After the Comic-con, MTV had a chance to talk with Richard Taylor. The visual-effects artist seemed very excited about where footage of Reepicheep was headed.

MTV writes: During the Comic-Con panel, Taylor (and Adamson from the set, via satellite) unveiled some action-packed pre-vis footage that included griffins, dwarves and a first glimpse at the would-be Yoda that many expect to be the second flick’s breakout character.

“I think he might be up there with Puss in Boots out of ‘Shrek,’ ” laughed Taylor, discussing the potential impending popularity of a tough-guy mouse named Reepicheep. “He will be brilliant, and I’m sure the audience will embrace the good humor of him.

“Reepicheep is one of the most famous fantasy characters in Western literature,” he added. “This is a crazy little mouse who stands about a foot tall and runs around with a sword called a rapier. It’s a fencing foil, the sort of thing Zorro might fight with, and he does some serious damage.”

The man responsible for creating the rapier-wielding rodent isn’t kidding: Audiences cheered test footage showing Reepicheep spoofing “Mission: Impossible,” cracking wise and cracking skulls. “I can’t wait to see him onscreen,” Taylor beamed. “He’s filled with incredible bravado, to the point of madness. He’s almost suicidal.”

The article also discusses other aspects of the film as well as includes a video of Richard Taylor discussing Reepicheep.

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Better late than never, it’s Into the Wardrobe’s bit Comic-Con Report, talking about the Disney presentation and the adventure there at the 2007 San Diego Comic-Con. Let’s get to it!

Expect the unexpected: that would be advice to offer someone before they ventured into Narnia, and this was also the case for Comic Con 2007. Yet, in meeting other Narnia fans I’ve talked to online was like coming home, despite the number of strange people surrounding us all day. I flew in to San Diego Thursday and stayed with the wonderful TDL/NW member, Ninaruth. First thing Friday, I was whisked off to Comic Con by Jen, and met up with Kristi from thelionscall.com immediately. We headed straight for the Disney booth, dodging people in strange costumes all the way, and we noticed a wall on part of the booth dedicated to Prince Caspian. The display had the concept art picture of Caspian on Destrier, a large screen TV playing director, Andrew Adamson’s original blog entry and the trailer for the Prince Caspian video game. Disney was also giving away Prince Caspian gift bags with the Telmarine Castle on the front and back and then more concept art on the sides. It was a wonderful day of spending time with other Narnia fans. Gymfan15 from NarniaWeb joined with us later and we spent the rest of the day scouting out where we would have to go for the Narnia panel on Saturday. By the end of the day you would have thought that we had known each other for years.

Saturday Kristi, Gymfan, Nina, Jen and I all met in Hall H to make sure we’d get a seat for the Narnia panel. With six hours to kill before the Narnia feature would be shown, Kristi, Gymfan and I spent the morning putting together goodie bags for the panel members with items that the admins of thelionscall, narniafans, and narniaweb contributed. We also brainstormed extra questions to ask the Narnia panel. When the panel was about to start, Nina and Jen were planted close to the front to take pictures and notes and Kristi, Gymfan15, and I all went to ask questions and were the first 3 in line. Richard Taylor from WETA led the panel, followed by producer Mark Johnson, creature supervisor Howard Berger, costume designer Isis Mussenden, and producer Dean Wright. Director Andrew Adamson joined via satellite and the surprise of the day, Ben Barnes, joined with Andrew. It was the middle of the night for them, but they got up for the panel anyway. Bless them all! They are still trying to finish the last three weeks of filming on Prince Caspian. At first there were problems with the audio where Andrew could hear us but we couldn’t hear him. Andrew proceeded in mock-sign language gestures till his audio came through, which was only a minute later, but it was funny. When we could hear him, his first plea was to the panel members to come back and all would be forgiven them.

They first showed some pre-viz footage, which is basically animation of what they want the live footage to look like, not all of which will be in the film, seeing as they were paying some tribute to Lord of the Rings, Mission Impossible, and maybe the Matrix. But it gave the gist of what was going to happen. It was of a midnight raid on the Telmarine castle. Gryphons carried everyone in, starting with Edmund. Ed then used his flashlight in some kind of morse code to signal to the others and they were killing off Telmarines all over the place. Lucy came in with her bow ready. Susan was fully armed as were Peter, Caspian, and Trumpkin. Three mice went in the castle as well, one of which I’m sure is Reepicheep. He was lighter than the other two. Their first order of business for the mice was to tie up the yellow tabby cat that looked sort of like Puss in Boots so that they would be unencumbered when fighting Telmarines. Trumpkin started falling off the battlement tower and Susan caught him by the beard which was apparently the Lord of the Rings tribute. The mice were opening doors and dropping from the ceiling with ropes tied around them. Peter and Edmund were in their standard Narnian armor and Caspian’s armor resembled that of the Telmarines for the most part.

