Read Day 1 here

Saturday morning came fast and furious, and I got up, got dressed and was out the door. Today was the day that I’d be doing round-table interviews with some of the cast and creative team behind Prince Caspian.

Finding the location was pretty difficult, but once we found it, we still had some time to wait. I went up to one of the top floors of the hotel in which the interviews were happening. There, I met more press and hung out with the lot of them.

Turns out there were no less than four rooms where the interviews were going to take place. We were each assigned rooms and I found mine and claimed a seat right up in the front row of the room I was in.

Stephen McFeely, myself and Christopher Markus

The first to enter my room were the writers, Christopher Markus (whom I had met the night before) and Stephen McFeely. We also had William Moseley and Georgie Henley and producer Mark Johnson. There was a break after that, followed by Anna Popplewell and Peter Dinklage, director Andrew Adamson and finally Ben Barnes. I’ll be posting the interviews over the course of the next few days. Watch out for those.

After the interviews, we were handed a bunch of Narnia things including the soundtrack, official movie companion, a t-shirt, a copy of the book and one of the toy swords: Prince Caspian’s. Ben Barnes hadn’t yet gotten one, so he took the chance to get one, and then he promptly swung it at my neck. We joked around a bit and it was really fun. It’s too bad I didn’t get a picture of that, but I did get one picture with him.

For now, I’d like to direct your attention to a room I spent a lot of time in. Upstairs, there was a room dedicated to the Narnia Exhibition that is opening in Arizona on June 7th. This thing is going to be awesome.

It’s about 10,000 square feet of Narnia and nothing but Narnia. Authentic film props and costumes, set pieces and more. The experience starts with a wardrobe door. When you enter, snow falls on and around you. You’ll also have the opportunity to sit on the White Witch’s throne and feel the icy chill of it. You’ll be able to learn all sorts of the science behind Narnia, and really immerse yourself in the world like never before.

It’s really going to be a feast for the imagination, and a must see for any Narnia fan of any age.

The people that I spoke to about the Exhibition have been working on it for over 2 years, paying careful attention to every last detail. Every display has been designed for the best experience possible. The exhibition will be traveling the world for roughly five years, and they plan on adding more as Narnia films are produced.

You’ll also be given the opportunity to lift up the armor of a Telmarine soldier with the help of someone there. The armor is really pretty heavy!

You’ll be able to really get a good look at all of the detail that you’ll never even see on screen. The workmanship put into the armor and the costumes has far more than the cameras ever pick up, and even things that you won’t see on screen because they’re underneath other parts of clothing. It all adds to the authenticity of the film.

For more information on this, visit NarniaExhibition.com!

More to come…

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The fantasy novel series from C. S. Lewis has sold over 100 million copies. And after the success of the first movie, audiences are ready for the sequel, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian.

We’re celebrating the release of the movie with a quiz and exclusive interviews with the cast. You could win the ultimate Narnia prize package, which includes a signed book from the cast, posters, action figures and more!

Put your Narnia skills to the test with our 50-question quiz, written by NarniaFans.com — the ultimate resource for everything Narnia.

Once you’ve mastered the quiz, enter for your chance to win an ultimate prize package from THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: PRINCE CASPIAN and check out their exclusive interviews of the cast!

Parade.com Narnia Quiz

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Going to New York City for the first time can be pretty overwhelming. Going to New York City to see Prince Caspian for the first time is another thing entirely. Friday started out with a stroll through the city, learning where things were, which way it is to the cinema and figuring out where to go in the meantime.

It was all very surreal, as I was excited to see the film, but still overwhelmed by the size of the city.

We arrived to the film about an hour before the scheduled showtime. I wasn’t scheduled to check-in until 6:30, so we waited around a while. I met a bunch of people while we waited, including Barbara Vancheri: the Arts & Entertainment Writer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. She was easy to talk to, and not at all like most of the critics that I had met previous to this.

After a short while, we were able to check-in, and were given our passes. Up a couple of escalators, we found our way into a huge screening room. There had to be nearly 1000 seats in that auditorium. The entire middle section of the screening was taped off for us to sit, and I found a spot toward the center of a row at eye level.

It was there that I met Fantasia-kitty from NarniaWeb, sitting one row in front of me. We started talking, which was cool, because my friends went up to sit with the crowd from TRL. She was really nice, and easy to talk to. She pulled out a notepad, but never wrote a thing. A little while later, someone asked if I’d be willing to move up, as they needed the row that I was sitting in for something. I moved up, and a little while later, something incredible happened.

In walked Peter Dinklage. Trumpkin, himself! But that’s not all. Many more members of the cast started to file into the row behind. Ben Barnes, Georgie Henley, William Moseley, Anna Popplewell… it seemed to never end.

