Mark Gordon Company's The Silver Chair

I agree with Timmy on this one -- as much as I loved Will as Eustace, I want to see a boy about the age he was when VDT was made as Eustace in SC. The books are really about children, not teenagers. (And certainly not adults like Preens Cahspian.)

And I do understand anyone at any age can be bullied, but in the book it is bullying in a school that reduces Pole to tears ... seems more like kid stuff than adult sadism.
 
And it was also very marked that the Experiment House Bullies appeared to be older than Pole and Scrubb
 
And it was also very marked that the Experiment House Bullies appeared to be older than Pole and Scrubb
Good point -- so a 20-year-old Will would just not work. :(
Still I hope they will find someone else equally as irascible, and I hope they find a good Jill Pole, too. I always picture her as a brunette ...
 
Perhaps it is because it is what I grew up with but when I see Jill I always think of her like the original BBC movie
 
I hope bullying isn't the only focus of the introduction into The Silver Chair. In the BBC version they had the bullying but they cut short the dialog between the two children. They even cut the scene where the two children try to figure out which way is east and them holding their hands out and calling Aslan. They also cut the sweet scene where Scrubb offers Jill a peppermint so she would stop crying. The first chapter of the book is important to show that though there is tension between the two children, they are good children and want to be friends if only they could trust each other. Let's not forget that Lewis' answer to bullying was to give them all a good swatting with the flat side of a sword. Not something that would go over too well in modern England. The new movie should stick to the book and begin with Jill crying off alone when Scrubb comes up on her and have them run off when the hear the others, and not show the actual bullying. The last thing we want is for this to be like an after school TV special on bullying narrated by Michelle Obama.
 
Good point -- so a 20-year-old Will would just not work. :(
Yeah. I don't think they'll bring back Will Poulter for that very reason. At least I hope they don't. Some of you may remember that I met Will back in 2010 when he and Georgie came to California. He was already a very tall person then, about 6ft or more tall. With the age and the height he will not look like a child at all. New faces, more excitement!
 
Well, they managed to get Richard Armitage looking small and sweet in The Hobbit so perhaps the same will be done to Will :D I mean looking at photos of him now, the only real problem is height... faces can always be worked on to look younger in Hollywood :rolleyes:

But if they find a replacement actor who can be another great Eustace then i'm all for it, it's just that Will did so well and you have to remember that having him continue links the silver chair nicely up with the other movies because changing actors can sometimes be annoying for the audience... argh! why do kids have to grow up!? it makes things so complicated!
 
This is exiting news. I personally hope they keep Will Poulter, since I liked him very much as Eustace. As Jewel says a lot can be done to make people look younger/smaller etc. But Eustace is a school boy and should look like one, I agree with that.

This should be a straight forward story to film, and a lot of exiting stuff is happening, so I hope the film will follow the book fairly closely. Fingers crossed. :)
 
I agree with all the wishes for the film to follow the book. And I like Timmy's idea best of how to start the film with the kids running from the bullies rather than actually being bullied, but I bet we are subjected to seeing some of the bullying so people will understand what is happening and why Jill is crying ...
 
Let's not forget that Lewis' answer to bullying was to give them all a good swatting with the flat side of a sword. Not something that would go over too well in modern England. The new movie should stick to the book and begin with Jill crying off alone when Scrubb comes up on her and have them run off when the hear the others, and not show the actual bullying. The last thing we want is for this to be like an after school TV special on bullying narrated by Michelle Obama.

I quite agree. I sincerely hope they don't cut the scene where the bullies receive a taste of their own medicine, or change it out of all recognition, especially on the grounds of political correctness. I actually think most people, other than the pc brigade, would actually approve of this scene.
 
I dont see that Will being about 20 now being a serious problem unless the film is stuck in production for four or five years.
Casting older is so common in the film industry anyway that I doubt anybody will notice anything odd, after all casting 20 year olds as teens is the norm!
Will himself has been doing this a good deal recently.

And on the casting, wouldn`t it be a nice idea if they managed to fit Camilla Power (who`s still acting) in to it somewhere in a cameo role.
 
