Set Report
Chapter III - The Major Players
Lounging around a waiting room chatting about movies, we were surprised by a special guest - Tilda Swinton. The beautifully voiced flame-haired British actress wandered in, rugged up in the thickest jumper I've ever seen, and chatted very casually with us for a few minutes. During the talk she revealed she only recently read the books - "I think the world is divided between those who read it and those who didn't; or had it read to them. But those were the days before Disney's marketing machine got a hold of Narnia, you see. It's not like Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings now, which are pushed down everybody's throats. In those days, people kind of discovered it. Let's hope children will still be able to discover it... It's about a children's world. Lord of the Rings isn't, really. I think the real question, and I speak as the mother of two six-year-olds, the real question is, 'What do the parents want to read?' And it's lovely to read the Narnia books to children. I'm not taken to the idea of reading The Lord of the Rings to my children. I'd be interested to know if most people discovered The Lord of the Rings by reading it themselves or whether people read it to them".
In regards to hiring Swinton, Johson says "She always seemed right because I think she has an almost otherworldly quality to her. [She's] very beautiful, but there's something just a little...[pause] and she has that alabaster skin, and profile, and all of that works just great for us". Adamson concurs with that opinion - "She has the ability to seem very cold and yet have a lot going on behind her eyes".
Unlike Tolkien's "Rings" whose books were overflowing with detail, the filmmakers had much more breathing room to interpret Lewis' work which has allowed for the story and certain sequences to be expanded upon or taken in more elaborate directions. The most notable of these is the battle sequence towards the end - a scene which compromised less than two pages of the book has been extended into a ten minute gigantic climactic fight between the forces of light and dark that will rival those in the likes of 'Rings' or more recent epics like "Kingdom of Heaven".
Having been a fan of the books as a kid, Adamson followed the story as closely as he could and used his childhood memories of how scenes played out in his head to fill in the gaps - allowing for both and accurate and yet at the same time a unique take on the material - "I'm doing it a lot based on what my memory of the book was as a child. When I read it again as an adult, I realized the book is a lot smaller than I remembered it to be. The battle is a page and a half in retrospect. I was surprised when I went back and read that, because I remembered this huge battle with all these mythological creatures. I want to present that battle. Other moments, C.S. Lewis wrote very efficiently, and he would say things like, 'I can't tell you about this, or the grown-ups won't let you read this book.' Which, when you read that as a child, you think, 'Wow, that must be bad!' In a film, you can't do that, you have to show them the bad stuff, so it's really just expanding on what I believe C.S. Lewis intended to be there, but was leaving up to our imagination".
Aside from the battle, Producer Mark Johnson elaborated on the other big expansion in the film "We're going to start this movie during World War II, so we see the bombing of London... So we get to start the movie with a big action sequence, and also, for a young audience, it tells us that there is a battle in Britain and it's true, thousands of kids were sent into the countryside while London was being bombed. And, like the battle, that's one paragraph in the book. I think we're very faithful to the book, both in spirit and the specific. And I'm very aware of it, very often you do a movie based on a book and there are loyal readers of the book who don't want you to change anything".
The most difficult sequence to shoot according to Johnson was "The interiors of the White Witch's compound. It is so hard to light, the camera man, Don McAlpine, who shot Moulin Rouge, said to me: "I have no idea how to do that," and came in over the weekend and played with fluorescent lights, and was hanging Christmas lights around the set. And then there are little things. The wolves, they look great, but Andrew's really tough, he said: "They look too happy. They look like they're having a good time." So we had to arrange it in some way so they'd look angry, teach the wolves to act".
On the flipside the most rewarding one for him was "Lucy meeting Mr. Tumnus just brings tears to my eyes, it was so sweet, there is a sense of...he's been told that humans are evil, and he all of a sudden meets this little girl, and seeing the two of them just become fast and dear friends. And I think it was the first time I sat there and really felt the potential of the movie. I always knew that it was there, but I just looked at that and thought, "This movie is going to really work".
Sequel talk was brewing even then, but the filmmakers are already planning for it - "I've heard that there is some reluctance to start the sequel until the original has proven itself to be a success. That's kind of too late for us, because it means the sequel, the earliest it could be available is two, two and a half years after the original, which I think is too late. Also, we have a problem because the kids will almost grow out of the roles. We are about to have the writers start on Prince Caspian and that's motivated by a number of things. That's the one the four kids really figure in, and they are a year older" says Johnson.
