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Narnia to be Created in New Zealand
SCS writes "It has been confirmed
that the The
Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe will be made in New Zealand as
part of a five film line-up of C.S. Lewis's Narnia fantasy book
series, with New Zealander Andrew Adamson of Shrek fame as its
director. Filming begins next year, and Weta Digital has already started
the graphics work. Also reported at the BBC
and HeraldTribune.com."
Which books will be left out? Just making a guess, but I expect one of the ones that will be left out is The Horse and His Boy. This particular book in the series seems the least tied in. For reference, the 7 books are (may be out of order):
1 The Magician's Nephew
2 The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
3 The Horse and His Boy
4 Prince Caspian
5 The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
6 The Silver Chair
7 The Last Battle
In my opinion, the following books absolutely must be included: 1,2,5,7. The Magician's Nephew tells about the creation of Narnia by Aslan. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe obviously is included. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is very important to the series, as it from my recollection is one of the most clearly allegorical. The Last Battle must be included; it is the end of the series, and provides a good last movie.
My prediction is that we will see, The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, followed by Prince Caspian, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and possibly The Silver Chair. These "core" books feature a fairly contiguous story, and a steady progression of main characters.
The Horse and His Boy is very much a standalone tale with little to do with the other books in the series (other than the fact that it is set in Narnia and surrounding countries and features brief appearances by Aslan and the Four Children). I'm not sure it would fit well in a series of "sequels".
The Magician's Nephew is actually the prequel to the entire series, detailing the creation of Narnia, etc. It would be difficult (though, not impossible) to integrate it into a Narnia series if it was produced after LWW. Then again, I'm still holding out hope that Peter Jackson will make The Hobbit now that the Lord of the Rings series is complete. So maybe, the producers of the Narnia series will build fanbase with the "core" books first and then bring in The Magician's Nephew to wrap up the series.
However, I doubt The Last Battle will ever hit the silver screen. It was always my least favorite book of the series, for many of the reasons that would probably make it a poor film. It takes a long time to get rolling, it's really kind of a downer for much of the book (well, duh, it's about the end times), and the Christian religious undertones of the previous books become the overtones of The Last Battle. It clearly shifts from being a fantasy series to being a Christian theological tretise.
One other reason why The Horse and His Boy and The Last Battle will likely NOT be made into films: without a major rewrite, they both paint the religion of Islam in a very unfavorable light, and in these times of post-9/11 issues of religious discrimination, would likely be more controversial than the studios would be willing to accept.
The original post mentioned a five-movie series, and I couldn't find anything in any of the links detailing what five books of the seven book series would be made. Maybe this was a typo on the submitter's part, or maybe I just missed the reference in the articles. But if in fact, there will be only five movies made, I would guess that The Horse and His Boy and The Last Battle would be the ones to be dropped.
That the work of Tolkien and Lewis has similarites isn't that strange since they where close friends. Just google for "the inklings"
I know this is a troll, but I'll bite... it's really rather the opposite. The Narnia series is really more or less one big metaphor for Christian mythology, with the Lion playing the role of Christ, the Witch playing the role of Satan, and the children playing the role of the disciples (complete with one of them playing the role of Judas). The series parallels several pieces of Christian mythology in a fantasy setting, leading up to the book "The Last Battle," which is more or less the metaphor for Judgement Day.
--- Bwah?
The BBC in the UK already made TV series of four of the Narnia books and have just released a 3-disc Chronicles of Narnia DVD box set as well...
"The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe" is the 2nd book only according to publishers Now .
When the books were originally written and published by C. S. Lewis, "The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe" came first and "The Magician's Nephew" was like the 6th book.
Jonahweb.com has stuff.
The order in which he wrote them was TLTWATHW first, the Magician's Nephew last. I believe he did this because it takes a lot of the magic and wondering out of the series if you know the complete origin of Narnia and the wardrobe. It helped to tie of the one loose end that was left after The Last Battle.
What is the correct order for reading The Chronicles of Narnia? What do you recommend?
"If they have both, tell them we use Linux. And if they have that, tell them the computers are down." -Dave Chapelle
Sorry if this is posted elsewhere, but here is the official site...
http://www.narnia.com/
Enjoy!
-B
In the five articles that I have read so far anouncing this, they all say that Weta Workshop will be working on this, but none say that Weta Digital will be. I don't think that the bulk of the visual effects work has been awarded yet. I think that Weta Digital will actually be too busy wth King Kong and Evangelion to do a significant amount of work on this movie.
This Wiki Feeds You TV and Anime - vidwiki.org
I also don't think it would make a good movie. However, the Saltmine Theatre Company do a fantastic theatrical version.
Ho hum for the life of a bear
I read it, a long time ago. One trouble with the series, if you aren't totally *into* it, is Lewis' usual problem, that of the ham-handedness of the convert/True Believer. (Do *not* get me started on That Hideous Trilogy).
But the real problem with the series is the ending.
[spoiler alert]
He *cheats*. "Oh, well, actually you think you've gone through all this, but actually you were in a railroad accident, and you're all dead."
Deus ex pancake.
Give me Susan Cooper's Dark Is Rising, anyday.
mark
Not that that's necessarily a bad thing--and I'm a longtime atheist--but it seemed a lot less like "fantasy" and a lot more like "religious propaganda."
:-)
I hear this a lot, and I'm genuinely curious (not flamebaiting) about something: if you see the Narnia chronicles as "religious propaganda," would you also grant that Philip Pullman's 'His Dark Materials' trilogy is "atheist (or secularist) propaganda"? If so, we have no quarrel. If not, I'm again genuinely curious as to why not, if you've the time to entertain my question.
