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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."
I may be a lonely voice here, but I didn't care for Shrek in the least. Ugly art direction (it resembled nothing so much as a poorly executed video game to me) and stale, juvenile humor. Hearing that the director is doing these films doesn't exactly fill me with unbounded joy. Why not someone with a more literary bent?
Having been an Atheist since rather early in my
childhood i sure as hell dont see what
all the fuss is about.
Just because there are parallels and story
foundations/ideas borrowed/copyed dosent meen
much at all to the story..
How much Roman history have you realy learnt
from Starwars and Dune?
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It's so nifty to see all the books I read as a kid getting a second revival. Problem is, I wish kids would read these books in the first place, and discover that (gasp!) there's more to children's literature than Harry Potter.
Please help metamoderate.
Since the first movie will be "The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe" (which is the second book), they probably skipped book one, The Magician's Nephew (which was, in fact, also written after the second book).
Also, they might choose to skip The Horse and His Boy since it's just a side-story. Or maybe the last book (The Last Battle), as suggested by another poster, because that one would probably be very hard to make into a good movie.
Actually...I don't think you can explain away the Christian element in Lewis' stories (or Tolkein's, for that matter). It's not "a product of the times" nor an attempt to appease a certain audience... It is rather the point of the story, in fact. If that sort of thing turns you off, then by all means, you are invited not to watch it.
They have the torch. ILM was real good at envirnments, hardware, and explosions. WETA seems to bias in the direction of organics. Nifty turn of style and public taste.
I concur. As an avid Atheist I'm not interested in whether this movie somehow ties into Christianity. I even find some the Bible stories interesting. I'm just looking for a movie with a good story - regardless of where it originated.
I read some of these books when I was younger and thought they had a good story and plot. I wasn't concerned with the religious connotations.
Even J.R.R. had mentioned that he got some of his ideas from the King Arthur lore.
-Valiss
"Actually...I don't think you can explain away the Christian element in Lewis' stories (or Tolkein's, for that matter)."
I don't think that anything needs to be "explained away" (why should it?). People simply need to accept things as they are, and enjoy. Not everything in the world needs to be changed.
Dude, I've read the Narnia series and liked it.....but in putting LOTR and Narnia on the same level is like putting War & Peace on the same level as Tales from the Brother Grimm.
While both fantasies were written by British authors who were friends and happened to work together, that's about the end of that. Tolkien detested allegory of any kind, whereas the whole Narnia series were just that. Tolkien created a rich mythology with a deep history, whereas Lewis simply took the Christian mythos and branched out a bit. The characters are deeper in LOTR and the sheer weight of the history behind the stories by Tolkien was immense.
To sum up, one is an epic tale (or mythos), whereas the other is a children's story.
Kids *are* reading the books. There have been numerous articles in national newspapers discussing kids reading as a result of some blockbuster movie adaptation in addition to Harry Potter such as Lord of the Rings.
I think the point of the article I read in the NY Times was that pre-teens were more open to read other books at the recommendation of their parents after reading (gasp!) Harry Potter. Why knock it?
But the worst are evangelical atheists. The only motivation there is for you to be godless just like them so you won't be happier than they are.
As an atheist, I think I can say that the ones that "evangelize" are just sick of having Christianity stuffed down their throats (at least here in America).
Ironically, the word ironically is often used incorrectly.
To sum up, one is an epic tale (or mythos), whereas the other is a children's story.
I strongly disagree. I'm a fan of both LOTR (I've read it 7 times and it was my FIRST book I've read once I learned how to read), and a fan of Narnia Cronicles (which I actually have read only 3 times).
Both of them are excellent tales for children and I'm going to read them both once again. But this time aloud, for my cute little daughter when she goes to sleep.
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#\ @ ? Colonize Mars
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note to mods... making "Profit!!!" comments '+5, funny' only encourages more...
...that one would probably be very hard to make into a good movie
There's no doubt that "The Last Battle" and "The Magician's Nephew" could be challenging to represent cinematically; but I don't think anyone would disagree that the two are critical to understanding the underlying allegory.