The second video was next and it included pre-viz, I think Andrew said some on set footage, and of course movie footage. Several scenes were featured, including the kids exploring Cair Paravel in their school clothes, a boat ride with Trumpkin the dwarf, a dwarf tied up and roughed up(we’re not sure if it’s Trumpkin or Cornelius), a Telmarine charge, battles…and so much more. The kids’ school clothes were like what was seen in spoiler pictures before, but the boys had blue sweaters and the girls had bright red ones. There was a shot of Peter finding a large medallion with Aslan’s face on it. In some battle scenes we see Peter fighting in his old leather jerkin outfit rather than the armor and Susan had a sword and was wailing on the Telmarines. Her bow and arrow were on her back, but it was strange to see Susan fighting like that. The last shot was of the four kids with Lucy in front, Susan to her left and a bit behind, Peter to the right and a bit behind, and then Edmund in the back in Narnian clothes in a darker shot and their expressions said something like, “Don’t mess with me.” In that shot the girls were in dresses, Susan’s was I think purple, and Lucy’s was bright red on the sleeves and collar and then the bodice was gray. It wasn’t a rusty red color at all so I’m not sure if it’s the same dress she was caught riding in months ago or not. Caspian was not seen in the footage that we saw. There was a concept art flash of Reepicheep. He looked white on his tummy, and golden to a brown color on his back and head. Aslan will be bigger in this film. We were in awe when it finished and it was amazing. I tend to be a bit harsh as a critic, but it was incredible. At the end of it Andrew asked if the screams he heard were a positive response which brought him an emphatic yes from Mark.

After this it was time to ask questions. Each person could only ask one. Kristi was first up and she greeted them on behalf of thelionscall.com, then she asked what the most challenging creatures were for them to create and work on. Aslan was the first mentioned, as getting the emotional expressions right for him were difficult. Reepicheep was also mentioned. Also, the scene of the Gryphons carrying the kids was tough to make look realistic. The Telmarines and dwarves were also mentioned by Howard and Isis for their departments. Dean and Howard talked a bit later about how they created the creatures in the last film and have more room to experiment now, they’ll have dwarves, fawns, and centaurs that are young and old, fat and skinny, male and female, different colors. There were between 50 to 100 creature types that had to be created.

I got to ask the next question on behalf of narniafans.com in front of 5,000 people with a camera on me plastering my face on about 10 huge screens…frightening…but I asked, “Now that you’ve done LWW, PC, and have VDT ready to start in January, are you going to do the last four books, what’s the timetable for that, and do you all want to be involved? Andrew replied first, even with the two second delay. He said he did want to be involved in all the films even if not directing. Mark responded to the rest. He said that if they all get the response LWW did, they would proceed to make one a year each May till they were done making all seven! He said that VDT would start filming in late January or early February. Isis talked later about how they all want to be involved and how they’re a close family group.

Gymfan15 got to ask her question on behalf of NarniaWeb and she asked if there were any funny stories or memories from the filming that they had to tell. Andrew replied that they still had 3 weeks left and that they weren’t done yet, but then changed his mind and told stories anyway. He said that greeting the 5-7 Telmar Lords in the morning was interesting, since he had to do it in languages from Spain, Italy, Czech, Kiwi, and French just to name a few. Andrew also talked about filming the scene where Aslan tells Peter and Susan they’re not coming back. Shane Rangi had to stand in for Aslan in an all blue suit that covers the face which Andrew said made him look like “The Tick,” and he was told to talk about what the experience had meant to him and how he would miss everyone..stuff like that. Well, after a little bit Andrew looked over at Shane in the blue suit and saw these dark streaks in it where Shane had been crying too which made the suit look funny. Richard then talked about bringing his 5 year-old son to the set. The little boy didn’t grasp the fact that they were actors. He thought he was going to Narnia for real. He met the Pevensie rulers and he met Prince Caspian. Richard said that Ben never broke character and made it a special day for his little boy and publicly thanked Ben for that. They were all very wonderful and gracious with the child. Isis talked about how the kids were siblings in every sense and said that the last fittings with Will and Anna were emotional ones. They were a family group. All who worked on LWW were invited back for PC. They’ve learned from each movie and expect each to get better as they go along.

Two other people got to ask questions and that was it. The next was about the continuity of the books with the movies and the movies with each other seeing as they’ll have different directors. The panelists said they’d stay true to the books and embellish here and there. They want and are aiming to stay faithful to the stories and have a great love for the stories. The stories are so different from each other, so it won’t be too tough with different directors to keep a Narnian feel to them. The panel was expecting Ben to get a lot of questions and he wasn’t asked anything. But then, no one knew he was coming so they didn’t naturally prepare any. At about that time, Andrew said their signal was going to run out and that they were going to get to bed. Richard piped up and told Andrew that he was going to bed and Ben was going clubbing. He looked at Ben and said, “It’s past Ben’s bedtime.” While Andrew was speaking Ben was sarcastically making gestures to Richard and the rest of us that yeah he was going out clubbing. Andrew replied to Ben with, “But you need your beauty sleep.”

The panel talked about a lot of things after that. It was said that the plan was for Georgie, Skandar, Anna, and Will to play any future roles in HHB or LB when they come up since they’ll be old enough by then. Howard snuck a head of the good satyr, Tyrus, in with him. He plugged the head in and played with the animatronics. When he had Tyrus at the table, there was a point where the bust of Tyrus replaces Isis as far as the screen shot was concerned. It was funny since the bottom of the bust was yellow and Isis was wearing a yellow shirt, they just blended in together. They brought out a Telmarine soldier as well with a sword that I think was bigger than me. The helmet was very conquistador like and there’s a face mask. Dean, Isis,and Howard discussed the 330 person army that they had to outfit. The inspirations for the outfit were from Tibet, Greek Mass, Byzantine, Pirate and other cultures. They made 2500 swords most were water-jet cut and others were hand ground by Richard I think. Miraz’s costume is said to be rich bronze, emblazoned with pictographs telling the history of Telmar. They talked about the kids coming back into Narnia with an overwhelming sense of entitlement. The film is described as darker, more mature, and with more action. The footage we saw lived up to that description. Isis said it is four times the scope of LWW.