Xtian
One other small thing: It should be 'Xian,' not 'Xtian.' The 't' in the latter is redundant, as the 'X' abbreviation is for Christ (from the greek 'Christos,' which begins in a chi [Roman letter X]). I've found that many atheists and Christian fundamentalists alike are disappointed when they learn that words like 'Xmas' are not a removal of 'Christ' from the word but that the X is an old and oft-used shorthand for Christ, including in numerous Christian sources (Christ is frequently denoted as 'Xp' or chi rho in Christian iconography).
Just a nitpick from an old Greek student...
here's an interesting article on how the two authors and the the two sagas were intertwined.
Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.
Given this news, I also can't help but wonder if C. S. Lewis's magnum opus Till We Have Faces will ever be turned into a movie. In some ways I think it would be a very very difficult translation; on the other hand, it's a story beyond description. The Lord of the Rings moves imagination and emotion, but Till We Have Faces moves the soul. I don't know if the book could be synthesized into a coherent movie (the ending would take a good deal of finessing by a screen writer), but it would be a sight to behold if it could be done.
Till We Have Faces is one of Lewis's lesser known books, but virtually everyone who has read it agrees it was Lewis's finest book, and perhaps one of the finest books of the 20th century (and an undiscovered jewel at that).
I also recommend reading them in the original order, since understanding The Horse And His Boy pretty much requires having read The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe. CS Lewis wasn't exactly fond of lengthy character re-introductions on every sequel (and I thank him for that.)
My favorite book, however, is The Final Battle.
Yeah, the movie sucked big hairy donkey balls, but grandparent poster was talking about the more recent mini-series on sci-fi, which, IMHO were pretty good. This and this.
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
Almost, but Magician's Nephew was written before Last Battle. It'd have been pretty odd to do it the other way around, since Polly and Digory were in it along with all the Friends of Narnia, and that wouldn't have worked if their story hadn't been told.
I can see that telling the Magician's Nephew first might take away from the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, but as long as it's in there I'll be happy -- it was my favorite story.
My wife and I spent a few months last year living in New Zealand, and I can assure you that if you end up moving down there you're going to need a lot of sunscreen.
We're outdoorsy types, have spent the last decade living in Texas, and generally enjoy a sunny day as much as anyone. But not in NZ. The sun's power is significantly stronger down there, to the point that you would literally feel pain when sunlight made contact with your skin. I cannot stress this enough. The kiwis are all used to it, and many of them simply dismiss it like it's not a problem (and for them, I guess it isn't, since they're used to it). Consider yourself warned.
The Problem with Magicians Nephew first is that Lewis makes references that only people that have read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe would understand. For example, the tree that grew from the apple core to which the rings were buried was used to create the wardrobe after if blew down from a windsotrm. Digory is also mentioned as the old man the the pevensie children go to stay with. Not to mention Lantern Wastes.
Christianity in Narnia
I really hope the christian motives aren't going to be de-emphasised in the films. There's little "shoving down throats" and "religious propaganda" in the books, as others suggest. Rather, the Narnia series is telling the story of christianity from an entirely different perspective (in an imaginary world), where the "stained glass images are removed" (as Lewis put it), and the beautiful story, the warmth, the miracles, the courage, love, hope and faith remain.
Tolkien & Lewis
Someone wrote that apart from Tolkien an Lewis being friends, and the stories happening in imaginary worlds, there's barely a comparison.
I beg to differ; they were also both classisists and classically educated scholars, avid christians, and both wrote a series of fantasy novels about a fight between Good and Evil.
Tolkien and Lewis were both members of "the Inklings", a gentlemens' club of Oxford scholars.
Later on their friendship became much weaker, much to Lewis' disappointment.
Allegories
This possibly also explains about Tolkien detesting allegories:
Lewis' books were overtly allegories. Tolkien's books are also about good and evil, his story is intrinsically religious.
Lewis and Tolkien were friends. Both their books were fantasy novels, and became wildly popular.
Of course this led people to believe Tolkien's books were also allegories, and start explaining things in LotR. Tolkien hated that idea, he had meant to do no more than imply religious hints. So he avoided being seen as being close to Lewis. It was reactionarily.
Shadowlands
There's a film about Lewis' life, "Shadowlands" [hollywoodjesus.com] which is excellent. One of the best and most moving films I've ever seen. The story is told and acted beautifully. There's a lot of very subtle symbolism in the film. I recommend watching it to anyone who'd like a bit more background about C.S. Lewis' life.
The BBC films
The BBC films of some of the Narnia books were mentioned earlier here. I've also seen them and I thought they were very disappointing. Very low budget productions. Short films. Important bits left out. B-a-d special effects. And worst of all, none of the magic of the books.
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe animation film
I hope when they start filming "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe", they'll watch the American animation film that was made of that book instead. This was also a low budget production, but it was done beautifully. I must have watched it twenty or thirty times as a child. It had all the magic of the written story, and some clever visual subtleties at that. For instance, Aslan was drawn larger in each scene where he was shown, hinting to an obscure reference in the book that Lewis makes to a verse in the gospel of st. John ("He should grow, and I become smaller.") Or the lamp post with the single stick ornament, as one was torn of by Jadis in Charn.
(Although I really hope the actors will be British children: American kids playing children in a British public school in the mid twentieth century would be so wrong!)
Seven
I really hope that they'll eventually turn all of the seven books into film. (Perhaps after the first five pay off.) I agree that some of the stories are easier to film than others, but after LotR this has ceased to be a valid argument. I remember when in the previous millenium I sometimes asked why a film was never made of LotR, people would always say it was much too long and complex a story to film..