Sure, The Parents Will Want To Go...

The Hindustan Times, quoting a report in The Telegraph, has published the results of a survey of kids' reading habits. The books that children most frequently recommend to adults are the Harry Potter series. The books that adults most frequently recommend to children? The Narnia series.
Hmmm... I wonder if this might be a case of "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink." Will Narnia be just too unsophisticated for today's children?

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Hindustan Times, 23.02.05

Hasbro Narnia Toys

One of the figures...

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M&C Movies, 23.02.05

Screen Captures from Narnia Promo

And there's more where that came from! Check 'em out while you can. Who knows how long they'll stay there...

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NarniaWeb, 22.02.01

Narnia Promo #2 From Walden/Disney

NarniaWeb has hosted the second promotional featurette released by Walden Media. This one focuses on director Andrew Adamson—but as we get further along in the production cycle, the featurettes include more and more snippets of real bits from sets and on-location shooting! There's even a transcript available...

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NarniaWeb, 22.02.05

Mr. Beaver & Loss of Humanity

Brian Melton, over at ChronWatch, has used Mr. Beaver's comments about humans in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe as a jumping-off point about the 20th Century's effect on humanity.

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ChronWatch, 20.02.05

New York Times on Narnia

"As the residents of Narnia like to whisper, 'Aslan is on the move.' And so he is. But for the moment, Walt Disney Pictures has him on a very short leash.
"Aslan, a talking lion with mystical powers, is the central figure in The Chronicles of Narnia, the much-beloved seven-volume series of fantasy novels written by the British academic C. S. Lewis in the 1950's. By the year's end, if Disney marketers have their way, he will have joined Mickey Mouse, Pinocchio and Buzz Lightyear in a long line of characters that have periodically provided the Burbank giant with entertainment's most valuable asset, a new fantasy to trade on..."

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The New York Times, 20.02.05

Narnia as Evangelism

"CEA has formulated a new mission strategy for 2005 which focuses on introducing Christian faith through contemporary culture. The first project entitled Evangelising Contemporary Spirituality, is based on making connections with modern spiritual concerns. Three books dealing with subjects such as angels and nature will be released at Easter.
"The second project is tailor-made for people who are interested in visiting historic churches, through the material provided by the CEA, people can come to know Jesus.
"A third project is based around the release of the film The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe at Christmas..."

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Christian Today, 19.02.05

The Place to Be This November

This November's conference, "'Past Watchful Dragons': Fantasy and Faith in the World of C.S. Lewis," November 3-5, 2005, at Belmont University in Nashville is shaping up to be the premier Narnia-related function just prior to the December release of Disney's live-action film. In addition to keynote speaker Douglas Gresham, Narnia author C.S. Lewis' stepson, the conference has just added Nashville Symphony's performance of Howard Shore's The Lord of the Rings Symphony.

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TheOneRing.net, 19.02.05

What's Behind Walden Media

In a nominal review of Walden Media's Because of Winn-Dixie, which opens today, Kathleen Parker of the online Journal-Gazette discusses “Christian billionaire Phil Anschutz” and the significance of the counter-cultural movement she sees taking place. Walden Media—and Anschutz, of course—are also behind the upcoming Narnia films.

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Journal-Gazette, 18.02.05

Nice Piece on Brian Cox

"During October, the actor flew across the Atlantic six times and the Pacific twice. Clearly, this is a man who doesn’t do restful.
"So, is he trying to find himself through this blur of activity? Not according to him. 'I don’t think I’m unresolved. I think I’m a quester. Life is about a journey; I don’t think it’s about standing back. I envy friends of mine who have retired, and they’re living in the south of France and their day is spent in a wonderful Zen-like way.'"

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Scotsman.com, 16.02.05

Photography Wraps -- Again!

Okay—there's really no story here, but I feel compelled to pass along the news anyway. Principal photography has wrapped—again. So no more blurry photos from the Czech Republic, I guess... But since every major fansite is running the story, I guess we will, too.

The real story appears to be that the "official" site is simply so poorly updated that they are only now getting around to running last December's press release. I mean, really—the main page at narnia.com is still running a press release from last June as the main "news"!

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Narnia.com, 15.02.05

The Selling of Narnia Begins

My colleague Andrew Coffin at World Magazine has published an article regarding Disney's marketing of the upcoming Walden Media production of the Narnia series. Mr. Coffin says that the marketing campaign, like Mel Gibson's for The Passion, is aimed at keeping the religious community on the studio's side. Andrew and other religious press members met recently with Disney execs in Burbank.

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World Magazine, 08.02.05

Tilda Swinton Interview

Dark Horizon's has run an interview-based piece on Tilda Swinton regarding the upcoming film Constantine. The interview contains the following snippet about the Narnia project. Follow the link for the whole article...
"Swinton is equally excited about her participation in Disney's The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. The actress spent 5 months in New Zealand shooting the film 'and had a fantastic time.' Swinton says she is genuinely convinced that fans of the classic books won't be disappointed in this big-budget screen adaptation. 'I'm really convinced that it will be exactly what it should be, which is a classical, very cinematic adaptation of that book. It's got a really 3D Technicolor, Wizard of Oz feel about it and one of the things that I think is very radical about what Andrew's done, is he is not interested in special effects anymore so everything's real, so you have real creatures. In other words, you don't have, as in Lord of the Rings, 500 extras that are doubled up to make 7,000. but actually have all of those people in all of those suits, being all of those mythical creatures.' Swinton says 'it was really good fun, and I really, really love New Zealand.'"

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Dark Horizons, 07.02.05

Interview with Narnia Screenwriters

Shanon Ingles at Recharge Magazine sat down with screenwriters Christopher Markus and Steven McFeely in Austin, Texas last October to talk about their experience working on the upcoming Narnia movie. The material is obviously not freshly minted, but the interview was just recently run by Recharge online.

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Recharge Magazine, 01.02.05

What's Up in the Czech Republic

A Czech website is offering some further "news" about what's going on with Narnia filming in that neck of the woods. I must say that the site's coverage seems almost like a parody of Hollywood "insider" coverage, but this may work for some folks (though it doesn't for me). Have fun if this is your kind of thing!

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Ustecky Tydenik, 07.02.05

Disney's Sneak Peek at Narnia

Disney's online website features their own in-house promo piece on the Narnia flicks—and it's kind of cool 'cause they include some concept art images that you won't find on other sites that more-or-less just copy the text from the Disney press releases. I've linked to one of the images below.


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Disney Online, 03.02.05

Disney's Weta Promo for Narnia

This has shown up in other places online previously, but I finally found the link to the official Disney version. It's a promo piece Disney put together for trade shows, and features Weta Workshop's Richard Taylor, who talks about the work the New Zealand special effects hous has been doing for The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
You'll need the current version of Flash player to view it... But the link to download the current version will automatically popup when you try to load the Disney site.

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Disney Online, 03.02.05