Disney Pictures begins filming The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in Auckland today

Tonguez · Jun 28, 2004

Lion Begins Production In NZ

28/06/2004 12:04 PM
NewstalkZB

Disney Pictures begins filming The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in Auckland today.

New Zealand director Andrew Adamson is in charge, directing his first live-action movie.

His last project, Shrek 2 has surpassed Finding Nemo as the highest grossing animated film ever.

Filming of the C.S. Lewis classic will be done in Auckland until mid-October, when the production will move to the South Island.

The movie is expected to be released in the United States at the end of next year.

Ranger REG · Jun 28, 2004

All of a sudden I wanna say, "Hang Ten, Dude! Surf's up, Brah!"

BTW, where is the cast listing? Any familiar face or name?

Is WETA involved (Workshop and/or Digital)?

Celtavian · Jun 28, 2004

re

Another classic being made into a movie. I'm not as passionate about The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe as I am the Lord of the Rings, but I still hope they do good job and cleave close to the original story in the film adaptation. The adaptation of the Lord of the Rings was rife with mischaracterizations and story errors that really ruined it as an adaptation for myself. Though it is still the greatest fantasy movie ever made. I'm always glad to see the classics of fantasy adapted to film.

johnsemlak · Jun 28, 2004

Is this a project that was originally started by the SCI Fi channel or something like that? I seem to rememeber a much smaller-time studio announcing plans to do a movie based on Narnia.

Ranger REG · Jun 28, 2004

I don't think that SCI FI Channel have anything to do with the project in New Zealand.

Ranger REG · Jun 28, 2004

Celtavian said:
Another classic being made into a movie. I'm not as passionate about The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe as I am the Lord of the Rings, but I still hope they do good job and cleave close to the original story in the film adaptation. The adaptation of the Lord of the Rings was rife with mischaracterizations and story errors that really ruined it as an adaptation for myself. Though it is still the greatest fantasy movie ever made. I'm always glad to see the classics of fantasy adapted to film.

A book does not always translate well on the big screen. You can try to translate it 100% but if the movie itself is not entertaining enough for the mainstream audience (which dwarfs the book's fan population), then you wasted the production company's time and investment.

Hypersmurf · Jun 29, 2004

Ranger REG said:
Is WETA involved (Workshop and/or Digital)?

From memory, WETA Digital did some initial concept art, but are not doing the production itself; WETA Workshop are working on the film.

I'll try to find the site I got that from a while back...

-Hyp.

Celtavian · Jun 29, 2004

re

Ranger REG said:
A book does not always translate well on the big screen. You can try to translate it 100% but if the movie itself is not entertaining enough for the mainstream audience (which dwarfs the book's fan population), then you wasted the production company's time and investment.

This really didn't need to be explained. Some changes are unnecessary and made for reasons of vanity by directors who think they can improve upon a classic work. Those kind of changes are unacceptable. I will not go into them on this thread since I have delved into them enough on other threads.

Changes made to make the transition from book to film are understandable and expected. I have no problems with such changes.

Hypersmurf · Jun 29, 2004

Hypersmurf said:
From memory, WETA Digital did some initial concept art, but are not doing the production itself; WETA Workshop are working on the film.

I'll try to find the site I got that from a while back...

It was NarniaWeb.

Apparently Rhythm and Blues have the CGI contract. I hear they did the CGI for "Around the World in 80 Days", but not having seen it, I can't tell you if that's good or bad...

-Hyp.