Howard closed things out with the act of throwing out t-shirts to fans that only the cast had previously. There was a blue one with a stick figure Prince Caspian on it and then there was a brown one with a 70’s style faun with a huge afro on it. When he did this mass hysteria started and security was going nuts. Gymfan15 caught a blue shirt. When microphones started falling over, they wrapped things up pretty quickly.

We booked it back to the Disney booth where the guys there promised to get the goodie bags to the panel members, and I’m glad that they did receive them. Andrew and Ben will be sent their goodies soon. It was a blast to get to spend time with the members from the various Narnia sites where we could work together and have a common goal, helping each other out. There was no us and them we were one big team. Hwin from NarniaWeb and her family also stopped by the table to say hi as well after the panel. I didn’t expect to make so many new friends or have so much fun with the Narnia panel, considering the insanity surrounding us that was Comic Con. However, I did and was truly blessed.

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Comic-Con 2007, complete with all of the exclusive news and footage descriptions – the first look any audience has received from the next exciting chapter in the fantasy adventure series!

Richard Taylor, from Weta Workshop was the first to take the stage, carrying two swords (Glenstorm and Edmund swords) – the Centaur sword was nearly as tall as him!

He introduced the panel which included Mark Johnson (producer), Howard Berger (creature effects), Isis Mussenden (costume designer) and Dean Wright (visual FX supervisor). They all flew 24 hours from across the globe to be at Comic-Con to give an enthusiastic audience their first look at the action-packed film.

Andrew Adamson (director) was then introduced via satellite with a few minor technical difficulties. A gorgeous new conceptual look at King Miraz’s castle appeared in the background (the same image graced the Narnia goody bags that were seen throughout the con). Andrew amusingly passed the time by attempting to communicate by “signing” with the audience. Once his sound was corrected he greeted the fans and asked the panel of behind-the-scenes artists “What are you doing there? We need you for shooting!”

Currently on day 106 of shooting, he said he was glad that they were able to share a little more, a little earlier in the process than their last appearance at Comic-Con in 2005 for “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.”

He discussed the difficulty in adapting Caspian vs. the first film due to its non-linear, less cinematic structure of the story.  As an example, he said they’ve expanded upon Lewis’ text like “Caspian…made many sorties…” by embellishing the battles.

Andrew then announced that the audience would be seeing a pre-viz (an animated storyboard) of one of those expanded scenes – an exciting raid on Miraz’s castle.  The footage is described from memory, but here are some of the highlights…

The footage starts with a gryphon flying through the air, carrying what looked like Edmund in its talons.  The air is foggy, probably providing some much needed cover for this daring raid.  The camera swoops dramatically, following Edmund and the gryphon as they descend into the castle walls.

The shot widens to reveal more gryphons carrying what looked like Susan, Peter and others as well.  This was very cool and unique to see the characters working in tandem with the gryphons for an aerial invasion!  There is a quick cut to a battle line of Narnian creatures advancing slowly on the castle – perhaps the Pevensies must get in first to neutralize Telmarine guards and allow these troops to penetrate the castle from the ground?

The gryphon carrying Edmond noiselessly approaches upon a castle turret, with Edmond slicing a Telmarine guard in mid-air.  He the signals to the others using his flashlight!  Another gryphon with Susan in its grip flies into the courtyard, and Susan reaches into her quiver and in a spectacular mid-flight shot sends an arrow through another Telmarine guard.

Reepicheep and his band of courageous mice enter the courtyard through a gutter.

Reepicheep takes out a Telmarine guard.

At this point, the mission is still being undertaken stealthily.  The Pevensies and their cohorts have yet to alert the larger Telmarine forces to their presence.

The sequence ended with much applause from the audience.  Even in its rough, conceptual form this promises to be a suspenseful and spectacular action set piece, very creative in its execution.

Andrew then took the opportunity to discuss the story and how the film is shaping up in comparison to “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.”  He said that King Miraz and the Telmarines have taken over Narnia, and the Pevensies return to a much more savage place then what they remembered.  The film promises to be bigger, grittier and more epic in its scope than the first film.  This was reflected in the footage glimpsed from the next video – the tone is definitely darker and moodier than the first film.  It really feels dangerous – like the stakes have been raised significantly for our heroes.

The next piece of footage was a behind the scenes look at the filming of “Prince Caspian,” and it included the very first looks at characters in costume and finished scenes from the movie!

It starts with behind the scenes footage of various craftsmen (Richard Taylor wielding an axe in his workshop) and a room filled with conceptual drawings of Dwarfs.

Andrew Adamson narrates the footage.  Here are some of the nuggets he offered, along with descriptions of the shots in the film – like the pre-viz they came fast and furious, so here’s the best guess of everything we saw.

