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."

Comments

Re:5 films?

[Aguila]

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.

I doubt we will see all seven books become films

[iiioxx]

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.

Re:Satanic!

[Bagels]

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.

BBC already made them & there's a DVD box set

[rklrkl]

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...

Re:5 movies?

[fredopalus]

"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.

Re:5 movies?

[Fuzzle]

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.

Re:5 movies?

[LDoggg_]

from : http://cslewis.drzeus.net/faq.html

What is the correct order for reading The Chronicles of Narnia? What do you recommend?

If you must read them in any certain order, there are two logical ways of numbering the Narnia books. When the American publisher Macmillan decided to put numbers on their editions they chose to use the order in which the books were originally published, i.e.:

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950)
Prince Caspian (1951)
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (1952)
The Silver Chair (1953)
The Horse and His Boy (1954)
The Magicians Nephew (1955)
The Last Battle (1956)

When Harper Collins took over the publication of the books in America, they decided to keep numbering the books, but on the recommendation of Lewis's stepson Douglas Gresham, they adopted the order that follows Narnian Chronology, i.e:

The Magicians Nephew
The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe
The Horse and His Boy
Prince Caspian
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
The Silver Chair
The Last Battle

This is also the order followed by the current British editions, published by Fontana Lions. A case can be made for both orders. Lewis himself came down in favor of the chronological order, which is why Douglas Gresham recommended it. In a letter written in 1957 to an American boy named Laurence, Lewis wrote the following:

'I think I agree with your order {i.e. chronological} for reading the books more than with your mother's. The series was not planned beforehand as she thinks. When I wrote The Lion I did not know I was going to write any more. Then I wrote P. Caspian as a sequel and still didn't think there would be any more, and when I had done The Voyage I felt quite sure it would be the last. But I found as I was wrong. So perhaps it does not matter very much in which order anyone read them. I'm not even sure that all the others were written in the same order in which they were published.'

As for my recommendation...personally, I prefer reading it in the published order, beginning with The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

Official site...

[phatsharpie]

Sorry if this is posted elsewhere, but here is the official site...

http://www.narnia.com/

Enjoy!

-B

Re:Screwtape letters

[jamesots]

I also don't think it would make a good movie. However, the Saltmine Theatre Company do a fantastic theatrical version.

Sort of ok, except the end

[whitroth]

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

Re:Sort of ok, except the end

[overunderunderdone]

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."

NO, they DO go through all this, & come back, & back into Narnia & then different kids go & come back, etc. etc. The only ones who get squished by a railroad accident are the protagonists of the last book. Which makes sense for those particular characters in that particular story since they go to heaven in Narnia which would be a bit problematic if they're in not dead back on earth.

Re:Whoops! Wrong turn down the Christian byway

[EchoMirage]

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... :-)

c. s. lewis and tolkien

[frankmu]

here's an interesting article on how the two authors and the the two sagas were intertwined.