Academic fans of Narnia creator C.S. Lewis could come to the defence of Malvern’s gas lamps, which served as the inspiration for a famous scene in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. The future of the gas lamps has been raised after parish councils around Malvern were hit with unexpected top-up bills to pay for their maintenance and running.
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Producer Mark Johnson has spoken about how they were putting the promotion together for Prince Caspian and what thoughts they had for how to capture a wider audience for the film than the first had.
When Mark Johnson was producing “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe,” released in 2005, he and Walt Disney Pictures were careful to hew to a PG rating. ”We were always concerned that we didn’t want to make it too young, and were worried in our campaign about exposing some of the talking animals. We thought an older audience might say it’s just for little kids,” Johnson said.
He found the problem reversed for last year’s film sequel, “Prince Caspian.” ”The second was accused of being too old. What happened [is that] it was less about the Narnian creatures than human creatures,” Johnson said.
The second film grossed $420 million at the global box office, while the first raked in $745 million.
The Crafting Of Narnia won Kids Choice at The NZ Post Book Awards for Children and Young Adults! Weta has a limited supply of books signed by Paul Tobin and Daniel Falconer!
Written and designed by the artists of Weta and published by HarperCollins, this book chronicles the stunning concept drawings, designs and props that helped shape the world of Narnia in cinematic glory.
I apologize for being late with this week’s mailbag. Wednesday was the season finale of Lost and then Thursday was the season finale of The Office. It was a very busy week besides all of that as well. Anyway, let’s get started.
For this week’s Mailbag, I looked in my inbox and realized a couple of things: first, there was only one e-mail for this week’s mailbag. I could take this to mean that it’s not a good feature to bring back, but that would be ridiculous. I enjoy the chance to answer e-mails and also to put my own voice into the site just a little bit.
On a related note, I share Andrew Adamson’s birthday. Who knew? Andrew, if you’re reading this, that must be the reason we have similar creative minds.
The Lions Narnia Braille Trail opened on April 15th in Kingsport at Darrell’s Dream Boundless Playground. We asked for any readers to respond to the story, and someone has taken us up on that. John Choate took a few pictures and wanted us to share them with you all. If you live near by and weren’t convinced before, you should definitely consider it! Take a look at this gallery of photos if you need further convincing. Especially if you have someone special in your life who hasn’t the capacity to see. The trail features set pieces from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
Variety.com asked Harry Gregson-Williams, who served as composer for both The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Prince Caspian. What he said about Narnia really shows the humility of the man. I hope to one day get a proper interview with him.
Here, he recounts a memorable moment in his life as a composer:
“The hush as I picked up my baton before the first note of the concert I did with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra (a suite from ‘The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’). That was totally thrilling and also incredibly alarming. What in heaven’s name am I doing here? I’m a film composer, not a concert composer. It was fantastic.”
Today was the grand opening of a new part of a playground meant for children with and without disabilities. It’s called The Lions Narnia Braille Trail. It is a new addition which surrounds the existing playground in Kingsport, located at Warriors’ Path State Park. The park is called Darrell’s Dream Boundless Playground, which is described as a place where children of all abilities can enjoy nature.
| May 22, 2009 | to | August 23, 2009 |
Here is the official news release about the Exhibition, in full for those who wanted more information. Thank you to Mark Sommer for reminding me that this was available!
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Exhibition will open Memorial Day weekend at Union Station Kansas City. The Station becomes the third museum and first in the Midwest to host this exhibition. The Becker Group, Ltd., which recently combined operations with Exhibitgroup/Giltspur, produced the exhibition in partnership with Walt Disney Pictures and Walden Media. Based on the blockbuster film series and C.S. Lewis’ beloved fictional books, the 10,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art entertainment and educational experience offers visitors the opportunity to tour scenes from the famed literary world of Narnia. Through authentic costumes, props and set dressings from the magical Narnia films, visitors will enter a three dimensional world that combines the wonders of science with aspects of fantasy. Tickets are on sale now at unionstation.org.
Part C. S. Lewis-biography, part literary analysis, The Magician’s Book: A Skeptic’s Adventures in Narnia is, at its heart, the story of a journey. The first step came when its author, Laura Miller, was given a copy of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by her second grade teacher. Today a well-respected writer and literary critic, Miller looks back at the spell this book cast on her and at how it shaped the reader and the person she has become.
Like all journey stories, some parts will be familiar and some will not. Most Narnia fans will be able to relate to Miller’s account of how the Chronicles of Narnia changed the way she looked at the world. They will identify with Miller’s deep desire to be Lucy, “that rare creation, a character who is good without being a prig or a bore.”
But these are side trips, not the main path in a book which promises to reclaim Narnia “for the rest of us,” this meaning readers who, like Miller, loved Narnia as young people but then felt “tricked, cheated, and betrayed” after they discovered that many Narnian themes mirrored themes found in Christianity.
Anyone not belonging to this “rest of us” group may find it hard to understand why this discovery produced so much anger and bitterness in Miller. Although she devotes most of her book to describing her rocky relationship with the Narnia books, she is never able to articulate exactly why learning that they represent C. S. Lewis’s attempt to put his most foundational beliefs into story form “horrified” her.
Would she have felt so horrified had she discovered Lewis was a Buddhist?
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