• “Prince Caspian” brings the four Pevensies back to the world of Narnia.  Thirteen hundred years have passed and the world they knew no longer exists.
• Footage – Pevensies on the beach in their school uniforms.
• Footage – Overhead view of the Cair Paravel ruins.
• Footage – Peter sword fighting in a courtyard at night.
• The character of Caspian features into the next three stories.
• Concept art – Trufflehunter
• Concept art – Reepicheep (this garnered some hearty applause from the audience)
• In “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” the action was a button on the end of the film where in “Prince Caspian” the action is more inherent to the story.  There are battles throughout the film.
• Footage – The Pevensies with Trumpkin (he looks perfect!) in a boat.  Looked like they were traveling up river.
• Footage – Overview shot of a big skirmish in the Castle courtyard (very dark tone)
• Footage – Though his back is to the camera, it looks like Peter is fighting Miraz.  Miraz is decked out in spectacular bronzed armor with an intimidating battle face plate.
• Andrew said he always wanted the battle to include different fighting styles for the various creatures.  In “Caspian” we’re now able to see how fauns fight differently from minotaurs, and centaurs and gryphons…
• Pre-Viz Footage – a faun running along a balcony ledge, jumping from the railing to the wall and slashing through soldiers in mid-air.  This gave an example of what Andrew is looking to do with various fighting styles – it was fluid, fierce and acrobatic.  Very cool stuff!!
• Pre-Viz Footage – gryphons lift up Dwarfs (as though they were arming themselves with weapons!) and dive vertically down the face of a cliff.
• Footage – Pevensies climbing down a deep gorge.
• Footage – Susan fights a Telmarine with one arm, while hooking another soldier around the neck with her bow.  It appears she’s become a much more accomplished warrior!
• Footage – medium shot of Miraz in full bronze battle armor.  Looks awesome!!
• Footage – Peter does an impressive running horse mount,
• Footage – a column of charging Telmarines on horseback.
• Footage – a beautiful wide shot of soldiers running towards the Bridge of Beruna.
• Footage – a quick shot of an enraged Miraz without his helmet/face plate, revealing our first look at Sergio Castellitto in character.
• Footage – Peter Dinklage as Trumpkin in shackles.
• Footage – Peter fighting a creature (a hag?)
• Footage – final shot of the Pevensies in Aslan’s How, standing solemnly before the stone table.

After the footage came the big surprise of the panel – our first introduction to Caspian himself, Ben Barnes!  The satellite camera pulled back to reveal Ben Barnes, who looked overjoyed (despite the fact that it was the middle of the night for Andrew and Ben!) to be a part of this special unveiling for the fans.

Richard Taylor then led a Q&A.  Here are some additional bits of news and information revealed from the panel discussion.

• Dean Wright – biggest challenge is creating a performance that is emotional.  He’s currently working on the gryphons for the castle raid.
• Ben Barnes – finds it challenging interacting with Reepicheep.
• Mark Johnson – as long as the fans keep embracing the films, the plan is to make all seven.  They finish “Caspian” in three weeks and start shooting “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader” at the end of January/beginning of February.
• Andrew Adamson – said he couldn’t imagine not being involved in the remaining films, though this is his last turn at the director’s chair.
• Andrew Adamson – in response to a question about whether there will be a consistent look and feel throughout the films, Andrew said that they will maintain continuity by looking to the books, but bearing in mind that each of the books are completely different stories.
• Howard Berger – very excited about taking the design of two species further in particular – the Dwarfs and the Satyrs (where he was able to break the human form).
• Andrew Adamson – told a story about shooting a scene with Anna and Will where Aslan tells their characters that they won’t come back to Narnia.  This was a very emotional sequence since it reflected the fact this is the last time Anna and Will be a part of the films.
• Isis Mussenden – everyone on set has formed a strong family bond especially Georgie, Skandar, Anna and Will who are brothers and sisters now.
• Dean Wright – there are two huge epic battles that he’s working on, including the castle raid, new creatures (which he couldn’t reveal), and a river god who comes to life and helps turn the table on the Telmarines.
• Richard Taylor – took his family to Prague and his son met Ben Barnes as Prince Caspian in full costume.  Ben treated his son as though he were in the presence of royalty, creating a fun and wonderful illusion for him.
• Mark Johnson – it was easy to get everyone back who worked on the first film because of the great atmosphere and camaraderie.  The big challenge has been that each Narnia story is vastly different from the preceding and following stories.  He said that “Caspian” is darker and contains more action but is still connected thematically and though it is very much its own film, it is still very much a part “of the quilt that C.S. Lewis wove so beautifully.”
• Howard Berger – brought the head of a Satyr (named Tyrus).  It looked much different than the satyrs of the first film.  The horns were curvier, the face looked more animalistic and it had an “old-soul” feel to it.  He did a servo demonstration, showing the remote-controlled movement of the eyebrows and mouth.  Howard also mentioned that his experience this time was even more enriching because he was able to create more detail and variation within each specie.  The creatures in the first film were designed with the age of 30 in mind, but for “Caspian” there will be ranges and different degrees in age, gender, body size, etc.
• Isis Mussenden & Richard Taylor – the scope is 4 times the size of “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.”  300,000 pieces of armor were created.

At this point in the presentation a Telmarine soldier took the stage in full battle armor.  Isis and Richard went on to explain the look of the Telmarine.  The Telmarines descended from pirates and their look was meant to reflect a barbaric race, with Mediterranean, Tibetan, first century Spanish and fourth century Greek influences.

Richard said that they built over two and a half thousand swords, but that the most beautiful piece that he constructed was Miraz’s armor.  The rich bronze armor incorporates the different cultural influences mentioned above, and it is also emblazoned with pictographs of Telmarine history.

