Chronicles of Narnia Movie

[Dirigible]

Sad part is, all the major actors in NZ have had their legs severed at the knees to allow them to play hobbits.

*sigh*

Looks like more forners, then...

By the way, I can see the Hollywood pitch: OK, it's like Lord of the Rings meets The Passion of the Christ -- with talking animals!

"Did I emntion his best friend is a talking pie?"
"SOLD!"

 

[Hypersmurf]

Live-action is what I've heard over the past few months.

I know my old boss was pitching for the stunt contract, and some of the boys were expecting six or seven years' decent work if he got it.

Which is hard to imagine for an animated film

-Hyp.

 

[CrusaderX]

And now we have a nice juicy casting rumor.


Nicole Kidman flies into Narnia

Oscar-winning actress Nicole Kidman flew into Christchurch this week on a top secret visit to tour locations for New Zealand's latest fantasy epic The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.

The glamorous star of recent films, The Hours and Cold Mountain, arrived early on Thursday morning and took part in a whirlwind tour of Canterbury's high country in a helicopter.

One of the locations paid particular attention was Flock Hill station near Arthurs Pass where there were several sightings of the actress and accompanying crew.

The visit has firmed up rumours Kidman has signed for a major role in the film which is being brought to the big screen by Kiwi producer-director Andrew Adamson, who also produced the Oscar-winning animated film Shrek.

 

[Squire James]

I'm guessing a mixture of live-action and animation... it's gonna be pretty hard to come up with a bunch of talking animals (without looking as hokey as Mr. Ed) otherwise! Hopefully technology will advance to the point that the animals won't look like they were made of Play-Doh.

While I can't imagine removing all the obvious Christian references from the story without making it a different story, I can see them toning it down a bit. My guess is that they are going to make the movie more along Tolkien's desires (for less allegory) than its own author's desires!

 

[Storm Raven]

If I recall, Narnia never mentions Christianity except in passing. While the books are certainly Christian-themed, I don't think Prince Caspian ever starts talking about Jesus.

No, but he does talk a lot about Aslan, who is pretty clearly Jesus by another name.

 

[WanderingMonster]

I'm guessing a mixture of live-action and animation... it's gonna be pretty hard to come up with a bunch of talking animals (without looking as hokey as Mr. Ed) otherwise! Hopefully technology will advance to the point that the animals won't look like they were made of Play-Doh.

Are you posting from way back in 1980?

Film technology has advanced way past Clash of the Titans. The existance of Gollum as a convincing CGI actor doesn't convince you of that? I have confidence that all the effects can be done flawlessly, especially if they have Weta doing the shots.

 

[Squire James]

I'm talking about the shiny Play-doh stuff that Shrek and Finding Nemo apparently used (not the 80's stuff that really DID use it). While I'm sure it was really CG-based, the two movies were full of guys that looked like they'd go all Celebrity Deathmatch if I punched one of them!

Given that the talking animals ought to be moving (mostly) like animals and not like humans, I think they will be a bit of more of a challenge than a bipedal humanoid like Gollum (though only slightly... Aslan was about the only talking animal in Narnia that stayed on all fours!).

I feel they will be up to the challenge as long as they don't "wimp out" for cost reasons.

 

[Ranger REG]

Sure, just as long they pass the cost down to us. Who wouldn't want to watch a movie for $16?

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

Given that the talking animals ought to be moving (mostly) like animals and not like humans, I think they will be a bit of more of a challenge than a bipedal humanoid like Gollum (though only slightly... Aslan was about the only talking animal in Narnia that stayed on all fours!).

Actually, most FX artists will tell you that the humans are far tougher than non-human characters. Our familiarity with all the little intricacies of human behavior makes it exceptionally difficult to do a CGI human. That's the main reason so many CGI animated films have very non-human characters as the main characters (Finding Nemo, Toy Story, etc).

 

[Mouseferatu]

The books don't tend to specifically mention Christianity, but the entire series was written to be a Biblical allegory. This wasn't something he tried to sneak in; even if it wasn't obvious, C. S. Lewis was quite open about what it was he was doing.

The problem is, Disney/whoever may be stuck between a rock and a hard place on this issue. Fans of the work and artistic integrity are both going to demand that the series be at lesat somewhat true to both the details and spirit of the books. Completely stripping it of its religious overtones would, as someone else just said, make it a different story.

OTOH, the general movie-going public doesn't know from Narnia. They've heard of it as a cool child-friendly fantasy, and probably aren't aware that it was meant to be a Christian allegory. I can see a small but significant--and vocal--segment of the market complaining loudly when they walk out of the movie having only discovered its Christan leanings through direct experience.

Honestly, Narnia was an important aspect of the development of fantasy, but it wouldn't have been my first choice of a license, were I the head of a movie studio. Maybe I'm over-analyzing, but I think it's going to be a bit of a tricky issue for them, whichever way they decide to lean.