The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (1 Viewer)

[Tim Glover]

Agreed. Wise move indeed.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

For those who, like me, thought this franchise had reached its demise: July 27, 2009 01:27 PM Eastern Daylight Time
“The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader” Begins Filming in Australia’s Gold Coast
LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--“The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader,” the third in the epic series of films based on the bestselling books by C.S. Lewis, will begin principal photography on location in Queensland, Australia, today - July 27, 2009. The production, a joint venture between Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation and Walden Media, continues the franchise which commenced with the spectacular, Oscar®-winning 2005 release, “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” and its 2008 follow-up, “Prince Caspian,” whose combined global boxoffice gross tops $1.2 billion. This time around - Edmund and Lucy Pevensie, along with their pesky cousin Eustace Scrubb - find themselves swallowed into a painting and on to a fantastic Narnian ship headed for the very edges of the world. Joining forces once again with their royal friend Prince Caspian and the warrior mouse Reepicheep, they are whisked away on a mysterious mission to the Lone Islands, and beyond. On this bewitching voyage that will test their hearts and spirits, the trio will face magical Dufflepuds, sinister slave traders, roaring dragons and enchanted merfolk. Only an entirely uncharted journey to Aslan's Country - a voyage of destiny and transformation for each of those aboard the Dawn Treader - can save Narnia, and all the astonishing creatures in it, from an unfathomable fate. Veteran filmmaker Michael Apted (the 007 epic “The World Is Not Enough,” “Gorillas in the Mist,” “Coal Miner's Daughter”) is at the helm of the new Narnia venture. Returning as the Pevensie children are Georgie Henley as Lucy and Skandar Keynes as Edmund. Ben Barnes (“Easy Virtue,” “Dorian Gray”) reprises the role of Caspian. Cousin Eustace will be played by UK native Will Poulter (“Son of Rambow”). The supporting cast includes several veterans of the Aussie film world, including Gary Sweet (“Stingers”), Bruce Spence (“Road Warrior”), Arthur Angel (“Ghost Rider”) and Kiwi native Shane Rangi, back for his third go-round in Lewis’ fantastical world (donning the guise of a Minotaur, as he did in the two previous films). And, lending his vocal talents again to the project is Academy Award® nominee Liam Neeson (“Kinsey,” “Schindler’s List”) as the all-powerful ruler of Narnia, Aslan the Lion. While relinquishing the director’s chair this time out, filmmaker Andrew Adamson (the Oscar®-winning “Shrek,” “Shrek 2”) will return as one of the film’s three producers, reteaming with his colleagues from the first two “Narnia” films -- Academy Award®-winner Mark Johnson (“Rain Man,” “Bugsy,” “The Notebook”) and Philip Steuer (“The Rookie,” “The Alamo”). Also back for another Narnian adventure are Executive Producers Perry Moore and Lewis’ stepson, Douglas Gresham. The screenplay was written by Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely (Lion, Witch & The Wardrobe and Prince Caspian) and Richard LaGravenese (The Fisher King) and Michael Petroni (The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys). Inspired by Lewis’ imaginative creations, the story's human cast will once again be complemented by a gallery of original creatures portrayed onscreen in the combined efforts of live-action and CGI animation under the supervision of visual effects supervisor Angus Bickerton (“The Da Vinci Code,” “Angels and Demons”). Oscar® winners Howard Berger and Tami Lane, back for their third “Narnia” project, will reprise their efforts on the film's prosthetic makeup effects for many of the unique characters in the story. Apted’s technical crew also includes two industry veterans with whom he has shared an ongoing collaboration -- Oscar®-nominated director of photography Dante Spinotti (“L.A. Confidential,” “The Insider”) and film editor Rick Shaine (“The Incredible Hulk,” HBO’s “Rome”). The production has also secured the talents of veteran production designer Barry Robison (“Wolverine”) and award-winning costume designer Isis Mussenden (“Shrek,” “Shrek 2”), who created the wardrobe for the previous two Narnia movies. “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader” is the third (appearing in 1952) of Lewis’ seven-book “Chronicles of Narnia” series. Published between 1950-56 and long regarded as one of literature’s most enduring and imaginative classics, Lewis’ books have sold over 100,000,000 copies in over 50 different languages, making it the second biggest book series the world over. In addition to the third novel, the Oxford scholar wrote six additional books, including “Prince Caspian” (1951), “The Silver Chair” (1953), “The Horse and His Boy” (1954), “The Magician's Nephew” (1955), “The Last Battle” (1956) and the story that launched the series in 1950, “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.” Production on “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader” will take place entirely in Queensland, Australia, primarily at the Warner Roadshow Studio facility in Gold Coast, which houses the Southern Hemisphere’s largest water tank facility, crucial to the production’s needs. Filming will conclude in November 2009, with a year-long post-production schedule leading to the film’s global release in December 2010. CONTACT INFORMATION: Contacts
Walden Media
Heather Phillips, 424-202-6614
[email protected]
or
Twentieth Century Fox
Catherine Culbert, 310-369-4988
[email protected]
or
Ernie Malik, location publicist
[email protected]
Contacts
Walden Media
Heather Phillips, 424-202-6614
[email protected]
or
Twentieth Century Fox
Catherine Culbert, 310-369-4988
[email protected]
or
Ernie Malik, location publicist
[email protected]
Permalink: http://www.businesswire.com/news/google/20090727006000/en

