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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."
It is expected to be the first of five films based on CS Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia books, and has the potential to top The Lord of The Rings in economic spinoffs for New Zealand.
Strange, there are seven books.
Anyone have any insight into what is being combined or left out?
"If they have both, tell them we use Linux. And if they have that, tell them the computers are down." -Dave Chapelle
I think that would be a great book to make into a mini-series. If SciFi channel would do as good a job as they did with Dune it could be classic.
The simple truth is that interstellar distances will not fit into the human imagination
- Douglas Adams
It was with the Narnia Chronicles that I found my way into sci fi and fantasy reading at a very young age. As I got older my interest in sci fi lead to my playing with computers at my Dad's office. Now I'm 36 with a job I actually enjoy. Part of me wishes Peter Jackson had the time to do these movies, but I think NZ is a fantastic choice for shooting. I can't wait.
this sig deleted by another sig
oh yes, of course..
.Au had of droped Capital gains tax when Slicon Vally was loking at moving years ago the IT industry out hear :0
:)
hehehe..
oh dear, i feal like a child in a candyshop
with all these movies being made..
LoTR, Hulk, Spider man, Xman, Narnia(opps put a d in there, man cant even rembere the name right)
These Tax brakes offerd by the NZ goverment seem
to be paying off, if only the
could of done with the bost
"They've been looking for forests, for coastal scenes for alpine plateaus and for English countryside."
Its a damm shame so little English countryside
is left in England
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These were great books and I still have the set at my parents house somewhere.
It seems like they would be aimed towards kids movies like Harry Potter vs how LOTR was aimed at adults more than children.
There are some cheesy versions of the movies floating around at your local blockbuster.
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The Chronicles of Prydain (by Llyod Alexander), while not as well known as the Chronicles of Narnia, is a beautiful series which has captured my heart and my fantasies during my younger days. It seems dissapointing that it has not even gotten a small fraction of the recognition that the Chronicles of Narnia has, with only a long forgotten Disney movie "The Black Cauldron" (also made into a Sierra adventure game) to show. It's the perfect fantasy series suitable even for young children, and I found it a way more fulfilling read even than the Harry Potter series. Try to find the series of 5 books... if you can. It would be well worthwhile.
Would much rather see a movie somehow based on the Screwtape letters.
*THAT* would be worthwhile.
Cool! This is good news. As a fan of C. S. Lewis' work generally and also the Narnia chronicles specifically, I think this will give these books the same rich setting enjoyed by LOTR. Tolkien and Lewis did weave much of the same setting into their books. As I was watching LOTR:ROTK last night (what an **awesome** movie) I did think to myself several times, "Wow, if they can make LOTR look this beautiful, the Narnia chronicles could be made just as beautiful."
This is also good news because it means the movies are finally taking shape. They were announced almost two years ago, but there hasn't been much word on them since.
This will, of course, lend to one major disclaimer for all Tolkien and LOTR fans who haven't read the Narnia chronicles: the movies will seem similar in setting, goal, and underlying theme. That having been said, they're drastically different stories. While there will be numerous similarities (which ignorant reviewers will peck at Narnia for, unfortunately) Tolkien was setting out to tell a story, create a world, and totally immerse the reader in Middle Earth. Lewis had more apologetic aims with his books, and this is by no means a secret fact. Hopefully they don't temper this angle too much with the movies. Certainly not everybody is thrilled by an underlying Christian theme, but removing it would make the story anemic.
Even so, Lewis' books are strong strong works on their own, and they deserve as rich a treatment as LOTR received. The two books/series are widely regarded as some of the best fantasy work written in the 20th century. That Lewis and Tolkien were friends sweetens the deal.
I'm looking forward to it!
I suspect (perhaps incorrectly) that the adaptation of the stories of a WWI veteran to movies in New Zealand was given the greenlight because of the success of another WWI vet (JRR Tolkien), but this brings up a question that I've had in my mind for a while "Do good allegorical stories make for good movies?"
