Narnia Fans » Prince Caspian

33 New Set Photos from VODT!

Jonathon Svendsen — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 16:47:14 +0000

Website MundoNarnia unveiled some 33 new photos from the set of Voyage of the Dawn Treader. They include Dinian, a minotaur, some fauns, Will Poulter as Eustace, and a very Strider-esque Ben Barnes as King Caspian.

Below is one of the many pictures from the website:

Ben Barnes as King Caspian

Ladies, you may start with your screaming….Now.

The rest of the photos can be viewed at: MundoNarnia

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Hear Imogen Heap’s Prince Caspian Soundtrack Submission ‘2-1′

Paul Martin — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 22:32:30 +0000

Karine twittered us about Imogen Heap’s new album, which is releasing August 24th or 25th depending on what part of the world you live in, called Ellipse. It includes a song called 2-1, which she wrote for Prince Caspian, but was decidedly too dark for the soundtrack, according to the music producers on the film. She decided, rather than letting good music go, to include it in her new album, which she finished a few months ago. If you would like to hear the song, or even the full album, we currently have the official music player here. The song is track #8, and it is 4 minutes and 42 seconds in length.

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NarniaFans Mailbag #42: Harry Gregson Williams’ Complete Narnia Scores, and Harry Potter 6

Paul Martin — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 06:29:50 +0000

Welcome to the mailbag, where we answer fanmail that you send in, over the course of the week. For those that don’t know, we’ll take your questions, and if we don’t know the answers, we’ll try to get the answers from people that would know. We might even make something up! I have a very broad sense of humor, on top of a vast knowledge of film, music and comics with a wide range in taste and a great memory that serves to bring great comparisons or answers to your questions.

This afternoon, I saw the latest Harry Potter film, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I have to say, having never read any of the books but the seventh, it connected the rest of the movies to the seventh book very well. However, I do have a question, which I posed on my facebook status today, getting a string of hilarious responses. If you’ve not seen the movie, avoid this paragraph:

“When Harry and Gandalf go to the Mines of Moria, why couldn’t Harry use the the Patronus on the Dead Marsh creatures, when Dumbledore was all Odysseus. Instead, he had to cast a Balrog to fight them, when the Balrog is made of light, just like the patronus.”

The point of this paragraph was two-fold. First, it was to point out just how much J.K. Rowling ‘borrowed’ from The Lord of the Rings and repackaged into her own work. However, she also borrowed from some Greek / Roman mythology having them cross over what I instantly thought was a representation of the river Styx, followed by a spell that replicated a scene in The Odyssey. It was set in the Mines of Moria from The Fellowship of the Ring, though, as well as in the Dead Marshes, where Frodo falls in among the dead and Gollum swims in after him in The Two Towers. And then, Dumbledore looks exactly like Gandalf when he’s fighting the Balrog on the Bridge of Khazad Dûm. And with the fire behind him, it looks like he’s summoned a Balrog to fight.

This brings us to the second part of the question: could Harry have used his Patronus on the Dead Marsh things? Arguably it is a light based magic, like fire, and does work on creatures of darkness other than just Dementors. I think that Harry just needs to be in trouble now, so the patronas has been limited.

Anyone have some insight for me other than “read the book?” I don’t plan on reading those books. Too many great books to read.

Let’s get started with this week’s mailbag:

Q: When I bought the Prince Caspian Soundtrack I was looking forward to hearing Reepicheep’s theme. Instead I only got a few seconds of it in The Door in the Air. Are they planning to come out with a more complete soundtrack?

-Collin Layman

Paul: Unfortunately a complete recording of Harry Gregson-Williams’ score for either The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe or Prince Caspian is very unlikely. Perhaps someday there will be a limited print run of a thousand or two copies of the complete recordings. Perhaps this letter will help to generate some more interest in owning all of the score from either film.

Who’s up for complete recordings of the Chronicles of Narnia scores by Harry Gregson-Williams? I sure am!

And this was a light week, with only the one letter. Better one than none, I say.