 

[Brandon Conway]

I've very hopeful for this film. The story is rich enough that they shouldn't have to add content like they did with Prince Caspian. The key is if the kid they cast as Eustace can pull it off.

 

[Bob_S.]

I'm assuming the 1st biggest book series is The Lord of the Rings?

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Originally Posted by Bob_S.

I'm assuming the 1st biggest book series is The Lord of the Rings?

Not even close. Even if it were a book series and not one book in three volumes, the Lord of the Rings trails the leader by a wide margin. The biggest book series in history is Harry Potter, with 400 million copies sold in 67 languages. If you count each volume of LOTR as a seperate sale, LOTR sits at around 150 million copies sold. I'm not sure where Walden gets its number two series from, since Goosebumps, the Babysitters Club, Nancy Drew and the Berenstain Bears have all sold more copies than the Chronicles of Narnia.

 

[BoyPcc]

Originally Posted by Adam Lenhardt

Not even close. Even if it were a book series and not one book in three volumes, the Lord of the Rings trails the leader by a wide margin. The biggest book series in history is Harry Potter, with 400 million copies sold in 67 languages. If you count each volume of LOTR as a seperate sale, LOTR sits at around 150 million copies sold. I'm not sure where Walden gets its number two series from, since Goosebumps, the Babysitters Club, Nancy Drew and the Berenstain Bears have all sold more copies than the Chronicles of Narnia.

Thanks for the figures. Have read the whole thread. I don`t thing the movie was bad. I really like the movie. Mummy 3 was very dump. Hope the new one do well.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

They built the entire ship on a giant gimbal:

 

[Brandon Conway]

Nice!

 

[Chris Will]

I really hope the still use Harry Gregson-Williams as the composer. I was really enjoyning his socres and themes for the Narnia world.

 

[Arild]

Originally Posted by Chris Will

I really hope the still use Harry Gregson-Williams as the composer. I was really enjoyning his socres and themes for the Narnia world.

Unfortunately no. David Arnold is the composer for 'Dawn Treader'. Nothing against Arnold, but I'd much prefer Gregson-Williams for the sake of continuity (and, yes, I too enjoyed his music in the first two films). I hope that at the very least Arnold will use his themes in the score.