An allegory (at least as I use the term) is a subject that is described by using another subject in it's place (sort of like an extended metaphor).
Tolkien and Lewis are on opposite sides of the fence when it comes to allegory. Tolkein despising it and Lewis making heavy use of it. On the written page, I think that the use or avoidence of allegory is fine, but I'm not sure that it works on film.
Film is just such an overwhelmingly visual medium and allegory is such an abstract tool. It may be possible to depict the Lion Aslan as an allegory of Jesus on the written page, but on film you will see such an overwhelming embodiment of "big cat" that unless there's a narrator or someone hitting you over the head with "Lion = Jesus" the allegory will just be overwhelmed.
The only example of strict allegory that I recall in a modern film was Battlefield Earth but that may be an unfair example (as there were many other reasons why that movie was so poorly received).
Of course, many people already know the allegory that Lewis used in his tales and no doubt it will be brought up again and again by movie critics and sunday school teachers before the movie debuts, but if people didn't go in already having been told what to expect, would the allegory have been obvious?
Just idle wondering I suppose...
Just a quick aside here...
Don't hate people for being evangelical Christians. Their motivation is to get as many people to heaven as possible. Most other religions can't claim this. How many Muslims have asked you if you've been saved, and if you'd like to be?
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.
the heavy-handed smearing of christian admonishments throughout the series largely puts me off
Don't worry, rumor has it all that stuff is being removed. It also looks like HarperCollins is spinning this as a way of exploiting the Harry Potter popularity and is planning 'revised' Cristianity-free versions of the books as well. The are also rumored to be working on followup books written in the 'Narnia' universe.
Of course this has the author spinning in his grave, and lots of protest from people who knew CS Lewis.
One person remarked that they are turning Narnia into the British 'Mickey Mouse'.
Sickening IMHO.
Granted, I haven't seen any of these in years... I was a little kid at the time... but those films were great, production values notwithstanding.
I really hope the new films do as well with the text as those did. And, as a side note, I don't remember a whole lot of heavy-handed Christian doctrine in the films... although even at that age, I could see it plainly in the books.
To understand recursion, you must first understand recursion.
I think most of us will agree that the lion's share of the success of the LOTR movies is due to Peter Jackson's talent and his obsessiveness about the books. If you look at every other swords-and-sorcerery fantasy movie ever made, they've all been pretty much disasters. "Dungeons & Dragons", anyone? "Dragonheart"? "Legend"? The studio can try to copy the success of LOTR by slavishly filming in the same locales and using the same effects shop, but it ought to be obvious that that won't be enough. Just because you put kittens in the oven, that don't make 'em biscuits.
I have to agree. Totally leaving aside the strong Christian allegory of the books, I don't have high hopes that a director of an animated movie that relied on low and/or mean-spirited humor can do these books justice? Aslan != Shrek
When we remember we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained.
Mark Twain
Their motivation is to get as many people to heaven as possible. Most other religions can't claim this.
One thing that Christianity can take credit for is its universalism - in principle at least everyone is equal in the eyes of God. Sure, there have been plenty of Christians who have failed to live up to that ideal, but at least they had the ideal, and they had it a long time before almost any other religion or culture.
How many Muslims have asked you if you've been saved, and if you'd like to be?
In fact Islam has exactly the same ideal. They got it from the Christians. As with Christianity there are Islamic groups that are not very interested in gaining converts, but there are others who are very enthusiastic about it. You will also find many who would be quite happy to send you to heaven.
But the worst are evangelical atheists.
Most atheists think that the only life you get is this one, and that if you waste it then you don't get a do-over. Their aim is to get people to live worthwhile lives instead of wasting their lives on delusions that make them feel good. Of course it might be bitter news if you thought you were going to heaven, but personally I found my conversion to atheism to be like waking up from a drugged stupor. I had never felt so alive until that moment when I recognised that life wouldn't last forever.
