caspian together in a way that works for the story, and I think our scriptwriters did a wonderful job managing to do that.
So do they actually meet up with Caspian earlier in the movie than in the book?
I’m not going to give too much away at this stage.
I understand. But would it be accurate to say…
Gresham: I tell you what to do. Go see the movie when it comes out. Take all your friends and take your friends’ friends. Take your enemies as well, because you’re supposed to love your enemies. Take your enemies’ friends. And then you can tell me if you think we’ve done a good job with it.
I went to the Prince Caspian Church Leader Event at my local Family Christian Store. The craziest thing happened there. I watched the DVD with about 6 or so others, and as I was watching it, someone in the video looked strangely familiar. Then, afterward, a woman turned to me and said: my husband is in the video and he hadn’t even seen it yet. Then he turned around. There, in front of me the entire time was Dr. Michael Stevens. He told me how they actually recorded the interview and other things like that. I got his contact information, and I have a feeling that we’re going to be hearing more from Dr. Stevens in the future here on NarniaFans.com! He was a very easy to talk to person and very knowledgeable about Lewis. Anyway, here’s a bit of a recap of parts of the DVD. We’ve also got some video of the event, and we’re going to try to get it online soon.
Storytelling in Prince Caspian
Douglas Gresham: C.S. Lewis’ story of Prince Caspian has inspired generations of readers around the world with its themes of courage, loyalty, faith, perseverance, compassion, and forgiveness wrapped in an epic tale of adventure. Through stories, C.S. Lewis strove to exalt his readers with the most sublime qualities of our shared humanity. With Prince Caspian as a starting point, let’s explore the way that stories, with their extraordinary ability to speak to the heart, can ennoble and enrich our souls.
Georgie Henley: The good thing about stories is that they carry you to another place which you’ve never been. It gives you a secure environment and you feel like you’re just enveloped by the book and the characters and everything that is happening. Narnia is almost our complete imagination; we can interpret however we like. C.S. Lewis says that Aslan is big but he doesn’t describe him a lot. So for people who like dark gold lions it can be dark gold, if you like white lions it can be a white lion, and he’s completely different in everybody’s imagination. That’s the beauty of all the Narnia books.
Mark Johnson: C.S. Lewis did such a wonderful job setting up the world of Narnia and the characters either within Narnia, or the characters from war-torn England and taking them into Narnia. And what he’s done, unlike a lot of writers who are very specific from what he/she is wearing to what he/she is thinking, Lewis allows you to complete it. The beauty of all the Narnian Chronicles is that, it’s like Shakespeare: The stuff of great stories are embedded in these seven books with wonderful morals and adventures and character decisions and character tests that have to be achieved along the way. Story-telling may be our most original and romantic impulse. That is, to be told a story or to tell a story. You look at the cave drawings, and they’re all about telling stories and depicting something.
Dean Wright: It’s a struggle of good against evil. It’s a story of these kids who are put into a world where they have to make a difference or really bad things can happen. And as a moviegoer, you can watch that and identify with that.
Douglas Gresham Interview Video
Dr. Michael Stevens: I know that Jack maintained that his Chronicles of Narnia were not meant to be allegorical. Do you think people make to much of what Jack is trying to say in these books?
Douglas Gresham: To start with, I think you have to realize that in the days that Jack was writing and speaking, the word ‘allegory’ meant something very different from what it means today. Allegory today is anything that might possibly symbolize or be similar to anything else. This is a corruption of the original meaning of the word. If “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” was to be an allegory of Jesus Christ for example, you would have to have the lion born into the lowest race of the creatures of that world, in terms of a carpenter’s son. He would have to live and minister for thirty years, then tortured to death and resurrected on the third day and so on and so forth for it to be an allegory. They are not allegorical works in the strictest sense of the word. And yes, people do go out of their way to try to find all kinds of hidden meanings. We seem to be a species that loves conspiracy theories: “There has to be a hidden meaning, there has to be a hidden structure.” A very nice man and a friend of mine, Michael Ward, has recently written and published a book all about how Narnian Chronicles are all based on the seven planets of the medieval astronomical system. I like Michael enormously, but I think his book is nonsense.