Only my opinion, but I think "difficulty in making the film" should not be the primary criteria for deciding whether to make the film. Using the "difficulty" argument, one could easily conclude that Tolkien's trilogy should never have been made. Instead, asking one's self which of the stories are core to C.S. Lewis's message and life's philosophy may be better guides in determining which of the 7 books to pursue.
I read some of these books when I was younger and thought they had a good story and plot. I wasn't concerned with the religious connotations.
They do indeed have a nice story and plot; I thoroughly enjoyed them when I was a younger reader. However, I also re-read them as a college student--and was frankly astonished at the religious allegory my young mind didn't see the first time. 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 think that you'll find these books to have a different focus depending on your religious awareness--and if you went to the movie as an adult after only have read the books as a young child, you would be pretty appallled at the Christian overtones, even if faithfully adapted.
I think, for this reason, that these movies will not escape religious criticism as the LOTR series did. Either the director will adapt the books faithful to a young-child's perspective, heavy on the fantasy and light on the Xtian, which will piss of the Xtians and CS Lewis scholars--or the director will maintain the Xtian overlay in fact in the books, and adult viewers will wonder where all the Xtian crap came from, and wonder why their cherished childhood memories were perverted to serve some Xtian purpose.
It'll be interesting to see how this goes down--but before you say that the religious overtones are minimal, read these books again, as an adult.
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and is planning 'revised' Cristianity-free versions of the books as well
You must be kidding. They're going to write Aslan out of the series? CS Lewis didn't include this stuff in an off-handed way--Xtian elements are critical to his story-line. I sure as hell won't buy those books, even as an atheist. An author has the right to say what he intends to say, without being sterilized for later generations.
Kind of reminds me of some warnings from Bradbury, as a matter of fact. Who's next? Take the Raven from Poe? Take the Cthulhu from Lovecraft? Will Dracula be beaten by group hugs, in a "modernized" version?
I would like to see links to these rumors, actually, so I can lend my voice to the protest. Removing the Xtian elements in CS Lewis is like removing the logic from Sherlock stories.
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I read it with the Magician's Nephew preceding the Last Battle, but after all the other books. I have to say I agree with you. As a kid reading these books, finding out at last, WHY there was a lantern out in the middle of nowhere, and where the Witch came from was just.. well, magical. And since I was into astronomy as a kid I knew what Charn's red sun meant, as well. The idea of all those worlds, in all those pools... the Magician's Nephew has always been my favorite Narnia book, and reading it first destroys the magic of it, I think.
End of lesson. You may press the button.
It looks as if the blatant success of Lord of the Rings may start a trend of drawn out fantasy series being made into movies. If or not these will be successful as well remains to be seen, but I personally think that it will be hard to reproduce LOTR's phenomenon.
Narnia's story line is a lot less continuous than LOTR's, especially when you get past the fourth book.
Since they are making five films, it would almost make sense that they are doing LWW, Prince Caspian, Dawn Treader, Silver Chair, and then Last Battle. This would skip The Magician's Nephew and A Horse and His Boy, which would likely be OK. It is also unlikely that they'll make each movie 3 hours long. They may decide to release two a year.
I wonder how mutilated the stories are going to be though. Narnia's "Christian themes" are considerably stronger than LOTR's. The Last Battle especially forces a lot of things down people's throats. I wonder if things will be changed so that these themes aren't as strong.
"You spoony bard!" -Tellah
No one's stuffing Christianity down your throat, (especially here in America).
One thing you need to realize in this life is that everyone is different. You will need to grow a thicker skin if you are to avoid being offended by seeing people different than you. That some of these people advertise their differences more than others is beside the point.
A Salvation Army kettle on the street corner shoves nothing down your throat. The Mayor's Prayer Breakfast shoves nothing down your throat. An fish bumper sticker shoves nothing down your throat. Even the evangelist knocking at your door shoves nothing down your throat, because you can always say "go away" and shut the door.
You don't have the choice of living in a world where everyone believes exactly the same as you, but you do live in a world where your "throat" is your own.
Don't blame me, I didn't vote for either of them!