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Interview with Narnia Storyboard Artist Tom Nelson

Paul Martin — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 20:03:31 +0000

Aslan’s Country has posted an interview with Narnia storyboard artist Tom Nelson. He speaks about his time working on the Narnia films, as well as working with both Andrew Adamson and Michael Apted. He also goes into how he got into storyboarding as well as the process of storyboarding. He’s storyboarded on both Prince Caspian and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. It’s a great little interview, and I hope that you enjoy it.

Aslan’s Country: Thanks for letting us interview you and get a closer look at your work with storyboard illustration, Tom! What inspired you to get into storyboard illustration?

Tom Nelson: Like a lot of storyboard artists I originally wanted to do comics which has some similarities to storyboarding in a lot of ways, Before I ever got a chance to do that professionally I ended up in an animation studio and my skillset seemed suited towards storyboarding since I was always interested in storytelling. I also always had an affinity for filmaking so I ended up doing storyboards starting with revisions and through ‘on the job training’ I eventually started doing full boards.

AC: How was it that you came to work on the “Narnia” series?

TN: I was recommended for the project by Mike Vosburg and Trevor Goring, Two great storyboard artists that had already been working on the movie. I showed my work to the director and somehow managed to convince him to hire me.

Read the rest at Aslan’s Country

Interview with Narnia Storyboard Artist Tom Nelson

Paul Martin — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 00:17:35 +0000

Portugese Narnia Fansite MundoNarnia.com had the opportunity to interview Tom Nelson, a storyboard artist who has done work on all three Narnia films so far, including the upcoming Voyage of the Dawn Treader. How the interview came up is one thing, but they’ve alerted us to it, which you can read here.

MundoNarnia.com: Your work is discrete, but very important to the beautiful results that appear on the screen when we talk about adaptations of Narnia for the cinema. And you work on the storyboards since the first movie. Tell us about who Tom is and about being an artist who develops storyboards.
Tom Nelson: I started working in animation many years ago, after a while I wanted to work on projects that had a little more drama so I started to work on movies the Narnia chronicles being among them.

MN: Which are the major storyboard projects you took part?
Tom: The Narnia movies are probably the biggest.

MN: How was the production of storyboards for Prince Caspian and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe?
Tom: The first movie was very special. Everyone was contributing to the movie, we knew we were working on something amazing. I met a lot of interesting people and found a very special place in my heart for New Zealand. I will always remember it.

MN: Have you ever read The Chronicles of Narnia or got in touch with them only by scripts?
Tom: I read the books when I was a child, and remembered them fondly, I never thought I’d be working on the movies!

MN: I promised you not to make “embarrassing questions”, but could you tell us something about the emotions for the forthcoming movie, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader?
Tom: In some ways its a different feel from the first two if only because of the setting of which a large part is the ocean. I think they’ve crafted a great story and can’t wait to see it!

MN: I truly want to thank you, in the name of all Portuguese-speaking Narnia fans who access MundoNarnia.com, for the interview and let you know that your work is a gift for us, a gift that makes a dream come true.
Tom: Thank you! Its great to work on something that so many people have a great love for.

Thank you to Lucy and the gang at MundoNarnia.com for tweeting us about this!

Ben Barnes talks Promotional Tours and Prince Caspian

Paul Martin — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 13:46:36 +0000

Ben Barnes is a very down to earth guy, and provides a really good example of what he went through on the promotional tour for Prince Caspian. He mentions New York, where I saw him about four out of the seven days that I was there, and sometimes twice in one day, so I can attest to what he says about his experience there.

It can be hard work being a Hollywood hero. Just ask Ben Barnes, a.k.a. Prince Caspian, star of the billion-dollar-grossing Chronicles of Narnia franchise.

