The Bayside Bulletin has a report on the filming of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader last week at Cleveland Point.  Locals were invited to watch the filming, and they indeed came out to watch.  Some even spotted Ben Barnes, Skandar Keynes and Georgie Henley on set!

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The dragon is attacking the Dawn Treader.  DeviantArt artist Oskarmandude posted the video to his deviantart account.  It’s a very exciting video, and we can’t wait to see it with full editing and effects in place.  It is from the filming at Cleveland Point on the Gold Coast of Australia.  December of 2010 can’t come fast enough.

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Earlier this week, we heard rumor that weather conditions would delay filming at Cleveland Point.  Those rumors panned out, as the weather is not going to be the correct conditions to fit the sequences they need for the shots on the Dawn Treader.  The Bayside Bulletin reports.

Plans for filming the next Narnia instalment at Cleveland Point have changed significantly this week, with up to a week’s delay and the removal of the grandstand from the park.

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This week has been flying by.  I just remembered that it was Thursday, and that I hadn’t written this week’s mailbag.  So I’m spending lunch time writing this week’s installment.  I spent Tuesday riding roller coasters at Cedar Point, and around that day there were some really huge things happening in the world of Narnia.  The third film started shooting, and we’ve gotten some great photos of the Dawn Treader nearing completion.  I’ve got a couple of e-mails to answer this week, but before I do, I just wanted to give a status update on the secret project.  I’m currently working on speed issues on it, but it’s moving forward.  I have guests up from Florida so it’s going to take me a little longer than I had initially anticipated, but I hope that it’s worth the wait.

And a quick update on Chesterton’s The Everlasting Man that just came in from a woman named Barbara:  “C.S. Lewis’s appreciation for Chesterton’s The Everlasting Man in correspondence is well known. Tolkien borrowed the idea for Ents from Chesterton’s The Trees of Pride!  I hope these facts were brought to your attention.” Thanks Barbara!

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No sooner did producer Perry Moore say that Principal Photography started next week, than we got reports to the contrary from a number of people.  I haven’t been online in a few hours, though, so I wasn’t able to catch them until just now.

Director Michael Apted’s personal assistant Cort Kristensen says that filming started on July 22.  They’ve got the first shot of the movie’s schedule, though there is no word on what that shot is, or where it will fit in the movie.

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After months of wondering when they were going to start shooting, we now have solid word from producer Perry Moore.  He was speaking to someone at ComicCon who asked when filming would begin, and he was able to confirm that it starts next week in Australia.

@doorQdotCom: Voyage of the Dawn Treader starts principal, in Australia, next week, as per producer Perry Moore. #ComicCon

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Gold Coast Film Studios will be busy this year, with The Voyage of the Dawn Treader only one of many projects filming there this year.   It’s very exciting to see filming ramping up so quickly, with the rumored start in only two days.  We will have to see what happens, however, as this article may move the start date closer to the end of the month.  We do know that Skandar Keynes is on the set, but he’s the only confirmed actor there, so far.

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Originally scheduled to begin filming in October of this year, filming was pushed into early 2009, for a January start date. Now, it appears that date will also be missed, as filming looks to be starting in April of 2009.

Ben Barnes Online has a forum post by member “Kim” that was at the Prince Caspian panel at the London Expo.

We managed to get front row seats for the Heroes Panel which was immediately before the Prince Caspian one. I’m afraid I was completely oblivious to the whole thing & I could not tell you one thing that was said! I was feeling very tearful & absorbed in my memories of Ben & the anticipation of seeing him again! When Ben came on we were to the left hand side of him – what an exquisite view that was – couldn’t keep my eyes off of the man! Ben was his usual scintillating, effortlessly sexy self! Warwick acted as compère, asking Ben and the other guy who played the lead-centaur questions and discussing their experiences of the filming. Cat was brave enough to ask Ben a question, though I can’t remember what it was (sorry Cat). I remember someone asking Ben a rather enigmatic question about how he got on with the women in the Narnia crew – Ben answered that there were 2000 people in the crew! (I think the questioner was hinting at the famous practical joke “kiss” from the director’s assistant or maybe she was just basically wondering if every woman on the set fell hook, line & sinker for him – as one would expect). Ben mentioned the women centaurs were wearing skin-tight green lycra trousers – “I liked that” he said naughtily!!! Warwick then said: “so if you want to impress Ben, girls, get out your green lycra trousers!”. I remember another question about whether Ben was nervous when he started filming Prince Caspian – he relayed the anecdote about his introduction to the set & the filming of the first scene, where he’s falling off his horse & gets dragged through the forest. He said that the director just barked at him: “get down on the floor”! He said that if anyone were nervous for seven months they’d have an ulcer.