Looking to the left, there was Mark Johnson: the producer.

A few minutes later, director Andrew Adamson walked to the front with Mark Johnson to introduce the film. I had expected, perhaps, a video introduction, but the man himself was standing before us. And he announced that he only finished the film two days before, and it would be the first time that the cast has seen it. He said that they were pretty apprehensive about it, as this was the first real test of the film in its’ final form.

He sat down and the lights went out and the film began. Two and a half hours later, the lights came up and I sat there, trying to figure out what I had just seen. I knew that I loved it, but that’s all that I knew.

I took a stroll down to introduce myself to the director. I don’t know it if I was starstruck or what, but after I introduced myself to him, he asked me what I thought and I could say nothing. I was so impressed with what he had created that I could barely figure out the vocabulary to express my thoughts.

He was clearly delighted. You’ll have to read my full review on Friday.

Talking to him for a while, he was a very genuine man, and very kind. I also met Mark Johnson and by then I was finally starting to figure out my thoughts. Next, we made our way out of the auditorium, where we met none other than writer Christopher Markus. A true gentleman and a very hilarious man, he quipped: “You’re not supposed to know who I am!”

We talked a bit about the film and then Andrew walked over and said that a shot was missing from one of the reels, and it was the only reel that was missing that single shot. When I asked what that shot had, we joked about how Andrew was trying to be a bit more edgy as a director, and it really was a good thing the shot was missing. It involved a waterfall and the cast, and that’s all that I’ll say here. Needless to say, the shot turned out to actually be an establishing shot or some such. Not nearly as exciting as our own imaginations.

After this, it was back to the hotel to get some sleep before press interviews would start at around 9am.

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MovieWeb has posted no fewer than 18 video clips of interviews with cast and crew members. Here you’ll find two of those clips embedded. Be sure to visit MovieWeb for the rest. You’ll find them under “Interviews.”

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I’ve been pretty busy over the past week. Believe me, you want to know about this. The journey started a week ago, as I left for New York City. Over the next week, I’m going to be posting a lot of interviews and stories about the adventures, all leading up to our review of the film on May 16th!

Here is a summary of the Narnia events that I went to, that you will be able to read

about.

Friday, May 2:
Prince Caspian Press Screening

Saturday, May 3:

Press Junket. Interview upon interview with director Andrew Adamson, producer Mark Johnson, writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely and actors Anna Popplewell, Peter Dinklage, William Moseley, Georgie Henley and Ben Barnes.

Monday, May 5th:
TRL taping at MTV Studios. It will air on May 15th.
Barnes & Noble reading with the cast and director.

Wednesday, May 7th:
Covered the Red Carpet Premiere of Prince Caspian.

Attended the World Premiere.
Attended the after party.

I look forward to posting summaries of the events as well as the interviews over the next week. And look for the review of Prince Caspian on May 16th!

Without saying more until my review, I loved it.

(Is that saying too much Stephen and Christopher? E-mail me if it is, and if it isn’t!)

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Here we’ll start with our sister site NarniaWeb, where glumPuddle and the rest of the journalists interviewed Sergio Castellito and Pierfrancesco Favino.

Q: We saw just now all the costumes and gear that you have to put on. We get to feel the weight of it. Does it help your performance to get into costume and feel the weight of it?

Sergio: Oh yes, absolutely. It’s totally different from my experience – I’ve had a completely different cinematography. So for me, it’s an absolutely new experience. And it will be very interesting because acting is both athletic and psychological too. And I have a lot of admiration for Andrew Adamson because he’s very careful about psychological relationships between the characters. It’s totally different than I could imagine about a movie like this. But at the same time, it’s really interesting to act out a stereotype. This is the first time in my life I have played a villain. It’s really interesting, because after a lot of movies, this is the first time I have played a villain. And so, I have to fight myself with the stereotype I had in mind. Really interesting.

Q: Where you familiar with the books at all before you got the role?

Sergio: No, not so well. But I have two kids. They knew the first Narnia very well. When I told them that I could act in the second Narnia, they had a lot of admiration for me.
Pierfrancesco: For us in Italy, it’s not the same like in the U.S. or in England. We don’t have that saga as you have. For us, Pinocchio is our one. Nothing comparable to this.

Q: They have fleshed out your role a lot [in the movie]. So were you surprised how much they fleshed out your role, and gave him a little more for the movie?

Pierfrancesco: (translating)
Sergio: Oh, I think it’s a good idea.

Q: How did Andrew talk to you about the character? Did he give you very specific things he wanted to see or did he just let you play it broadly?