There’s the grinding tour of world premieres (”Travelling for three months, sitting on your own in a hotel room in Taiwan, thinking, ‘what am I doing here?’ Just weird.”) and the red-carpet appearances where your every move is greeted by an electric storm of flashbulbs (”I don’t think there’s any way of ever being comfortable with it. You put on a perma-grin, which is so unnatural, and the lights make you squint. I get very anxious.”). There’s the frankly disconcerting experience of seeing your very own toy action figurine for the first time. “My own was absolutely awful, shamefully bad. I was a bit upset by that. How many times do you get an action figure made of you? Mine looked like a cross between Adrien Brody and Javier Bardem – but ill.” There’s the tireless and tiresome conveyor belt of press junkets and interviews.

“They take as much out of you as filming does”, sniffs Barnes. “I thought, ‘it’s only chatting, how hard can it be?’” As it turned out, the New York round of Prince Caspian promotion very nearly wiped this swashbuckling regent out: he did 90 interviews in one day, woke up the next with no voice and found he had to do 70 more, dosed up on a cocktail of vitamin C, honey and lemon, and Chinese potions. “I didn’t really have a choice. The film was called Prince Caspian, there was no hiding.” Appearing on Jay Leno’s sofa was a rare highlight. “Have you seen it? It’s definitely the best interview I’ve done…”

[...]

Today, arriving at his agent’s office and blaming his late arrival on the Piccadilly line, Barnes doesn’t really look like a star. Tall and slim and dressed in a white T-shirt, leather jacket, jeans and biker boots, he’s sporting some patchy stubble and “ridiculous” long hair in preparation for the [Chronicles of Narnia]: Voyage of the Dawn Treader shoot in July (”I do not want extensions again.”).

[...]

It has not always been an easy ride; Barnes already has one dispute under his belt, when he left The History Boys six months into its West End run to play Caspian, annoying the National Theatre. “I’m still hugely regretful about it and I still haven’t heard a peep out of them. I didn’t feel like I was leaving anyone in the lurch but I did feel like I was letting people down. And I felt like I was going to vomit for three and a half weeks between getting Prince Caspian and leaving. It was always my dream to work at the National: I’d been going there with my Dad since I was 10. I’d love to round it off one day by going back. It’s still the most gratifying job I’ve ever done.”

Prince Caspian, he implies, was not quite so gratifying. “It’s more to do with the contrast between the marketing and what I was asked to do. I was trying to do this awkward character who wasn’t sure he wanted the responsibility of being a leader. I don’t think that tested so well, so they tried to tweak him into a hero.” Did they Hollywood-ise him? “Just a little. Yeah. Which is completely fair and it made a lot of money so they know what they’re doing. But at the same time, as you can see by all my other choices, it’s not particularly what I’m going for. I want to play characters that are interesting to watch.”

-via The Independent

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Prince Caspian Concept Artist Nominated for Chesley Award

Paul Martin — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 06:08:27 +0000

It’s been more than a year since the release of Prince Caspian, and it’s just been nominated for an award. More specifically, concept artist Justin Sweet has been nominated for Best Product Illustration for The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. The Chelsey Awards are given for excellence in science fiction and fantasy art or illustration. The awards have been presented since 1985 and are run by the Association for Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists (ASFA). The awards were named after the artist Chesley Bonestell after his death in 1986. They are presented at the World Science Fiction Convention. The convention will take place in Montréal, Québec, to be held Thursday 6 August – Monday 10 August, 2009.

Here is an example of the artwork painted by Justin Sweet for Prince Caspian. Very impressive art. Congrats, Justin!

-Chesley Awards 2009

NarniaFans Mailbag #39: Dawn Treader Trailers, Stunts and More

Paul Martin — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 03:34:26 +0000

Sorry that this week’s mailbag is a day late. I had some business to attend to. Namely, there were ghosts to be busted, and I was the best Ghostbuster for the job. On Tuesday, a game that I had been waiting for most of my life to play was finally released. Not only that, but it was released in roughly three variations, two of which I know for sure used the actors from the original movies. Ghostbusters The Video Game was released for most systems, of which I got it for Xbox 360 and Wii as well as DS. I have beaten the game on the 360, and just started playing the Wii version, which is a very different experience from the 360 version so far. And I’ve loved almost every minute of it, save for some small problems, and the difficulty level of the game when sometimes, even on easy. When I was 8 or 9, I went to the arcade (!) to play the Ghostbusters game, only to be disappointed by it for not having a similar style of play to that of the movie, and it’s about time they’ve made the game that I dreamed up at such a young age. But this isn’t what you’re here to read about, you want to hear answer to Narnia fan mail, so here we go.