Dr. Michael Stevens: I know Jack was a classical scholar and it seems to me he was very interested in the parallels of virtues and vice. Is there a way you seem him, throughout the Chronicles, elaborating on virtues and vices and using that as a thematic element?
Douglas Gresham: To some extent, but only to some small extent. I think Jack realized quite early in his vice is in fact virtue corrupted. The devil cannot create, he can only corrupt things that God has created. And therefore, all of the vice we look at around our world today is in fact great things that God created that the devil has corrupted. I think that’s what you see in Narnia. You see the forces of evil corrupting great things. Cair Paravel was a beautiful castle; Miraz’ castle is a dark nasty place. If you take any of the true philosophies of man and corrupt them, you get evil. So it is simply a matter of comparing virtue and vice by realizing that vice is virtue corrupted.
Dr. Michael Stevens: Do you think there’s a way in which you can read Prince Caspian as a test case for the three Christian virtues of faith, hope, and love being worked out in characters’ lives. And do you think faith, hope, and love play a central thematic role throughout the Chronicles?
Douglas Gresham: Yes, I think you can because in “Prince Caspian,” we see what happens to the Telmarine people as a result of doing away with all the great things like faith, hope, and love and so forth. You wind up with a dictatorship under a cruel and merciless king, a murderer. You wind up with a dark, depressing, dreary world in which there is no joy. And when you return to the faith, which the Narnians were born to and made for, it all comes back to being what it should be. There is joy, there is happiness, there is rejoicing, there is freedom. All of these things are part of the return to faith after the many years of corruption.
Dr. Michael Stevens: So are there ways that Narnia is like our world, and the lives led in Narnia are like our lives here and now?
Douglas Gresham: Narnia is not like our world, quite deliberately, until evil gets into it. And we bring it there. In “The Magician’s Nephew,” it was Digory Kirke who brought the White Witch to Narnia. It was a pure beautiful country until Digory brought evil to it. It is very interesting, Jack’s concept in the science fiction trilogy and the Narnian Chronicles. At the time that Jack was writing these books, science fiction writers were writing they still do today, writing stories about going off into space and finding some aliens who are always evil and out to kill us and so forth. Jack turned that on its head. We go out into space to another place and we are the evil monsters, and they are the pure creatures that we should be leaving alone. I think that’s something we really need to pay attention to. In his book “Out of the Silent Planet,” this is the silent planet because we are the fallen species; we are the bad guys. And we need to learn if we ever do go out into space and meet a new alien species, chances are 50/50 that we will be the bad guys.
If you missed it, you can register for the second run of the program on April 22 at Family Christian Stores.
NarnianPrincess got the chance to have an exclusive interview with Douglas Gresham. This is a great one that addresses many of the things in Prince Caspian that you may have been wondering about, based on the trailer. There’s also a bit about Voyage of the Dawn Treader! So she’s taking the floor from here on out.
Hi NarniaFans! This is Alaina/NarnianPrincess here asking Douglas Gresham a few questions about Prince Caspian! I hope that you enjoy it, and that these are answers to things that you’ve been wondering about!
NF: Okay then, with only 90 days (huzzah!) until Caspian is released, how are things shaping up?
Douglas Gresham: There is still quite a bit of work to do but the film is looking absolutely fantastic. I am so proud of Andrew and Walter and all our team for the great job they have done on this movie.
NF: When you went to the screening last week, what was your first impression of the movie? Are you please with the overall outcome?
Douglas Gresham: I am very pleased indeed. My first impression was “Wow!”, and remember I had already seen all the “dailies” so I knew what the footage looked like. The movie has come together amazingly and beautifully well. When it ended I thought to myself “What over already?” And then checked my watch to find that it is actually still about 5 minutes longer than we need it to be. It was astonishing how fast it all went by. I can’t wait to see it again.
NF: Can you tell us who/what your cameo is in PC?
Douglas Gresham: Oh that’s easy to find out, just go and see the movie. 
NF: How do you think Prince Caspian will compare to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe?