Sergio: We speak about the character in a psychological way. This is the very interesting side of this work. Because I thought that everything was just an imaginary stereotype. But at the same time, we spoke about the character like a human being. There is a very interesting side of my character that is the fight between youngness and oldness. So the good and evil is like youngness and oldness. It’s very interesting.

Q: Did you have to do a lot of sword practice?

Pierfrancesco: (nods) Especially him. A lot of horse-riding.
Sergio: A lot of practice. We have an extraordinary trainer, Alan. Very good. This is my first… {shows a cut on his knuckle}

Q: Is this your first English language film?

Sergio: No, I shot “The Big Blue,” and the TV movie directed by Jim McBride starring Peter Falk, some years ago. We acted together, in English, an Italian movie about the life of Enzo Ferrari.

Q: Do you have the script translated into Italian so you can learn the lines?

Sergio: Yes. That was very important to me in the beginning to understand the meaning and psychological meaning. But we also study accents. I think Andrew wanted a Mediterranean accent. Spanish, Italian, Greek, North-African, French…a Telmarine’s accent. It’s quite easy for me to do a good accent.

Read the more at NarniaWeb

We’ll continue the interview with ComingSoon.net

CS: You two know each other well from making movies together. In the book, at one point, Glozelle has to betray the king, so have you shot that yet?

Favino: We haven’t shot it yet, but that isn’t a problem. (laughter) I’m joking. This is the third movie that we did together, and I’ve always admired Sergio as one of the best Italian actors we have, at least to me. So we have the chance to work together, but when you’re working apart for different things, I don’t really feel I have to hate him when I betray him. At the same time, he has to slap me and stab me in the back. We’ve made three movies together, and in all of them, he’s been slapping me. (laughter)
Castellitto: Not yet, but we have time.

CS: So, I guess one of the biggest moments in the movie is the castle raid?

Castellitto: Spettacolare! Yes, incredible. We show a lot of people who jump. You know, half of this movie, we don’t know what it is, because everyday on the set, we see a blue screen, so we must imagine that something happened, but we don’t know what.
Favino: It will be a surprise even for us.
Castellitto: Yesterday, we shot a scene and they told us that an army was behind us.
Favino: Thousands of soldiers and cavalry. Actually, this morning, we’ve been rehearsing with horses and there were at least one hundred, so there’s a very good mixture of real things and CGI.
Castellitto: Even though the machine is so big, there’s something that he feels which is artistic. He’s been surprised to find this huge machine going on, and at the same time, people working with their hands. This was something that surprised me and was extraordinary.

CS: Is Miraz the kind of king who gets into the fighting?

Castellitto: He is not a coward, he’s a soldier. He’s a murderer; he killed his brother. He is not a coward. The first idea I had of him is of Prince Claudius in Hamlet. That is the first reference, I think, but he’s also a usurper. He had a son, he wanted the kingdom for his son, he loves his son. At the end, he accepts the fight and he tries to win.

CS: What about the actual battle scenes? Are you going to be involved in those?

Favino: I don’t know how much we can say about that.

CS: Do you have a lot of scenes with Ben Barnes, who plays Prince Caspian? There weren’t a lot of scenes with them together in the book.

Castellitto: The most important scene between us is when he comes to my bedroom and he wants to know the truth about the death of his father. This is the first fight. At the end of the fight when William says…
Favino: Don’t tell everything
Castellitto: Ah, okay, read the book.

Sergio Castellito and Pierfrancesco Favino are King Miraz and General Glozelle, The Bad Guys!

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Our friends at ComingSoon.net had the chance to interview Narnia producer Mark Johnson after the Prince Caspian Comic-Con presentation. They recently put it up on their site with an MP3, but they gave us permission to post a transcript of the interview as well. Listen to the MP3 at ComingSoon.net

CS: Howard, what did you do in this that will compare with James’ character?

Howard Berger: Oh yes, Mr. McAvoy, the great Jimmy Mac. Actually, it’s one of the first characters that we did on this show, which was Trumpkin the Dwarf, who is played by Peter Dinklage. And to me he’s our Tumnus. There’s just something about Peter Dinklage. I say he has dreamy eyes, and he does; they’re very expressive. And he is the James McAvoy of this film, I feel. He’s like the heart, you know. And we were able to redevelop the dwarfs for this film. On the first film I just wasn’t really happy with what we ended up with, and same with the performers – they were just little people that we had pulled from Thailand, and India, and they weren’t actors, they were just little. And this time, we really talked about it with Andrew, and said we really should cast dwarf actors. Peter Dinklage, who’s probably the best there is – and then we got Warwick [Davis] to play Nikabrik, so we really got to develop some beautiful makeups. Tami Lane, who co-won the Oscar with me, does Peter Dinklage’s makeup, and then Sara Rubano handles Nikabrik – Warwick’s makeup. They’re just really beautiful makeups.