Howard Berger ended the panel with a special treat for a select few fans – he tossed two types of crew t-shirts into the crowd.  One had a low-tech hand-drawn stick figure of Prince Caspian, while the other had a photo of a 70s style centaur – very funny stuff!

That’s it!  The presentation revealed a lot of cool information, and definitely served to wet the appetite for more – a delicious hors d’oeuvre to hold us over for the main course next May!!

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Our friends at ComingSoon.net had the chance to interview costume designer Isis Mussenden 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: We’ll ask you the same question, following with Narnia, the first one, what was your task to make it bigger or better or darker or grittier?

Isis Mussenden: Well the script has already done the task for me, because it was bigger, darker, and yeah, it was just so much more massive to start with, the script. So we already had our work cut out for us right from the beginning. Now, to make it better is always our goal, you know, from movie to movie whether it’s a sequence of movies that you always, you know like this, a franchise or not, you always try to take those lessons and make them better and better.

CS: How do you and Howard work closely together as he’s designing the creatures?

Isis Mussenden: Yes we do, but normally, Howard and I have a lot more connection than we did on this one. On this one because we decided very early on that the creatures would have no clothing on. And we didn’t really have any clothing on them in the first one, but we did have bits of fabric, like Mr. Tumnus’ scarf and all that, but we really wanted them to feel like they were renegade, they were down to the bare, they were out hiding in the forest. So in taking that, Andrew and I worked on the concept that what would they have on? What kind of armor? And when we started to break down the armor they had from before, so that we kept the motifs and we kept the armor bits and pieces, what we were going to do was erode it and change it and we were going to see what people do when they have nothing else, no other resources, but what you had before. And then transform it so that they had some kind of protection and some kind of armor.

Now with the dwarfs we worked extremely closely because obviously dwarfs are human form. So Nikabrik and Trumpkin, Howard and his team really designed amazing makeup for them, and he was right, we have two actors this time and that makes a huge difference, and they look fantastic. It’s a red dwarf and a black dwarf, but they’re both on the good side this time, so we worked very closely together on the design for the dwarfs.

CS: Is there something, like one of the show pieces that you’re most excited about?

Isis Mussenden: You know it’s very interesting because I’ve been asked this question because on the first one, Tilda was like the big thing, you know with the witch, you know, she was kind of the show piece, and so I don’t really have a show piece this time, but there’s two things I’m really proud of this time and one is the Telmarine army, because I’ve never done an army before. And let me tell you, it’s a task. We manufactured every single thing they wear, from their shoes to the armor. We had four armorists in Prague working the leatherwork. Thousands and thousands actually almost up to a million studs were put onto the brigandines, but it was a real task. We built a 330 strong army and that doesn’t even sound like that much, but I have to tell you that is a lot of pieces, it was over 3000 pieces.

CS: Yeah, that sounds like a lot.

Isis Mussenden: It was massive, and there were days I felt like on this big whirlwind for months and months, just going, just keeping alive, just keeping ahead of it, and then translating all my armorists who spoke Czech only. Not one of them spoke English, so aimless hours of translation and trying to get this across, and just working hard to get it exactly the way we wanted. And then to age it all, age every single piece so they look like they’d been in a hundred battles.

CS: How did you do that?

Isis Mussenden: With a team of about 15 people working four and a half months aging. As the things were made, they would come in and they would age it and they would age it by rusting it and painting in like sun… There’s a cross belt that holds the sword and we did a whole sun, like the sun had been on and so the cross belt was dark, and it was aged out, you know, bleached out on the side and it was just an enormous undertaking. But I love it, I love the way it looks. We have three different types of armor that we had to make. We made metal, very light-weight metal armor. I’m talking about the helmets and the masks and the gauntlets and the grieves and the corselets. And then we had to do stunts’ armor which is flexible, so it had to look the same, but it’s made out of a plasticine. But these armorist and sculptors that helped me work on this stuff in Prague, they have such antiquity there, they’re used to making things look really old because of course the city is 1100 years old or something. So these guys came in and they could patina, just to match just exactly the way the armor looked. You can’t tell the difference between the plastic stuff and the metal, it’s pretty phenomenal. So we’re very proud of that and I think that it’s a unique look. It’s a look that doesn’t exist anywhere in history but it’s all taken from historic bits and pieces that I worked on with the Metropolitan Museum. I worked with that in New York, with the curator from there. We worked with lots of research on the bits and pieces and then we made it our own.

CS: You know, when an audience sees the film like Narnia, do you think they realize how much work and how much effort and energy goes into everything?

Isis Mussenden: Absolutely not. Absolutely not, you can’t possibly… People come to my work, and I have a 10,000 square foot work space, where we have dyers, agers, screen printers, every pair of pants was screened. We have this laugh because there this certain person we know that always talks statistics and we kind of think it’s hilarious and so that’s why we went and counted everything. And last we my team goes “We’re gonna get you the numbers this time.” And they don’t even understand that for the four kids, just for their four outfits, which everything is hand made, we make seven of each of them.

CS: Each individual outfit?

Isis Mussenden: Each individual outfit, every single piece.

CS: Why seven?

Isis Mussenden: Well we have a stunt rider and a stunt coordinator, and wear and tear, and growth for the two younger ones who are still growing. We just finished two last pieces for Edmund and Lucy because they’ve already grown. Georgie’s grown four inches since we started.