Q: Why was the second trailer for “Prince Caspian” released only 2-3 weeks before the film hit theaters? If I remember correctly, the second trailer for LWW was out two months in advance of the film, and we got the nine-minute super trailer not long after.

That’s the end of my question. I hope they do a better job of trailers on VDT. I saw “Baby Mama” a week before “Prince Caspian” last year, and the theater was still using the teaser trailer. I never got to see trailer #2 on the big screen!

-Mike

Paul: That was part of the mis-calculation of the promoters of the film. They did a big event for the first Caspian trailer, which we were a part of, and then the second one was next to nothing. It seemed like they had, perhaps, decided to cut bait. But perhaps it really took them that long to get the second trailer ready.

One other theory that I have is the movies released early in the year don’t tend to pull in a lot of people, and they were waiting to launch it with the movies that would have the greatest possible impact. They could have, for instance, attached the trailer to Iron Man a couple of week’s prior to the release of the film, at that point.

Either way, however, I have no idea why they did things the way they did with film two. Perhaps they didn’t feel it’d have as big an impact as the first film, and that contributed to the level of effort used in the marketing.

Anyone else have some theories on this to contribute?

Q: Hi! I, like most Narnia fans, am really looking forward to “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader“. As most fans know, the filming has been set back several months, but is currently set for late July. If this schedule is kept, have you any idea when we can expect the official trailer? For “Prince Caspian“, it was about ten months. Is this standard for movies?

-Reepicheep, Knight of Narnia

Paul: With movies, there really is no standard for a trailer. The first teaser for The Last Airbender is attached to Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen this month, and the movie is scheduled for July 2, 2010. It seems that one year tends to be typical of bigger movies, while 3-6 months for smaller films. With Prince Caspian, the first trailer was released in the December prior to the release of the film, roughly six months. I believe what you were talking about is the set videos. We’re not sure, really, when we’ll start to see trailers for the film, but I’d expect that they will want to start creating awareness in December of this year. So I’d expect to see something this year, with a ramp up happening throughout 2010.

Q: Hi, Paul! This is a two-part question. In ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe‘ did William, Anna, Skandar, and Georgie have stunt or size doubles? How much of the movie do you think that these four actually did? As for the second part, it’s basically the same question only for ‘Prince Caspian‘: did the four ‘Pevensies’ and Ben have doubles? I know that William did most of his own stuff. Thanks a lot.

-Tarwe, the Narnian Elf

Paul: In both movies, as is typical of big films with action sequences, they all had stunt doubles. Not really size doubles, as that only tends to apply with movies that include things such as Hobbits, as far as I know. Sure, they’d do as much as they could, but for insurance purposes, there are big reasons for having the stunt doubles. If anything should happen, they save hundreds of millions in re-shoots and re-casting. I can’t really say percentages, as I wasn’t on set for the shoot, but I do know that they all wanted to do their own stunts from time to time, and they all got their chance, something that I’m really happy about, for them.

And that’s it for this week’s mailbag. That was short, but with good reason. My sister has Thyroid Cancer, and needs prayers that her surgery goes well, and I have a friend, who is pregnant, has to get her apendix out, and something might be wrong with her liver, too. So, that being said, keep sending the e-mails and commenting.

As for the secret project, I suppose I’ll give one more clue, but asking a question like “what is the secret project?” is a cleaver approach that will get you nowhere. Anyway, the secret project is web-based.

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NarniaFans Mailbag #38: Auditions for Dawn Treader, Aslan’s Nature and more

Paul Martin — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 14:17:27 +0000

This week’s mailbag is a little late because I was waiting for the upgrade to the software on which NarniaFans.com runs. It finally was released late last night, and by that time, I was too tired to write this. Not to mention that I’m working on a secret project that I think you’re all going to love. But there’ll be more time for that in the future. If you want to submit a question as to what it could be, hint free, be my guest. I’ll answer every question with one that brings you closer to the answer.