It’s interesting – you look at Peter Dinklage, and it looks minimal, but he’s got a full gelatin nose on, and these big ears and all hair where we shaved Peter’s head entirely, which was great. And then Warwick has a really big, big makeup: a full gelatin face makeup and ears and a lot of hair work. It’s just really nice to be able to revisit characters like that, especially ones that I just felt were not so great in the first film and now they’re really outstanding. I think those two characters are really the heart and soul of this film.

CS: How difficult was the casting process for finding the dwarfs?

Howard Berger: I think it was relatively difficult. Andrew really didn’t have a lot of choice.

CS: I was just going to say, I can’t imagine that there was a lot.

Howard Berger: Yeah, there’s not.

Dean Wright: That are high quality actors.

Howard Berger: High quality, exactly. At first they thought, well, we can go to theatre, and see who we can find. But Peter Dinklage was always the first idea. And we were designing – prior to Peter getting cast – around Peter’s looks. And then it just worked out perfectly. Hoping and praying … they had Peter, then they didn’t, then they did, then they didn’t. Then they finally got him at the eleventh hour.

CS: Oh, why?

Dean Wright: Deal-making. I mean we were going back and forth … are we going to end up going the “hobbit route”, and casting a full-size actor, doing the makeup and then having to scale them down? We didn’t want to do that because this movie is going to be big enough as it is with visual effects. If Howard can do it, it’s great.

Howard Berger: And there’s so much interaction between the kids and Trumpkin; I mean, he’s in so many scenes. But Peter just brings so much to the table. And it’s cool for Peter too. The thing is, on the first film, Tami and myself and my crew became so close with James, and on this one it’s the same thing. We’ve really become so close. I mean, they spend practically the entire day with us. We start at three in the morning and then they go home when we go home.

Dean Wright: Peter’s great too – he’s very funny.

CS: Caspian is set 100 years or 80 years later…

Dean Wright: It’s actually 1300 years.

CS: Oh, 1300. So that obviously has a whole different look and feel…

Dean Wright: It’s dramatically different, actually. It’s much more wild, and I think the whole theme of this film has a much grittier tone to it, and it’s reflected in both the production design, and the character design, and ultimately it will impact all the visual effects. Basically the kids went back to London, they’ve been there for a year, and as they get sucked back to Narnia this time, they’re expecting to find the same place that they left. Cair Paravel – they stumble upon it (the ruins of it) and it’s been destroyed in a battle. Plants and vines have overgrown it all, and it’s like, what happened, what went wrong? It’s through the course of the story that they find out after they left, the Telmarines came in and wiped out all the Narnians, and they feel very responsible for that, even though it wasn’t by their choice. They have to then help Prince Caspian and the remaining ragtag-bag of Narnian refugees (slash underground resistance movement) to help take back Narnia for the creatures, and bring peace to the land.

CS: So it’s less of a fantasy world, and more of a medieval kind of…

Dean Wright: Yeah, it is. And in the way of castles and all that, they definitely looked to a sort of Spanish influence, and Isis (the costume designer) looked at it greatly for all the costume and armour. And I know in terms of the characters too, Howard spent a lot of time with his gang, and his partner Greg Nicotero spent a lot of time designing the characters and giving a lot more variance to the types of characters, making them different ages. For us it makes a lot more work because we have to then replicate that times fifty, which means we have to keep creating more and more different types to make it all look correct.

CS: Particularly because of the spiritual overtones that were emphasized in the first film – how much does that, if at all, impact the practical design of characters or the work that you do? Or is it a matter of literally creating a character?

Howard Berger: When we designed some of the Narnians – I haven’t taken any of that into consideration really…

Dean Wright: I think it’s all about the book, right?

Howard Berger: Yeah, it is, and that book is what the source material is. And on the first film it was the source material, and trying to come up with things that Andrew imagined them to be when he was a child – that was really it. This is kind of the same way. Andrew’s a great, great source of inspiration and information and direction.

Dean Wright: But he does let you go off and he’ll give you a chance to go create something different…

Howard Berger: He’s not controlling. He’s a perfect director, to tell you the truth, just because he trusts. And once he trusts you – because on the first film we didn’t know each other, and there was a certain amount of holding the reins; of course you should – on this one he’s let the reins go a little bit more, and that’s where we came up with the dwarfs and the satyrs and all that stuff, and we revisited everything.