CS: What can you tell us about their pieces, what’s your favorite among those?

Isis Mussenden: I love the girls’ Narnia pieces; the first pieces they wear are really quite beautiful. We’ve built in Susan’s daffodil motif that she’s always had, right into her dress this time just layered on, and it’s based on this beautiful fashion piece that’s out of this exhibition in Tokyo. I love combining that whole medieval look with whatever I want. I mean, I have the best job in the world, I just get to make it up. Nobody can say ‘oh that’s not the right period.’ It’s Narnia, it doesn’t matter. [laughs]

CS: Do you start to a concept for some of the wardrobe when you read the script or when you read the book? Do you start to think about it then or do you wait to work with the director?

Isis Mussenden: No, I definitely start by reading the script or the book. I felt that the Prince Caspian book was quite uninspiring for me so unfortunately, as opposed to the first one which I used as a Bible. On this one it was very uninspiring, so the script was so much better. It’s very interesting, it really moves and it’s a lot of fun. And then from there, I start with pallet, and that was one of the big things for the Telmarine civilian wear, and all the Telmarines I needed to come up with a pallet. We’ve traveled all over Europe researching, I’ve gotten the paintings of El Greco are where I took the pallet for the Telmarines because they were brutal and they were beautiful and they were acidic and they were harsh. And so using those paintings, literally, that’s where I pull all the colors from, for all the clothing for all the Telmarines. And eventually it’ll show. On an individual, will people know that? No. But it will read on a full at the end the day. So I just start with pallet and then I just do endless research from anywhere; from fine art, from magazines, from sculpture, from nature pictures. I was just at the zoo last week collecting things thinking about Dawn Treader and you know, taking pictures of these amazing stripes on these animals or these incredible birds. I mean nature is beyond inspiring because of the colors and the textile design. And I work a lot in textile design, I have a fabulous textile artist, Sarah Shepherd, who’s out of New Zealand, who did the first movie and has done this one with me, and she’s incredibly talented and we’re always working off making… like any… We don’t buy fabrics with patterns; we make the patterns on the fabric. We will design them, we will screen them, and then we will screen the entire piece of fabric and then make the costume. In our Prague experience we’ve had two really great things. One was the armorists, as I said before, but the second thing was we found these incredible embroiderers. And so we have some beautiful embroidery work and motif work on these; in the girls’ costumes definitely, and a lot of the Telmar stuff. Everything was touched and you know, I have a great team.

CS: Will you be working on the third film?

Isis Mussenden: Hopefully. We’re in negotiations; I think we’ll be doing it. It’s just another year of my life. [laughs] It’s so hard, but it’s so fantastic though. We don’t know where we’re going to do it is the problem. And I have a seven year old, and I’ve got to get him in school. But he’s lived an amazing life already; a year in New Zealand and a year in Europe. It’s pretty incredible.

CS: I’ve always wondered, in a movie like this, what happens to all these pieces?

Isis Mussenden: You know what we do? Disney holds them for exhibition. The first one we did a lot of exhibition they had Disney World, and it was Christmas time and they did the malls, this whole series of malls, and they did this whole Narnia/Santa Claus picture thing. And so they do hold them for exhibition. We didn’t have that much stuff on the first one, there just really wasn’t as much as you’d think. On this one we have a whole army along with all the other stuff, so we’ll hold stuff for exhibitions, plus Dawn Treader takes place not long after. So I would probably use some of the stuff for that, like I said, extras 1000 strong so I can definitely use some of that stuff.

CS: Oh, that’s good.

Isis Mussenden: Yeah, wouldn’t you think? [laughs] Dawn Treader’s a lot smaller than this one. Not in the scope, but at least in the costumes.

CS: Thank you so much!

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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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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: Making a follow-up of Narnia, you obviously have the books to work with, but also there are heightened expectations now that the first film was such a success. What do you do to meet those expectations? Follow up by making it bigger, better, or different, or do you have more money?

Mark Johnson: The assumption is that you’ve got to be bigger; you know, the first one was really successful and I just heard myself in this film piece we did, say, “Oh, it’s got to be bigger and better than the last one.” It’s got to be as good, certainly; you don’t want to make a movie that’s not as satisfying, but I think “bigger” is probably wrong. I don’t know if an audience expects the effects to be, you know, more of them or more complicated. But it’s like anything else, you still have to make a good movie. And so people have said, “Were you intimidated about the fact that you got to make another one after the first one worked so well?” What I’m intimidated by is with every movie you’ve just got to make a good movie with compelling characters, and the spectre of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe wasn’t really so much over my shoulder. It’s great we’re a piece of that and you want to make sure that some of the information feeds from that, so that people who enjoyed that movie can enjoy this in a different way. At the same time, you have to assume your audience has never seen that movie and this movie’s got to work completely on its own.

CS: Also, the first film had a certain tone to it, and this movie (because of the book) is going to be darker and grittier, and not maybe as fantastical?

Mark Johnson: I think that’s true. This is a little bit darker. It’s a little bit more adult – it involves some tricky stuff; some things that Caspian discovers about himself and about his uncle, and so it is by definition a little bit darker. And then I think Andrew wanted to test himself. I think that he did a somewhat traditional telling of the last one and I think he wanted to explore a little bit more, and so he used the fact that it was a little darker as a jumping off place.