Absolutely,
Because even as much as I like the LoTR series, it's seems there very little on the scale of wizardry or wyrms. Sure, Gandalf and Saruman are powerful wizards, but I think there were more spells cast in the first Harry Potter movie than in the entire rings sage. Which (because I'm not trying to troll), fits with the theme of the LoTR, the lessening of magic and the coming of man.
But in terms of fantasy, I would like a bit more of the fantastic. Dragonlance would be the perfect series to move to film, as would Thomas Covenant. However, I would want to insure that the production stuck to the book as closely as possible, with maybe just a tiny bit of tweaking here and there. Please, no more Johnny Mnemonic's.
Now if we can just get someone interested in doing the Ringworld in New Zealand, I may have an excuse to go there now that the America's Cup is over in Switzerland.
Dr. Wu
"See The Glory, Of The Royal Scam"
I would much rather see Lewis's Out of the Silent Planet adapted to film. Weda could do marvelous work imagining the space voyage and the inhabitants of Lewis's Mars. The hero, Dr. Ransom, who was modelled after Tolkien himself, is much more interesting than anyone in the Narnia books, including Aslan. It would be another great role for Ian McKellan; or if you think McKellan is too old, perhaps Alan Rickman. Just my $0.02 worth.
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I find many atheist have this cloying supuriority complex. If you choose not beleive in soemthign it doesn't make you any better. Statistically devote religious people tend to be happier, live slightly longer, and have a better sense of community than others. Which is a real benifit, God or no God. Also prayer and meditation can be useful tools in treatment of certain diseases. For instance cancer patients do better if they have a positive outlook and organized religion helps provide support and a generally more positive outlook. Even if you completly ignore all the promises of this or that there is real tangible benifits to faith.
"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
I am not Christian. The Chronicles of Narnia were christian alegories. I do not like being proseletyzed by my own religion, nevermind someone elses. Yes, tolkien was a catholic, but his world was a synthesis of Finish, Norse, and Christian Mythology.
I've done peae keeping patrolling in Haiti, programmed in San Francisco before and after the boom, and travlelled to several countries. I know fantary from reality. Doesn't keep me from liking Tolkien and disliking Lewis.
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I worked at Weta Digital and its basically set up as an enormous tax dodge.
Everyone who works there is a 'contractor' ie self employed, but they treat you in every way as an employee, even paying sick leave... and engage in a 'master-servant' relationship (and do it *really* badly too (almost, but not quite, whips and chains)).
For LoTR they were counting on staff being totally keen on Tolkien and the prospect of working on such an awesome project. Thats the only thing that kept morale high. Narnia isn't going to produce *any* such incentive.
The tax-dodgeness of the outfit was actually confirmed to me, verbally, by management at the site; its how they operate profitably.
If the IRD in NZ ever finds out it'll all be over.
"I have never concealed the fact that I regarded him
[George MacDonald] as my master; indeed I fancy
I have never written a book in which I did not quote from him."
(C.S.Lewis)
when lewis carrol had doubts whether to publish the 'alice' books,
it was George MacDonald who encouraged him to do so. he came
out with some incredible fiction, among them, 'lilith' and 'phantastes'.
one could say that macdonald was to carroll as tolkein was to lewis.
madame l'engel called him the grand-father of the fantastic.
some of his descriptions make such demands upon the
imagination, that sometimes i think that 100 years later,
the technology to make a film out of the book 'LILITH'
still doesn't exist.
...was the scene in The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, where Santa Claus distributes weapons for Christmas presents, to help the war of resistance being led by the kids^Wfreedom fighters^W^Wterrorists.
Probably the most annoying part was the blatantly racist scenes of part of The Last Battle. (There's an entire Narnian race called "Darkies"? What the fuck?)
You cannot apply a technological solution to a sociological problem. (Edwards' Law)