spikefan777

oooooooooo cool! I read all the books and they were pretty good.

Cold-Blooded Piece of Toast

The first book is 'The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.' The 'Magician's Nephew' is about events *before* the first book but it's not the first in the series. I've read them a dozen times or more. I'm such a nerd.

I remember watching the movies. I think they were made-for-tv or straight to video stuff.

I heard about this about two months ago from a classmate but hadn't heard much else.

Gabrielle

Suga*Babe

In the set that I have 'The Magicians Nephew' is numbered number one and it's first in the all-in-one book I have as well. Weird. If it wasn't published first, when was it published?

m&m fkan

I saw that on the site...

Claudia

shrrshrr

Uh...well, then the site might be wrong?

See - The Magician's Nephew was started before The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe, but not completed until long afterward. So yes, technically it was done afterwards, but the idea for it came first, and was conceived by C. S. Lewis as the beginning of the series from the very beginning.

At least, that's what I found out years ago when I was looking into the books.

And I have to say that I never thought the books were religious in content, even though I knew they were. That is, when I first read them as a child I had no idea there were religious overtones, then I found out as a late teen that there were, and I stopped re-reading them. However, when I recently came back to reading them again I didn't find that the content had very much overt religion - quite the opposite - so I wound up kicking myself for not having re-read them for all these years.

Makes sense?

Tinka

I loved the BBC one.

m&m fkan

Yeah...that's how it is on the site.


Claudia

shrrshrr

Ah, okay - good.

Thanks, Claudia.

ETA - by the way, I've always thought that "Claudia" was one of the coolest names out there, and that's because I knew this incredible sophisticate (for a pre-teen) back when I was just a wee thing. She had long fingernails, which I'd never seen before (and which caused me to have a nightmare about vampires), and she knew the best urban myths and ghost stories.

AliasUnknown

I love the books. I just hope they don't ruin it. That would suck!

m&m fkan

I used to hate my name...Now I love it.



Claudia

mh67511

They finished filming in December and I believe this movie will be released next December (2005)! I don't want to wait that long!

Here are some links, some have pictures and mild spoilers:

http://www.apple.com/trailers/disney...of_narnia.html (mild spoilers; just a video of how they made some of the characters)

http://media.filmforce.ign.com/media...54/imgs_1.html (four images from a set visit)

http://www.narniaweb.com/news.asp?id=158&dl=1688230 (pictures of the four kids)

http://www.narniaweb.com/img/news23_2.jpg (a picture of the theater display which is pretty awesome if you ask me!)

http://www.narniaweb.com/ (all the up to date information)

mh67511

From http://www.narniaweb.com/content.asp?id=2

Who is behind this production?
This film is being produced by Walden Media (Holes, Ghosts of the Abyss, Around The World In 80 Days) and distributed and co-financed by Walt Disney Studios. The production company is Frozen Lake Productions. The film has a reported $100 million budget ($170NZ) although Disney has not released the actual numbers that it is paying for this film. Andrew Adamson, co-director of Shrek and Shrek 2 will be directing. The script is written by Ann Peacock with assistance from Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely. Peter Jackson's WETA Workshops has signed on to build much of the set. Computer graphics will be handled by Rhythm & Hues and Sony Imageworks. The score will be composed by the prolific Harry Gregson-Williams.

Is this going to be a secularized Hollywood version or will C.S. Lewis’ Christian themes stay intact?
It’s no secret that C.S. Lewis was an outspoken Christian and his faith was woven throughout everything he wrote. Narnia is no exception and much of the stories are allegorical in nature. Will Hollywood have its way and strip out Lewis’ spiritual messages? Not so, promises Douglas Gresham, co-producer and stepson of Lewis himself. A committed Christian, Gresham has vowed not to “change the words of the master.” Indeed, Walden Media itself has a track record of family-friendly films so it seems that the film will be in good hands. Many are concerned that Disney's influence will water down the Christian themes which run through the Narnia stories, but it's important to remember that Walden Media is ultimately in charge of the film, not Disney.

When will The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe be released?
The movie is scheduled for a December 2005 release date. Filming is taking place now in New Zealand and toward the end of the year the production will do some filming in the Czech Republic and London. That leaves one year for post-production, marketing, and, one would assume, work to begin on the the next film, probably Prince Caspian. We are getting some reports on the international release dates so here is a tentative list of the dates we have received:
- USA 9 December 2005
- France 14 December 2005
- Switzerland 14 December 2005 (French speaking region)
- Switzerland 15 December 2005 (German speaking region)
- Switzerland 23 December 2005 (Italian speaking region)
- Germany 22 December 2005
- United Kingdom 23 December 2005
- Belgium - 21 December 2005
- Holland - 22 December 2005

Will all the Narnia stories be produced or just the first?
There are plenty of rumors that the series will be shortened to five, but these are just rumors. Walden has never said there were just five movies planned, and in the end the number of films produced will depend almost entirely on how well they do. Walden has optioned the entire seven-part series for film development.

I heard that the name was being changed to The Hundred Years Winter. Is that true?
Goodness no! The Hundred Years Winter is the codename for the movie. It's a common Hollywood ploy to escape the attention of the crazed fans (like us) in the early stages of production. The film will be released under the full name The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. The filming name has actually been changed to "Paravel".

How can I get involved with this production?
We receive a lot of requests from Narnia-lovers who want to act in the film, be an extra, or just fetch water for Andrew Adamson. We do not have any current contact information for the adult casting director (in fact it is rumored there won't be one) or other crew members at this time, so don't bother sending email about it. Stay tuned and you'll be the first to know if we find anything out.

GACT16

I love the BBC version.
But those kids look too young I thought they were teens in the books. I hope they stay true to the books, becuase they are some of my favs.

Lorna

I adore the books, and the BBC TV series that was made in the 80's. I really hope the makers of the film stay as true to the book as they can. I would hate for them to play around with the plot and the essence of the story just to get bums on seats at the theatres.

This makes me feel better about it though hopefully it'll mean most of the religious undertones will stay in

I'm glad to see that WETA are in charge of the special effects as well, they did such an amazing job on LoTR

*Ryan*

That's not right. The series was originally written in this order:

1 - The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
2 - Prince Caspian
3 - The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
4 - The Silver Chair
5 - The Horse and His Boy
6 - The Magician's Nephew
7 - The Last Battle

The Magician's Nephew was conceived by Lewis only after the success of the earlier books, to respond in a way to fans, to explain how Narnia was created. It wasn't first. Only recent publications of the series have printed it in this different order. This chronological order goes 6, 1, 5, 2, 3, 4, 7. I have read the series in both ways, but The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe has always been "first" in my mind. It is the most fitting introduction of Narnia, and reading 6 before 1 will spoil some of the magic of 1, such as learning who the professor really is.

That said, I love these books. I saw the animated movie of the first book years ago, but that's not where the real magic is at. In the late 80s, the BBC made a TV series out of the first four books, and edited them into three movies.

The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe
Prince Caspian and the Voyage of the Dawn Treader
The Silver Chair

They are out on DVD, and are well worth it for the Narnia fan. The White Witch overacts horribly, production values are low, and special effects are pretty bad, but still, there's something about the gritty tone of these movies that really work for it, especially in the darker parts of The Silver Chair, and the last parts of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (Caspian and Dawn Treader have been combined into one full-length feature). It really is too bad that they didn't get to make the last three. Hopefully these new movies will be a success and we'll get to see all seven fully realized.