The Panel were discussing that the centaur-bloke had also played the wolf in the scene with the White Witch and they shared a wonderful anecdote about Ben seeing the wolf costume in the corner of the set not realising that the head was animatronic – he went up to it and had a huge fright when all of a sudden it snarled angrily at him! Warwick said that Ben let out a “squeal”! Ben butted in at this point with the classic line: “But it was a manly squeal”. Hilarious! Ben and Warwick also had some banter (a bit like he does with Colin Firth) about the fact that Warwick’s character was killed off & Warwick wondered if he could be a Dufflepud in the next film – Ben said “no” quite flatly (& sexily!). Ben said that VODT was due to start filming in April 2009 (plenty of time for him to make something else in the meantime perhaps?!) I also remember someone asking Ben about Dorian Gray – he didn’t disclose anything we don’t already know though.

My favourite bit of the panel was when Warwick showed some lovely personal never-before-seen pics of him and Ben together to the music of Michael Jackson’s “Ben” – it was so funny & Ben was hilarious – “oh god, I know this music!” he said mock-petulantly and stood up to watch it. He then did something quite breathtaking! As the screen was on the wall behind the panel’s seats, instead of straining to look at the screen as he had been doing (affording me quite wonderful views of his hair and, ahem, derrière), he got up and sashayed stunningly down the catwalk-like structure in the middle of the room and sat down in the centre of it, leaning back to watch the screen! At this point I was not watching the screen anymore – my eyes did not leave Ben for one second – I cannot tell you how extraordinarily sexy he looked sitting there giggling and scoffing at Warwick’s distorted pics! No doubt Andrea will have taken lots and lots of pics of this – it was a photo opportunity to die for!

Referring to the picture of Prince Caspian & Nikabrik running through the forest fleeing the Telmarines, Ben explained how there were actually no ferns in that particular wood – they had all been placed there in pots by the set-gardeners; as the scene involves them dashing swiftly through these ferns, they both ended up falling flat on their faces many times! Ben said Warwick fell over 2000 times! Warwick responded to this by saying that Ben fell over less than him but Ben’s falls were more spectacular & embarrassing – actually he said Ben “fell on his arse” – at which point Ben said: “go on, say ‘arse’ again”! Apparently footage of Ben & Warwick falling over the fern plants is a treat we can look forward to on the DVD bloopers!!! Yay!

The Panel ended with a competition to win a DVD of Prince Caspian – but it wouldn’t be able to be sent to the winner until November 17th!!! Warwick’s idea of having a game of “Aslan says” (sort of like “Simon says” – the rules just went completely over my head – I was concentrating on Ben) failed miserably – when everyone was supposed to stand up and a lot didn’t, Ben laughed and said: “you just couldn’t be bothered!” Ben was chuffed because he came up with a better idea for awarding the DVD by asking the question relating to the names of Reepicheep’s companions.

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The third installment of Disney and Walden Media’s The Chronicles of Narnia franchise will move its production to Mexico from New Zealand, where the previous two installments shot, Variety reported.

Production of the first two films–The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Prince Caspian–was based in New Zealand largely because of government tax incentives. Weta Digital and Weta Workshop, which created most of the films’ effects and props, also are based in that country.

By contrast, the third movie, Voyage of the Dawn Treader, to be directed by Michael Apted, needs several large soundstages plus a massive water tank: The title of the film refers to the ship that serves as a major set piece.

Because of that, production will move to Rosarito, Mexico, and set up shop at Baja Studios, where Titanic, Deep Blue Sea and Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World were shot.

Location shots in Australia will still be filmed as planned. Production originally was slated to start in October, but will now likely begin in January.

Third Narnia Shoots In Mexico

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On February 7, we posted that Voyage of the Dawn Treader filming was going to be pushed into the fall. We received word that filming was still on schedule to start in the summer. However, now we’re hearing straight from Prince Caspian himself that film has indeed been pushed to November for a start date. We’ve also confirmed with Disney that the November start is correct.

Rotten Tomatoes has an exclusive report with actor Ben Barnes, where it talks about it. Be sure to visit the site at the link below.

“In Prince Caspian, the magic has gone from Narnia, because it’s been taken over by greedy, ambitious humans, so it’s going to be much darker, and while The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was almost a fairytale story, this is much more of a summer action movie. The joy of the series is that they’re all, individually, completely different genres of story, and so there’s quite a different tone for this film. It’s balanced by director Andrew Adamson, who has this extraordinary ability to focus on minute details and the vastness of the Narnia story at the same time.

You have to spend the time getting the story right because as amazing as the special effects might be if you don’t give a shit about the characters then your film won’t work. You have to make people care and you have to show all those different sides of the character and Caspian’s fairly well layered, I think. He’s an orphan whose father has been killed by his uncle and he’s ambivalent about being a leader. He really is on the threshold of manhood and it’s quite cathartic; he has to fight his own people.

I’m definitely going to be doing Voyage of the Dawn Treader and we’re lined up to start in November. We were going to start straight away but we had problems with the strike and exam schedules for children and all of that. We’re taking our time with it which I think is sensible. The first one was great but Caspian’s going to be even better, so we have to take the time to make Dawn Treader even better.”

Visit Rotten Tomatoes for more!

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