CS: What are you most excited about for the fans?

Mark Johnson: I think this is really satisfying as a sort of an old … in the Romantic sense – and I don’t mean in “romance” – but just movie-going. It’s just really cool. There’s a lot of action. It has lots of thrills to it. I think the last one was really charming, and sort of magical, and I think this one is a little bit more in your face. We’re still telling a Narnia story so it’s not like we’re doing something more adult just to be adult, but I think the trick is embracing this book and still making it a part of not just the Chronicles, but the mythology of Narnia, and respecting all of that – because it’s all interconnected, and all of the characters have precedence in the other books.

CS: What do you mean by “more in your face”?

Mark Johnson: It’s more action, it’s more immediate. It’s less lyrical. So it’s just more … “This is what’s happened – I’ve got to do something about this – how do we do it – I didn’t do it right – how do we straighten it?” I think that in this one, the characters have crises and conflicts. In the last one it sort of evolved itself into what they had to do. This one is where they really end up questioning themselves.

CS: How challenging was it to bring in all the new characters?

Mark Johnson: Well, we have a new set. You know, we haven’t even seen the character who’s probably going to be the most memorable, who is Reepicheep, who’s this two foot tall mouse. We don’t even know who is doing his voice yet. But it’s a great character. And the challenge is… Reepicheep is a very honorable character who is offended when anybody says “Oh what a dear little creature” because as far as he’s concerned he’s six feet tall and as noble and as sort of heroic as anyone else. So I think you’ve got to be careful that you don’t play him, the character, for laughs, but that what he ends up doing is very funny.

CS: Isis [Mussenden] had mentioned that she felt that the script was more inspiring than the book – it sounded like maybe it was a little more fast-paced. Did you feel the same way, that there were some differences there?

Mark Johnson: Yeah, I do, I think the book was hard to do. A third of the book takes place in flashbacks and we just realized that couldn’t happen in the movie, so we restructured it. Not that I want to say we improved upon it – we didn’t – but for a movie I think it’s slightly different. I think I’m going to find the movie a little bit more satisfying than the book. And you know, obviously there are seven books – you can’t like them all the exact same amount and some are better than others.

CS: Do you think fans of the book are going to be happy with the movie?

Mark Johnson: I think so, because it’s not like we’ve done a terrible injustice to it. With “Lion, the Witch” we didn’t tamper with it that much. But the whole frozen waterfall sequence doesn’t exist in the book. It’s so funny because we had people coming up to us and saying, “Oh, thank God you kept that in there” – you know it wasn’t there [laughter]. I’ve done a number of movies based on books and some of them we made big changes. I did this movie called The Notebook, and we changed it a lot. My Dog Skip and even The Natural, we were criticized for changing the ending. I don’t think any of them were as faithful to the source material as “Lion, the Witch”, and same thing with “Caspian.”

CS: Since this is a series, do you guys find yourselves looking ahead all the time – and I’m assuming that they did that with the Harry Potter series. Are you guys always like, “Okay, what about the kids?”

Mark Johnson: Well here’s the crazy thing. I’ve been on the set of Caspian and we’ve shot for 105, 106 days – I’ve maybe missed 15 – but I just missed some because I went to Malta and Spain to scout locations with Michael Apted for The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, so I’m a little schizophrenic right now. It’s like, which characters? And I’m talking to William Moseley and Anna Popplewell who play Peter and Susan, and they’re not in the next one. And so I’m starting to talk to them about it and say, “Oh that’s right, you’re not there”. It’s almost like I’m teasing them: “Oh, and you don’t get to be in it”. Yeah, you’re aware of it and there are certain things that you want to do … I was desperate because I so loved Mr. Tumnus in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Andrew and I talked about it. Was there any way in the world to put him in Prince Caspian? And you can’t! It’s 1300 years later in Narnia and there’s no way to say, “Oh, he’s still alive”. So then we thought, could his great great great grandson …? And no! Not really, and so in that sense you’re aware of the whole fabric of the seven books.

CS: So how do you feel about Michael Apted directing the third film?

Mark Johnson: Oh, I’m really excited about him. I’ve been a fan of his for a while. And I think if you look at his strengths, they’re very different from Andrew’s strengths, and I think that’ll work for it. I think one of the best things that happened to the Harry Potter movies is they switched directors. Alfonso Cuaron and Mike Newells were very different, and each one in its way was even better. And it’s not even so much a quality – I guess there’s a quality of things – but I just think they got better, they benefited from it.

CS: When a director comes in knowing they’re only going to do one of the series, do they ever work together to “pass the torch”?

Mark Johnson: Well I think Andrew and Michael Apted are working really well together. I think Andrew is relieved … it’s so funny, he just read the first draft of the script (because he co-wrote the first two) and he said, “Oh, I was so depressed because there’s so much work to do,” and then he said, “And then I realized – oh, that’s right, I’m not writing it, I don’t have to worry!” So he can just give notes and walk away; he doesn’t have to worry about the solutions.

CS: So is Michael Apted helping with the writing?

Mark Johnson: No, he’s not writing. But Chris Markus and Stephen McFeely who wrote with Andrew on the first two are writing this one, without Andrew.

CS: And you are looking ahead at seven films?