Chapter One >> The Basics
Chapter Two >> The Sets
Chapter Four >> Costumes/WETA
Chapter Five >> Visual Effects
Chapter III - The Major Players
Lounging around a waiting room chatting about movies, we were surprised by a special guest - Tilda Swinton. The beautifully voiced flame-haired British actress wandered in, rugged up in the thickest jumper I've ever seen, and chatted very casually with us for a few minutes. During the talk she revealed she only recently read the books - "I think the world is divided between those who read it and those who didn't; or had it read to them. But those were the days before Disney's marketing machine got a hold of Narnia, you see. It's not like Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings now, which are pushed down everybody's throats. In those days, people kind of discovered it. Let's hope children will still be able to discover it... It's about a children's world. Lord of the Rings isn't, really. I think the real question, and I speak as the mother of two six-year-olds, the real question is, 'What do the parents want to read?' And it's lovely to read the Narnia books to children. I'm not taken to the idea of reading The Lord of the Rings to my children. I'd be interested to know if most people discovered The Lord of the Rings by reading it themselves or whether people read it to them".
In regards to hiring Swinton, Johson says "She always seemed right because I think she has an almost otherworldly quality to her. [She's] very beautiful, but there's something just a little...[pause] and she has that alabaster skin, and profile, and all of that works just great for us". Adamson concurs with that opinion - "She has the ability to seem very cold and yet have a lot going on behind her eyes".Unlike Tolkien's "Rings" whose books were overflowing with detail, the filmmakers had much more breathing room to interpret Lewis' work which has allowed for the story and certain sequences to be expanded upon or taken in more elaborate directions. The most notable of these is the battle sequence towards the end - a scene which compromised less than two pages of the book has been extended into a ten minute gigantic climactic fight between the forces of light and dark that will rival those in the likes of 'Rings' or more recent epics like "Kingdom of Heaven".
Having been a fan of the books as a kid, Adamson followed the story as closely as he could and used his childhood memories of how scenes played out in his head to fill in the gaps - allowing for both and accurate and yet at the same time a unique take on the material - "I'm doing it a lot based on what my memory of the book was as a child. When I read it again as an adult, I realized the book is a lot smaller than I remembered it to be. The battle is a page and a half in retrospect. I was surprised when I went back and read that, because I remembered this huge battle with all these mythological creatures. I want to present that battle. Other moments, C.S. Lewis wrote very efficiently, and he would say things like, 'I can't tell you about this, or the grown-ups won't let you read this book.' Which, when you read that as a child, you think, 'Wow, that must be bad!' In a film, you can't do that, you have to show them the bad stuff, so it's really just expanding on what I believe C.S. Lewis intended to be there, but was leaving up to our imagination".
Aside from the battle, Producer Mark Johnson elaborated on the other big expansion in the film "We're going to start this movie during World War II, so we see the bombing of London... So we get to start the movie with a big action sequence, and also, for a young audience, it tells us that there is a battle in Britain and it's true, thousands of kids were sent into the countryside while London was being bombed. And, like the battle, that's one paragraph in the book. I think we're very faithful to the book, both in spirit and the specific. And I'm very aware of it, very often you do a movie based on a book and there are loyal readers of the book who don't want you to change anything".
The most difficult sequence to shoot according to Johnson was "The interiors of the White Witch's compound. It is so hard to light, the camera man, Don McAlpine, who shot Moulin Rouge, said to me: "I have no idea how to do that," and came in over the weekend and played with fluorescent lights, and was hanging Christmas lights around the set. And then there are little things. The wolves, they look great, but Andrew's really tough, he said: "They look too happy. They look like they're having a good time." So we had to arrange it in some way so they'd look angry, teach the wolves to act".
On the flipside the most rewarding one for him was "Lucy meeting Mr. Tumnus just brings tears to my eyes, it was so sweet, there is a sense of...he's been told that humans are evil, and he all of a sudden meets this little girl, and seeing the two of them just become fast and dear friends. And I think it was the first time I sat there and really felt the potential of the movie. I always knew that it was there, but I just looked at that and thought, "This movie is going to really work".Sequel talk was brewing even then, but the filmmakers are already planning for it - "I've heard that there is some reluctance to start the sequel until the original has proven itself to be a success. That's kind of too late for us, because it means the sequel, the earliest it could be available is two, two and a half years after the original, which I think is too late. Also, we have a problem because the kids will almost grow out of the roles. We are about to have the writers start on Prince Caspian and that's motivated by a number of things. That's the one the four kids really figure in, and they are a year older" says Johnson.
Chapter One >> The Basics
Chapter Two >> The Sets
Chapter Four >> Costumes/WETA
Chapter Five >> Visual Effects
