My friend Shane Rangi is the subject of a great piece in the New Zealand Herald. I finally had the chance to meet him in person on the set of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. He shared Bundaberg Ginger Beer with me, prior to my proposal, and we had a great time hanging out on the set. He was also present for the proposal, which made it even more special to me. It’s a memory that we both share. I’ll write more about that in future reports about my visit to the set.
Shane Rangi, who are you?
There have been many more videos posted from the set of the Dawn Treader over the last week. I was hoping to get to these earlier, but I’ve been editing videos almost non-stop in preparation for a trip I have coming up on Friday.
I’m hoping my news team can pick up the slack while I’m gone for about 2 weeks.
Talk about a class trip to remember! A lucky class from a school in Australia had a chance to visit the set of the Voyage of the Dawn Treader, where they met Will Poulter, Shane Rangi and had a great time seeing a Minotaur, Dwarf and a Faun all up close.
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Narnia Fans Spy Kerrie wrote in with more pictures from the set of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. This time, featuring some amazing shots of a Minotaur and Eustace (Will Poulter) on board the Dawn Treader. If these photos are from a scene in the film, it looks like Eustace and the Minotaur could be friends, unless the Minotaur is carrying out punishment on him. This is all complete speculation on my part, based only on three stills that you can see here.
Narnia Fans Spy Drakeshe was able to attend the shoot for The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. There are getting to be so many pictures from this portion of the shoot, it’s a wonder that there will be any secrets left from this set in the film. What’s interesting is that this part of the shoot likely includes many parts of the film, as the ship travels. Drakeshe sent us no fewer than 49 pictures taken at the shoot in the last couple of days.
NarniaWeb spy Michael sent in some awesome new pictures of the ship and her crew, revealing that more creatures than just Reepicheep and one Minotaur will be on board. Michael writes:
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Minotaur Bust
Special Preorder Offer
USD $117.00 RRP:USD $130.00
NZD $152.10 RRP:NZD $169.00
GBP £58.50 RRP:GBP £65.00
All prices exclude New Zealand GST of 12.5%
Item Number: 00021
Forced into hiding for centuries by the relentless advance of the Telmarines, the Minotaurs and their Narnian brethren have been biding their time, waiting for the chance to emerge from myth and shadow and take back their land. Now – united in arms under the banner of Prince Caspian, their hour has come! Leading the charge into battle, the Minotaurs fight for justice, freedom and to reinstate the rightful heir to the throne of Narnia.
Designed as a high end collectible by Weta artist Stephen Crowe, who also designed armour and weaponry for the film, the Minotaur bust from Disney’s The Chronicles Of Narnia: Prince Caspian was sculpted by Weta veteran Jamie Beswarick, and exudes power and determination, a superb follow-up piece to the energetic Warrior Satyr statue already announced.
Dimensions: 15″ H x 7″ W x 7.8″ D (380mm x 180mm x 200mm).
Available in a STRICTLY LIMITED EDITION OF 350 World Wide.
Following the success of their debut range from The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Weta have once again teamed up with Disney Consumer Products and the talented technicians who worked on the highly anticipated sequel releasing this summer, The Chronicles Of Narnia: Prince Caspian, to create a line of statues and miniatures based on the film.
The Weta range features limited edition polystone statues of iconic characters from the film, including Prince Caspian himself, the irrepressible warrior mouse Reepicheep and a Satyr in mid battle. Also included in the first pieces of the range is a 1/5th scale mini-bust of the Minotaur, and a collection of 1/4th scale miniature helmets, based on the full sized costume pieces Weta’s artists designed and built for the Chronicles of Narnia films.
Weta Concept Designer Paul Tobin designed the feature piece, ‘Prince Caspian In Battle’, in which the film’s title character charges into battle on horseback with his sword raised in defiance. Paul found inspiration in the works of Western artist Frederic Remington. “The intention behind this sculpture was to capture Prince Caspian galloping to war on his horse, as featured in the film’s climactic battle”, recounts Paul. “Many of Remington’s pieces feature beautiful horse sculptures. The pose, the action and the drama were all inspired by Remington. He captures an epic sense of drama and the excitement of a Western and that’s what I wanted to convey in this Weta piece.”
Working closely with Disney and their production team, Weta designed and created many of the props and costuming for the sequel, gaining a unique insight into the world of Narnia. This was invaluable for designer Nick Keller, who designed both Reepicheep’s sword, seen in the film, and the Weta statue of this special character.
Designer Stephen Crowe conceptualised the action poses of both the ‘Warrior Satyr’ statue and the ‘Minotaur’ bust. He says it was great fun creating dynamic battle pieces. “I wanted quite an action-filled piece, and the real challenge was conveying that sense of movement and force in a static collectible. I wanted both pieces to look defiant, as though they are in mid charge, about to attack.”
The Weta range of collectibles will also feature a limited edition number of ¼ scale Miniature Helmets, based on those worn by key characters and creatures from both films, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Prince Caspian.
Images, pricing, edition sizes and release dates will be revealed at a later date. For updates, visit www.wetanz.com.
ABOUT THE PIECES
Statues
Prince Caspian statue
Designed by Paul Tobin
Sculpted by Eden Small and Daniel Cockersell
Warrior Satyr
Sculpted by Bill Hunt
Designed by Stephen Crowe
For a sneak preview of the Warrior Satyr, please see:
www.wetanz.com/princecaspian/satyr
Reepicheep
Designed by Nick Keller
Sculpted by Greg Tozer
Mini-Bust
Minotaur Bust
Designed by Stephen Crowe
Sculpted by Jamie Beswarick
Helmets
Six Mini Helmets
¼ scale miniature helmets based on Prince Caspian and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
Each helmet, approx 3-4 inches, not including base.
Themed base (same for all helmets)
Claire Rossell wrote to us saying that our friend Shane Rangi, who played Otmin in the first film, has been cast as another minotaur in ’Prince Caspian.’ I found this out on Narnia.com.
SPOILERS!He is cast in the role of Asterius, the Minotaur who aides Caspian and the Pevensies in their attempt to overthrow King Miraz.END SPOILERS
Welcome back to Narnia, Shane! Hope to hear from you soon!
Read more about him on our Shane Rangi page!
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]
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