Mark Johnson: As long as the audience still loves them. You know, listen – this next one is the second, and in many ways from a commercial standpoint it’s the more important of the two, because this one will say, “Is the franchise is alive and well?” If the audience doesn’t like this one then we may be in trouble doing all of them. That’s why the intention is to do all seven of them – whether or not we do will depend on the audience.

CS: It’s different in that it’s not like a Harry Potter kind of thing where each book is another year and you’re following the same characters in the same situations – this is like jumping centuries, millennia, different characters…

Mark Johnson: And at some point we’ll do The Magician’s Nephew, and the kids aren’t even in it, and there are a couple of shared characters but not many. And The Horse and His Boy is altogether different.

CS: It makes it a very problematical kind of franchise, because the only thing linking it, really, is the universe.

Mark Johnson: Right. The only character who is in all seven – and I may be wrong, but I think I’m right about it – is Aslan. And in The Magician’s Nephew, Aslan sings Narnia into life, and the uncle who is in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, whose house they go to stay at, is the young boy in that one, and they’re all tied together. The wardrobe is made from wood that was brought back from The Magician’s Nephew.

CS: How many times have you read the series?

Mark Johnson: Not as many as I should have. Seriously! And somebody asked me the other day, “Which characters are in The Silver Chair?” And I stumbled a little bit because I’d forgotten. So it’s not like I’m a fanatic. I talk to people all the time who tell me that the series changed their lives – but that wasn’t the case; I mean I loved the books, but there are a bunch of other books I loved at the same time too.

CS: How hard is it for you that you’re working on the second film, but you’re already kind of working on the third one as well?

Mark Johnson: It’s difficult. Between The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and Prince Caspian I did three other movies, and one of them’s a movie that opens next month called The Hunting Party, with Richard Gere and Terrence Howard and Jesse Eisenberg. So it’s really good to get away and exercise muscles you’d forgotten you have.

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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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ComingSoon.net reports on the Narnia Panel:

The Disney panel began with The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. Richard Taylor of Weta came out first and introduced some of the other crew members. These included the costume designer, creature designer, and others. Via satellite from Prague was director Andrew Adamson.

They kicked things off by showing a pre-viz animatic from the new movie. It showed one of the children from the first movie being picked up and flown to a Telmarine castle on an island by a griffin. After disabling a guard, the other Pevensie children arrive with other griffins and storm the castle. They are aided by mice who sneak in (despite interference by a cat).

The second clip was a sizzle reel where they showed some new footage, behind the scenes clips, and other goodies. They emphasized how much more action-packed this second film is, and that was very apparent from the clips. We saw a lot of battles and action. Also shown were the new dwarf character, Trumpkin played by Peter Dinklage, and the sword fighting mouse, Reepicheep. Lots more at ComingSoon.net including a picture of a Telmarine soldier!

From IESB: Here is some of the juicy tid bits we heard!

- The film is almost done shooting and will be ready for release next May.
- Expect Caspian to be much darker, more gritty and action packed!!
- Unlike Narnia 1, the creatures will have a wide range of ages, sex, and body type in each species
- Caspian’s Dwarves Nikabrik and Trumpkin will be played by Warwick Davis and Peter Dinklage.
- Andrew Adamson will NOT be returning as director for future installments
- The Voyage of the Dawn Trader will begin shooting in Jan-Feb of 08 for a release date of May 09.
- There will be a new Narnia EVERY May for the Next 6 years as they are making ALL books into movies.

Look for our full report from the show floor, coming soon. We’ve got three people that were in attendance of this presentation, and they promised to write about it.

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If you’re going to the Comic-Con in San Diego this year, and plan on attending the Disney/Pixar presentation on Saturday, please e-mail us a report of the presentation so that we can post it here in the news. Here, you can find the details of where and when the presentation is. WALL•E will also be presented, which looks fantastic as well.

2:15-4:00 Walt Disney Pictures and Disney•Pixar showcase two upcoming films with this exclusive Comic-Con presentation!

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian — Walt Disney Pictures and Walden Media present never-before-seen footage and a Q&A panel with the filmmakers of the second installment of the epic fantasy adventure series! Be sure to collect the exclusive Prince Caspian Comic-Con poster, designed by fans on Narnia.com, and selected by director Andrew Adamson!

WALL•E — From Academy Award–winning director Andrew Stanton (Finding Nemo), WALL•E is the story of one robot’s comic adventures as he chases his dream across the galaxy. Meet director Andrew Stanton and sound designer Ben Burtt (Star Wars) as they present a first look at Disney·Pixar’s next animated adventure! Hall H

[Full Comic-Con Saturday Schedule]

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According to Narnia.com, the Narnia part of San Diego’s Comic-Con will show more than just the
fan art! It will also show footage of Prince Caspian as well as provide opportunities to talk with people who are working on Prince Caspian.

Narnia.com writes, “There will be a special preview of ’The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian’ at San Diego Comic-Con 2007. If you are lucky enough to attend you will catch a peek at never-before-seen footage and talk with filmmakers of the second installment of the epic fantasy adventure series. Join director Andrew Adamson, Producer Mark Johnson, Weta Workshop’s Richard Taylor, Creature Designer Howard Berger, Visual FX Supervisor Dean Wright and Costume Designer Isis Mussenden as they answer your questions and share their experiences of filming Prince Caspian around the globe! Also, be sure to collect the exclusive Prince Caspian Comic-Con poster, designed by fans on Narnia.com.”

The Comic-Con will be from July 26-29 in San Diego.

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