Dean Wright: I really like the design you’re doing on the satyrs, too. On the last film it became a budgetary issue in that Andrew had wanted the satyrs to be fully CG in the first film, and several weeks before we started shooting, all of a sudden we’re like – we can’t afford that, we can’t do that, and … Howard, design something!

Howard Berger: So we banged out a bunch of satyrs. But they were makeups, and we just never had enough time to really think it out, you know, and this time we did, and came up with some pretty nice conceptual artwork. I think once it’s all together, it’s going to look really fantastic.

Dean Wright: And the goal is to have the creatures that are humanoid look like humanoid, and the ones that aren’t, not. And whether it’s a werewolf or a satyr, they shouldn’t look like a human, and so Howard’s done an amazing job for the upper half, and then we have to put the bottom half there!

Howard Berger: And that’s what’s so cool! When I saw The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe for the first time – which is when we saw it at the Director’s Guild – when I saw Mr. Tumnus for the very first time with legs, I took this big, deep gasp, because it was so awesome to finally see him done – I’d been so used to seeing James walk around in green pants for months and months and I just let out this big sigh. And I remember one of my kids elbowed me, like, “Dad, shhhh!” But it was so awesome, and it just pulled me into it, and this is going to be the same thing. And as we see footage – because Andrew likes to cut things and show the crew just to get them really enthusiastic – we’ve seen stuff, it’s pretty spectacular, and it’s just really, really exciting.

Dean Wright: And he’s definitely upped the bar for all of us, for visual effects. We’re starting out thinking we have 1500 shots. The last film we started at 800 and it grew tremendously. This one we’re starting at 1500, so I don’t know where we’re going to end up. The time is not as long. We’re still shooting, and we have to deliver the film in April for a May release. And we’ve got at least two and three units shooting simultaneously right now, and now we’ve got a miniature unit starting next week, and that’s being done down in New Zealand. So we’ll have crews shooting all over the Czech Republic, another team working basically the opposite ends of the clock … so we’re working 24 hours a day really, so I’ve got to be monitoring that stuff as well as the stuff that we’re shooting. And then before you know it, we’ll have hundreds of shots in the works.

We’ve already started to turn stuff over to the facilities. We’re using a whole new group of companies. We’re based in London this time, because they wanted the film to be considered a British film, so we’ve booked the work at some of the best companies in London, and also we’re working with WETA Digital this time. So between the demands of creating a whole new set of creatures that we have to bring to life, that Howard’s helped us with in terms of creating some looks, and we’ve gone to the companies – like Reepicheep, the mice, and Trufflehunter who’s the badger. There are new beavers and wolves and all that for this film.

And then we’ve got much more environment work. We’ve got this castle. It’s a huge set that we built, an enormous set in Prague, the back lot of Barrandov Studios, but still it’s just the courtyard. And then we’ve got towers, and towers, and towers that go all around it and we’re about to start shooting in a few weeks – I don’t know if you saw the little clip we did, but in this castle raid, gryphons are back, and this time they help carry the kids into battle, and so they swoop in and fly in and around the castle. And so we’ve got sets that’ll just be like one tower, or a couple of towers, or just the back lot set itself, and we’ve got to expand and make it bigger and bigger and make it feel just as real. And so that’s why we’ve gone to the gang at Weta, and Alex Funke and his miniature team that did all the work on Lord of the Rings, because they did just fantastic miniature work and they’re going to help bring it to life.

Howard Berger: And regarding all of that, there’s a lot of miniature work that’s being done for this one, way more than the first one.

Dean Wright: We only did a little bit of the river crossing stuff, some of the extensions and the big cracking stuff, but this there’s hundreds and hundreds of shots of the castle. And then when you get to the battle, it’s again a big effort. It’s probably going to be, at the end of the day, probably 1600 to 1800 shots in the mail. It may hit 2000, but the studio won’t want that! (Don’t tell them I said that! [laughter]) These are all complex shots. We’ve got shots where we’ve got Isis’s army that she’s wardrobed – but there’s 200 of them, we’ve got to be 5000 or 8000 or whatever. We’ve got Howard’s 100 plus creatures which take eight hours to get ready – six hours between the time they go through you, and wardrobe, and everything. And then we shoot with them for another eight hours, so they have sixteen hour days a lot of times.

Howard Berger: I was looking at stuff from the night raid and I just remember seeing all the creatures running with their green legs and I just went, oh man, Dean’s going to have to animate all those legs. That’s hundreds of legs.

Dean Wright: Fortunately I have about 1000 of my closest friends that are going to help. [laughs]

Howard Berger: That’s right, sitting there at home. Your kids are doing it too. They’re like… [mechanical noises].