Yeah, Will doesn't appear to have changed all too much- unless again as you say the film takes a good while to make from now. And they'd have to find a good actor to replace him if they had to because he sure made a good Eustace!

But all that being said, it would be nice if they made this one A LOT more truer to the book than the last film because The Silver Chair has a lot of wonderful scenes in it which i would hate to be cut out!
 
Ditto mostly.

I'm not too excited about the news. I was heartily disappointed with VDT. So, I'm kinda glad the series continues, but I have no expectations. I'm prepared for the worst, expecting the worst, and may or may not go and see what's presented.
 
Ok, so, if the film could be the way I want it, what would I like to see? I haven't really thought about it much.

How should the film start? Opening logos and then fade in to a dull autumn day? Then show two kids escaping bullies and calling out to Aslan? Well, there are a number of ways this could be shown. I want to see Eustace and Jill calling out to Aslan with deep sincerity, like a child would call out to God. Jill needs to be sold on the idea of Aslan, or at least open to it, not just going along with Eustace's wishes.

But visually, how should the film begin. Should it begin with a bang, like LWW or PC? Or should it begin clean and simple, like VDT (I really liked the way VDT began, it was the last 90 minutes of it I had a problem with). More likely it will start simply. The only really dynamic opening I can envision is an aged Caspian talking with Aslan and setting sail. Or of course the film could begin with the story of Rillian and his mother. I really like how the BBC did that story as a flashback (I thought it was one of the best parts of the BBC version) but it could also work at the beginning too.

I don't want to see any battles. PLEASE no battles. There are no epic battles in The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis. Please don't have battles in The Silver Chair the movie. Please please please please please...just don't.

What else? Stick to the plot. Use Will Poulter again. Ben Barnes was like 100 so it shouldn't be a problem to have a 21-year old Eustace. The kid looks young anyway. About the Lady of the Green Kirtle (I don't think she's ever called "the green witch" in the book), it's okay to say she's of the same "crew" as the White Witch...but please don't make her out to be Jadis' long-lost twin sister.

What I really want to see included is all the scenes after Jill, Eustace, Puddleglum, and Rillian emerge from underground. BBC version skipped over this. These are beautiful scenes...emerging at night to a full moon and snowfall, and then the dance, and then everything in the chapter "The Healing of Harms."

This is a great story. It has a lot of potential. I hope they get it right.
 
Tirian, you'd make a great director- All you have said is exactly how i'd love the film to turn out to be! And yes! i hope they don't skip out those last beautiful scenes in the book either! And they should keep Will Poulter if they can because, apart from Aslan, he is the link that's needed for this film to connect with the others- people want a familiar face for a new story!
 
I hated the start of PC. A woman in childbirth was a terrible first scene.

The first scene after the logo should be a shot of an autumn scene of Experiment House from above, showing students running around and playing, maybe a few bullies, and then the camera finds Eustace as he is walking and comes upon a crying Jill (assuming they can get an actress who can cry well). An upset or forlorn Jill would also be acceptable.

MrBob
 
That is just it. In the movie PC they didn't do the flash back story telling to Caspian's background by Trumpkin but tried to squeeze it in the beginning. I am afraid they my cut out the Parliament of the Owls where the owls tell the background story of the lost prince. Remember next to Puddleglum the owls are the funniest characters. Remember also that these books are about the Children first and then about Narnia. So everything we know about what is happening in Narnia must be how the children learn about. That was a problem again with the movie PC we knew what was happening in Narnia before the Children. Only in the LB is the focus on Narnia before the children come along. And in some way I feel that was a weakness in the LB.
 
I agree with the two above, me and have not time to read the posts above that. Definitely need to tell it starting with Experiment house and do flash backs as the Owls are talking.
 
Agreeing with the above few suggestions! The envisioning of Experiment House/setting the scene is about right!

The 'real world' moments in the Narnia films seem very short and awkwardly scripted and edited to me - well, something doesn't sit in how they're done (inLWW the blitz scenes weren't very believable) - so it's important they don't brush over establishing the scene of this unpleasant school before we get to understand the relationship between Jill and Eustace. Okay, there's not much 'real world' in this book, but yes - get it right!

I'd forgotten those extra parts with the owls! They certainly must include such moments.
 
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