 

[Brandon Conway]

Some interesting info here: http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/movies/news/2010/willdawntreaderfloat.html

Two things I take from this:

1) Fox is smartly involving the Christian fanbase for Dawn Treader, something Disney inexplicably neglected to do for Caspian after having done so successfully with LWW.

2) Some of these comments are extremely nitpicky. The changing of the larger/bigger/growing lines in PC were hardly the big deal the one commentator makes of it.

Regardless, it seems they've done the book justice, so with the right marketing effort things could be looking up for this one.

 

[Edwin-S]

I don't envy the people making this film. The balancing act they have to perform is nothing that I would ever want to do. On one hand, they have to avoid taking the Christianity out of the movie in order to alienating the Christian fans of the book. On the other hand, they have to avoid putting too much "Christianity" into the movie in order to avoid alienating non-Christian fans who will not take kindly to being beaten over the head with religious themes. I would not want to be the director or screenwriter on this flick. Their jobs are horrendous when it comes to this film and series.

 

[DaveF]

They also have to avoid betraying and source material and screwing up the story like they did in Prince Caspian. After PC, I'm not really looking forward to Dawn Treader.

 

[Brandon Conway]

Prince Caspian is probably the second hardest of the books to adapt, from a strict narrative stand point (The Last Battle will easily be the toughest), and probably the least interesting of the books as well. The book has so little actual conflict that I understood their reasons for adding some, or playing out a bit further the ones that were there. Some of it worked, most of it didn't, but it's still a pretty fair adaptation, IMO.

 

[Rhett_Y]

I, like others have some reservations about this film after watching PC. What a horrible movie IMHO it was.

Although I do like the stories and I do wan this to succeed. But I am very skeptical about it.

 

[Bryan Tuck]

Thanks for the link, Brandon. I actually agree with the fan who was disappointed that the scale of the battle sequences offset the balance of the story. This was my biggest issue with both Narnia films; they were entirely too epic. Narnia is not Lord of the Rings. There aren't nearly as many things going on, so when you have gigantic battles happening on that scale, the whole film tends to collapse under that weight.

However, the "Narna Summit" thing itself had me shaking my head. It's one thing to involve the fans (New Line showed the positives of this with LOTR), but it's quite another to go over the entire script with them. Every single one of them is going to have different interpretations of different parts of the material, and even if it is the fans and not the studio, that's still micro-managing the film to within an inch of its life.

And although there is obvious Christian symbolism throughout the books, Lewis was careful to point out that they were never intended as outright allegories. Not every single thing that happens in them is supposed to have a spiritual parallel.

That said, I'm sure I'll still see it; Voyage was one of my favorites of the book series, and Michael Apted is an interesting choice to direct. I also hope David Arnold makes at least some small use of Harry Gregson Williams's themes for continuity's sake (although I actually like Arnold a little better as a composer overall).

 

[Arild]

Comingsoon.net reports that Voyage of the Dawn Treader will be released in 3D.

I'm not sure I like this. I have no problem with 3D films in general, but my understanding is that this is not a 3D movie but rather a movie shot in "regular 2D" and then "converted" to 3D. If that is the case, I don't think that's what best for the movie (although it's certainly good as a marketing gimmick).

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Pretty much every movie that cost more than $30 million to make is getting the 3D treatment. Fortunately, it will also be released in 2D and that's how I intend to see it.

 

[Malcolm R]

I think studios are making a mistake in releasing so many 3D movies. It's a gimmick that will burn out quickly, as 3D films are no longer seen as special "event" releases.

 

[Arild]

Originally Posted by Malcolm R

I think studios are making a mistake in releasing so many 3D movies. It's a gimmick that will burn out quickly, as 3D films are no longer seen as special "event" releases.

It certainly doesn't help that they water it down by "converting" 2D movies into 3D movies. I haven't seen the result of this process for myself, but I can't imagine it's very good. The average movie goer won't know that the latest OMG3D!!! release isn't really 3D, and might conclude from his or her experience that 3D in general isn't that great.