Let’s get started:

When, and where, are your movie auditions for the Voyage of the Dawn Treader? thank you. :):D

-Camille Jones

Paul: We aren’t actually in charge of the casting, but there is a website that you can find out about casting calls for the film, called My Entertainment World. The production for The Voyage of the Dawn Treader has updated the listing, which you can see in it’s entirety if you are subscribed to the website. It’s looking more and more like the late July / August start for shooting the movie is actually going to happen!

CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER, THE – August, 2009 – Queensland, Australia; Details Are only Available By Subscription.. STORY: In the enchanted land of Narnia, Edmund and Lucy join King Caspian on a sworn mission to find the seven lost Lords of Narnia. So begins a perilous new quest that takes them to the farthest edge of the Eastern world on board the mighty Dawn Treader. Sailing uncharted seas, the old friends must survive a terrible storm, encounters with sea serpents, dragons, and invisible enemies to reach lands where magicians weave mysterious spells and nightmares come true. They need every ounce of courage and the help of the great lion Aslan to triumph in their most hazardous adventure of all. (Posted: May 8, 2008. Revised: June 4, 2009)

Now, let’s dig into the archives of letters that we were sent back in 2007. This is an interesting one that we all know the answer to.

Is PC going to be a love story between Caspian and Susan? The production blog clip seemed to me to indicate that, but could you find this out for me?

Shad Eash

Paul: No, there is not. There’s going to be times that they glance at one another, and help each other out. There will also be a couple of quick conversations between them, if even that. And then Susan is going to be herself and kiss him. Typical Susan.

Now, here’s a question that doesn’t seem dated:

Hey, great job on the site!! But I have a question on your opinion. I was watching LWW in the coronation scene where Lucy and Mr. Tumnus are on a balcony discussing Aslan’s departure and you can see Aslan walking down the beach. I noticed Aslan’s footprints behind him. But did anyone else see (a few frames after) that Aslan is gone… and his footprints end abruptly! You can still see them, but at the edge of dry sand there are none. I thought, maybe he just disappeared!?!? What do you think?

Rachel

Paul: Very good question. You know how Aslan appears when he is needed, and then leaves again when he is not? Well, we don’t know Aslan’s method of transportation, but we do know a bit about his nature. The simplest way to put it, is that Aslan is supernatural. In the Bible, we read about how angels would sometimes come to people within their dreams, just as Aslan appeared to Lucy within hers. For Aslan, and for Lucy, this is no less important than when she meets him face to face when she is awake, just as it was no less important for Joseph when the angel appeared to him.

Aslan, being supernatural, appears only when he is needed, and not more often than that. But if you’re paying close attention, you can see him working through all things, and where he is present even when not physically on the screen. He does this to teach us.

And that’s it for this week’s mailbag! Feel free to send in some e-mail for next week!

Aslan’s Country interviews concept artist John Dickenson

Paul Martin — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 04:42:30 +0000

A new Narnia fan site has just launched and they have an interview with John Dickenson, who worked as a concept artist for Prince Caspian. He also spent some time working on The Voyage of the Dawn Treader:

How goes work on the Dawn Treader?

“It’s been over a year since I worked on it up in L.A. They are now shooting it down in Australia. It was my highlight so far in my career to be a part of. The 3 of us(Justin, Vance), got to work with Director Michael Apted, who was amazing to work for. We really liked the way he went about making a movie. And we also got to work with an amazingly talented Production Designer named Jan Roelfs. He had some great takes on the way this film should look and feel. We also met with Wetta’s Richard Taylor for an afternoon. He was a great inspiration. We hope to get the chance to work with him in the future. He left when we did, so I have no idea how the new PD will do on it. But the work we created was some of our best I feel. Once the movies out, I’ll post all my art on my website.”

Read the rest of the interview at Aslan’s Country

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