Dean Wright: Exactly. In fact my kids are going to learn to rotoscope.

Howard Berger: They should. Every child should know how to rotoscope!

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ComingSoon.net got a chance to talk to The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian producer Mark Johnson, creature supervisor Howard Berger, visual effects supervisor Dean Wright and costume designer Isis Mussenden at the San Diego Comic-Con this weekend and you can listen to the audio interviews by going to ComingSoon.net via the links below!

Producer Mark Johnson

Creature Supervisor Howard Berger/Visual Effects Supervisor Dean Wright

Costume Designer Isis Mussenden

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C.S. Lewis’s stepson, Douglas Douglas Gresham, grew up with Narnia. The Horse and His Boy was even dedicated to him and his brother. Douglas has since become the creative and artistic director of the C.S. Lewis Company. He was the co-producer of 2006 The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and is currently at work on the sequel of Prince Caspian.

He has twice taken time from his busy schedule to answer questions from the Philippine Order of Narnians, and here are some excerpts (Some parts were taken from the first interview):

On Lewis for an International Audience

TPON: It would seem that CS Lewis wrote Narnia more or less for a readership that was mostly either British or American. But its appeal has certainly crossed many boundaries. With Narnia turning into a movie franchise, readers in many countries are discovering Lewis for the first time. What aspects of the books are most difficult to translate for an international audience?

Douglas Gresham: It is very interesting that despite the fact that Jack was originally writing for only a British audience (the Americans came as a later after-thought), the Narnian Chronicles appeal to everybody no matter what their culture or background. There is no difficulty at all in translating or perhaps transporting would be a better term, all of Jack’s story lines and themes across all cultures and seemingly across all times. I think this is because the issues that he deals with in Narnia, and the ways in which he deals with them, are common to all people no matter where they live, or their cultural origins.

TPON: On a personal note, do you think CS Lewis would have enjoyed a visit to the Philippines if he had the chance?

Douglas Gresham: Yes indeed, I think he would have found the Philippines both beautiful and fascinating as do I.

TPON: On an even more personal note, would you mind horribly if we called him Jack the next time we email you?

Douglas Gresham: No of course not, it was the name that he preferred.

On Lewis for Today’s Youth

TPON: You gave an interview once and this quote was very interesting: “One of the things that happened is that the great concepts that people have lived by were thrown out in the 20th century as if we thought they were outmoded or out of date, and as a result our society is crumbling all around us. Now the new younger thinkers are beginning to grope around looking for new answers. What we need are all of those virtues of personal commitment, courage, honesty and honor that we had thrown away but are there to be found in the tales of Narnia.” CS Lewis, of course, addressed this issue a lot in his works. Do you think today’s youth face any particular stumbling blocks to “groping around looking for new answers?”

Douglas Gresham: No I don’t. One great advantage that we have over the forces of evil, is that they are incapable of originality, they cannot create or come up with anything new, so time and time again throughout the history of Man the Devil keeps trotting out the same tired old lies and temptations over and over. Our great failing is that we look for “new answers” instead of looking back over the centuries and realising that the issues faced by the men of the Old Testament are, at root, precisely the same issues that we have to deal with today and that Jesus came here to deal with all of those. All we have to do is study what he said and then put it into practice. The answers to all our dilemmas and temptations are all there, all we have to do is learn them and use them. Looking for “new answers” to old questions is symptom of our pride and arrogance. The better way is to look back, re-discover the old answers that Jesus gave us two thousand years ago, and then use them.

On the Accuracy of Portrayals of Lewis

TPON: What’s the most common misconception people seem to have about CS Lewis?

Douglas Gresham: That he was a dour academic who kept himself apart. He was actually a consciously joyful redeemed Christian who surrounded himself with good and brilliant friends. A man full of humour and warmth. He was a great companion and full of fun. He was also a man who was never afraid to show his Christianity in practical ways whenever the opportunity arose.

TPON: What’s your opinion about the portrayal of Lewis and you in Shadowlands? [Editor’s Note: The movie Shadowlands, adapted from a play of the same name, showed how CS Lewis and Joy Gresham met. It starred Anthony Hopkins and Debra Winger.]

Douglas Gresham: The portrayal of me was very good but Jack’s role as done by Tony Hopkins was not in the least like Jack.

TPON: What’s your favorite among the seven [Narnia] books?

Douglas Gresham: Which ever one I am Reading when somebody asks that question.:-)

TPON: What character can you easily identify with yourself?

Douglas Gresham: Lots of them in part, but perhaps Shasta in The Horse and His Boy the most.

TPON: Of today’s authors, do you think any has work which has similarities to CS Lewis’?