Douglas Gresham: With the Narnian movies its going to be very hard to make that kind of comparison because the stories are all so very different. It’s not like we are making sequels, each movie will be a completely unique stand-alone work. But to try, I would say that starting with a story that is not as good or as powerful as that of “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” I think that our team have actually made a better movie out of it than LWW turned out to be.
NF: What is the main message that you think Jack, and you, would like us all to take away from this film?
Douglas Gresham: Prince Caspian is a story about people and indeed the entire world of Narnia, returning to truth and true faith after a millennium of corruption and a long slide away from what is real and important. It is a story about hope, courage and honesty, and it tells us that no matter how far away we drift, there is always a way back. What that way back is, you’ll have to watch the movie to find out.
NF: How’s the soundtrack? Do a lot of the same theme’s come back from LWW, or is it all new music. Do you know when the soundtrack will be released on CD?
Douglas Gresham: I am not sure when it will be released, and I’m not going to tell you anything about it except that Harry (Gregson-Williams) has done a great job with it and it will keep on getting better till the day we release the film.
NF: ~Now for some things that certain people have some reservations about. We understand if you can’t comment.
NF: There are a lot of people that have a problem with Ben being as old as he is. How do you think he has done as the uncertain boy-prince?
Douglas Gresham: Go see the movie and find out. 
But Ben is a superb actor (and a very nice guy) and I am very pleased with his portrayal of Caspian. I am also really looking forward to working with him again on “The Voyage of The Dawn Treader.” I don’t think anybody will be disappointed by his performance at all.
NF: Do Peter and Caspian really have a sword fight?
Douglas Gresham: Heh heh, once again you’ll have to see the movie to find out.
NF: Why add a night raid scene to the film?
Douglas Gresham: Well we did have a bit of a problem with making Prince Caspian the book into Prince Caspian the movie. You see, its largely a book of walking and talking. The kids arrive in Narnia and then Trumpkin arrives and they all sit down and he tells them the story of Prince Caspian. So if we had stuck to the book half the movie would be four kids and a dwarf sitting round a camp fire talking. And then they all get up and go for a nice long walk in the woods, arrive at the other end and there’s a battle. Now this all works very well in the book, but it would make a very poor movie. What we needed to do was to find a way of making the story of Prince Caspian integral to that of the four Pevensies and carry both through the whole movie. The raid is a part of that process. Its never as easy as you think.
NF: Some were upset over the fact that Susan carries a sword and appears to fight. Any comments on why they had her do that?
Douglas Gresham: Well, knowing our Susan (and indeed our Anna too), I somehow just can’t imagine her sitting down in the grass and watching the boys have a battle against the bad guys. I don’t remember the sword though.
NF: Do you tell/show us what happens to Miraz’s son? Does he really get kidnapped by the Old Narnians?
Douglas Gresham: I don’t think this is something that you should worry about too much, there’s Global Warming remember, world-wide Recession, dental cavities and facial blemishes and all sorts of things more meritorious of anxiety than the fate of Miraz’s son. He’s a cute little fellow anyway.
NF: In the trailer Jadis appears to be reaching out to Caspian, whereas in the book they never get to the point of calling her up. Why was this changed?
Douglas Gresham: Why not? Actually, it turns out to be a very powerful scene but you’ll have to wait a see the movie to find out how and why.
NF:~Now just a tad bit about Voyage of the Dawn Treader.
NF: I was overjoyed to hear of the writers strike ending! How close are you now in the script being finished?
Douglas Gresham:Hey, the strike has only just ended, give us a chance! 
NF: Have they found a Eustace yet?
Douglas Gresham: We have a number of good prospects, but we haven’t yet made a decision.
NF: Will most of the same people (except Andrew Adamson, of course) be putting this movie together?
Douglas Gresham: Obviously we will try to keep as many of our team together as we can, but there will of course be some great new faces as well.
NF: ~Thank you so much for taking the time to answer these questions. I know I speak for all the NarniaFans when I say that we really appreciate it!!
Douglas Gresham: You’re very welcome.
NF: Well folks! There you have it! I hope that you’re more excited than ever to see this wonderful book be made into an awesome movie!
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