Douglas Gresham: No (though many have tried).

TPON: Aside from Narnia, what’s your favorite book?

Douglas Gresham: “Ingathering” by Zenna Henderson.

On Bringing Narnia to Film

TPON: We know that Andrew Adamson and Walden Media have been very respectful of the original material. In theory, though, how much veto power do you hold over the script?

Douglas Gresham: We create the scripts in a collaborative manner, I meet with the writers and Andrew, and we go carefully through every line, honing and refining until we are satisfied that what we have is right. I have as much “voice” in this process as anyone on the team who are all very respectful of my knowledge and expertise.

TPON: The biggest criticism of the LWW film seems to be that there isn’t enough of Aslan in it, and Aslan doesn’t seem to be as all-powerful as he is portrayed in the books. Any thoughts on that?

Douglas Gresham: Yes, two thoughts. One is that no matter how much of Aslan we might want to put in a movie we are, as always, constrained to some extent by budget realities. To make a Lion for Aslan who looked anything less than perfect would be terrible, so we tend to try to make every hair of his mane and every move that he makes as close to perfect as we can. You have seen the result on screen. Now I am not about to tell you how much it costs to produce that quality of CGI, but let’s just say that it is not cheap. Somewhere along the line one has to decide how much money is to be spent on what, and to put more of Aslan in the movie means to put less of other things. We had to try for a good balance and I think we achieved it very well.

On the topic of Aslan being all-powerful (but restraining his power), just how would one portray that in a movie? Remember this? 1 Kings 19:11 Then He said, “Go out, and stand on the mountain before the LORD.” And behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake; 12 and after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice.

Aslan in the LWW, is the still small voice (except when he roars).

TPON: Many people are into the Narnia stories particularly because of the themes that are behind them. What do you think are the most important themes of Prince Caspian that absolutely must be in the movie?

Douglas Gresham: That one I will wait to answer till after the movie is released. I am not about to give anything away at this stage.

TPON: Many are apprehensive about the portrayal of Calormenes in the Horse and His Boy, which seem to have a Middle Eastern flavor. It’s still far away, but do you have any idea how the Calormenes might be approached in the movies, given a post-9/11 audience?

Douglas Gresham: Yes I do, but I am not about to give that away either. However, I don’t think that the descriptions of the Calormenes do have a Middle Eastern flavour. I think you need to look further afield and further back. But in any case, taking offense is a personal choice, and if people want be offended by what I do in a movie that is their right and their responsibility. I will not pander to the likes, dislikes, preferences or prejudices of individuals who might be in our audiences, if you start to do that, sooner or later you wind up with artistic porridge.

Some Personal Questions

TPON: How was it like to grow up with CS Lewis?

Douglas Gresham: It was just my childhood, and I have nothing to compare it with so that is a very difficult question. In all it was a time of great learning and privilege.

TPON: What aspect of being raised by CS Lewis and Joy Gresham did you find most difficult?

Douglas Gresham: Their (from my viewpoint) untimely premature deaths.

TPON: Do you feel you have to follow in your stepfather’s footsteps?

Douglas Gresham: I don’t feel that I have to but I would love to be able to.

TPON: We’ve often read interviews where you would describe your stepfather, or your mother’s relationship with him. What do you remember most about your mother, as an individual?

Douglas Gresham: Her warmth of character, her wit, her almost incredible intelligence, her musical talent, her immeasurable courage and her love.

TPON: How is your involvement with Rathvinden Ministries? Has the busyness from the Film Production limited your role in any way?

Douglas Gresham: This question is now redundant as Rathvinden Ministries is no longer. Merrie and I were beginning to realise that all ministries have their allotted life-spans, as do we ourselves, and as we moved into our sixties, we were finding 17 bedrooms on 20 acres of land to be just too much work for us. If God’s way of telling you to slow down is allowing you to become ill, His way of telling you to stop may well be allowing you to die. Merrie and I were beginning to wear out so we decided the time was right to sell Rathvinden and move to somewhere that the sun shines a bit more often than it does in Ireland. So we now live in Malta and are waiting to see what the Lord has in mind for us here. As for me, the Lord seems to be keeping me pretty busy with the film industry, but His will comes first and if He decides to change that, so be it.

TPON: What’s the weirdest question ever asked to you?

Douglas Gresham: Wow, I can’t really remember , but I have had some pretty weird ones over the years.

TPON: Do you like Turkish Delight?

Douglas Gresham: Very much.

TPON: Having asked all that, we’d like to say how much we appreciate the work you’re doing with the CS Lewis Company, bringing the Narnia stories to audiences around the globe, among other things. It’s quite a blessing to us. We are all looking forward to Prince Caspian, and 2008 is going to be a long long wait. Some of our members are also eager to see a film version of Till We Have Faces ( ! ), but again, are willing to wait.

Douglas Gresham: Thank you. But to see a film version of Till We Have Faces would be easy; you find me the budget and I’ll make the movie.

TPON: Thank you again for your time and for being such a blessing to us all.

Douglas Gresham: You’re welcome. Blessings, Douglas.

Full interview recovered with the internet archive.

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The cast and crew of The Chronicles of Narnia are back in New Zealand this week to begin filming the second installment, Prince Caspian, next week. Kiwi director Andrew Adamson and producer Mark Johnson sat down with local media this morning to discuss the film, the cast and why they chose to film in New Zealand.

ON FILMING IN NZ

Andrew Adamson: “The thing that New Zealand offers that a lot of places don’t… there’s not an area of Europe that hasn’t been felled and regrown at some point, so finding an old growth forest is very difficult. In New Zealand, the whole west coast of the South Island is just ancient forests.”

Mark Johnson: “New Zealand crews are amongst the best in the world. That alone is a reason to come here. Eighty to 85 per cent of our crew on the last film was Kiwi-based. This time there’s more. Our art department is almost exclusively Kiwi. There’s so many reasons to come here but there’s one or two major road blocks.”

ON WHY NOT ALL THE FILM WILL BE SHOT IN NZ

Andrew Adamson: “Two reasons mainly: One is the lack of stages – we shot a lot of the [first] film in equestrian centres, in tin sheds, and I spent a long time re-looping dialogue or re-recording dialogue. It slows you down not having the facilities – not being able to rig lights easily, not having good sound, having motorcycles going past outside and rain on tin roofs. All those things slow you down.

“The other thing was the weather. We got caught with a lot of weather situations last time. It snowed outside of Christchurch on the 18th of December, which was unheard of. So this time I’m going to shoot in what is actually summer – February and March. Then we go into stage in Europe and then we come out for the European summer.

“I think New Zealand has a lot to offer in terms of location, in terms of ease of access to those locations – them being close to cities and so on – but the stage space is an issue and it’s something we’ve all talked about for a long time. Particularly in Auckland. Auckland’s a big city with a big infrastructure but we still don’t have big stages.

“I think it would be great if it had Government support. On the other hand the Government is very supportive of the film industry here so I don’t feel comfortable asking for anything more than that. I think there’s certainly a lot of opportunity for private enterprise.”

ON CASTING PRINCE CASPIAN AND KING MIRAZ

Andrew Adamson: “We have not yet cast King Miraz, we’re still in discussions with someone on that. We have officially cast Prince Caspian finally after a very long search… He’s a very talented young British actor named Ben Barnes.

“Ben is a very accomplished young man, he’s been getting a lot of good reviews lately for a play that he has on the West End. He came to us very late in the game and he just blew us away. He’s going to be a great addition to the cast. I think he’ll really fit in well with the other kids.”

ON BOOK VS. FILM

Andrew Adamson: “It’s very close [to the book] in the same way that The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was. With that film what I really tried to do was imagine this story was real and CS Lewis had written a book for children about it but I was going to tell the real story so it had a bit more depth, a bit more action, a bit more grit and reality to it. I think that’s true with this one as well.”

ON DIRECTING FUTURE NARNIA FILMS

Andrew Adamson: “I don’t think so. One of the challenges we have is we actually want to put three of these films out very close together, and in actual fact, I’ll probably be finishing this one when we start the next one so it’s unlikely that I’ll be able to do both.”

ON THE CHILDREN IN THE FILM

Andrew Adamson: “They’re growing surprisingly fast. We just saw Georgie and Skandar yesterday and Skandar’s grown probably about a foot since the last film.”

Mark Johnson: “We shoot the films very much in sequence because we can see the children getting older.”

Andrew Adamson: “They’ve all grown up really well. They’ve gone back to a really normal life, which has been nice to see. They’re excited about doing this again, they’re treating it like another adventure. There’s change in very positive ways in growing up but I’d like to say the movie hasn’t changed who they are, which I’m really happy about. A lot of that’s attributed to the parents. They’ve all got great parents.”

ON THE TONE OF PRINCE CASPIAN

Andrew Adamson: “This film is probably a little darker than the last one, partly because the children are older, but partly because it’s a different story. At the same time, the death of Aslan was a pretty dark scene and I don’t think there’s anything that’s harsher or less PG than that.”

[Read the Rest at the NZ Herald]

Video interview with Andrew Adamson on New Zealand’s TV ONE Close Up

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