Saturday May 14, 2005
The Chronicles of Narnia – Coming near ya
Two years in the planning and nearly 18 months in production, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is a film surrounded by dizzying facts and figures long before its scheduled release this December.
Whether it’s the 1,350 weapons created; the 2,000 plus children
auditioned for the four key roles; or the more than 1,000
computer-generated images required to produce the minotaurs, centaurs,
cyclops, and other unusual animals that inhabit the world of Narnia,
everything about the film is big and ambitious.
Yet, as director Andrew Adamson points out, at the heart of this
outsized endeavour is the simple desire to put up on screen one of the
most beloved children's books of all time. “C.S. Lewis’s stories of
Narnia stand on their own,” says New Zealander Adamson, who is making
his live-action debut with The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe after finding success with the Shrek franchise. “They are classic stories in the true sense of the word.”
|
Edmund (Skandar Keynes) in a scene from The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. |
The seven-volume series has sold more than 85 million books in 29
different languages over the last 50 years, making it second only to
the Harry Potter books. Not that Adamson seems to daunted by such
statistics. While shooting at the New Zealand sets, the amiable
director said, “This movie isn't aimed at anyone as far as I'm
concerned. I think I'm making the movie for myself, because ultimately
I think that's all you can do. You can only really appeal to your own
instincts.”
Adamson has been a fan of C.S. Lewis’s books most of his life. “I read
the whole series of Narnia books when I was between eight and 10 years
old. And it was as if I lived in that world, the magical world of
Narnia. And it expanded my imagination.”
Producer Mark Johnson (Rain Man) explains that after
Adamson came in for an initial meeting about directing the film, he
followed up with a 20-page memorandum outlining his vision. “It was
incredible in every way. He really is the artistic and spiritual leader
of this film.”
“I thought, yes, what a wonderful thing to put the Narnia books on film, starting with The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,”
Adamson says, “but the interesting thing was that when I went back to
read the books as an adult, I was surprised at how little was actually
in the books in terms of detail and character. So the film was an
opportunity to fill in some details, to expand on the original book,
and I liked that possibility and that challenge.”
One of the filmmakers’ first tasks was casting for the movie. The story
centres on Jadis, the wicked White Witch, who has cast a frozen spell
over the world of Narnia and will become the land's eternal ruler
unless four children – Lucy, Edmund, Susan and Peter – can stop her.
The power of the story clearly depends on the ability of the White
Witch to terrify and the degree to which we care about the fate of the
four helpless children.
For the role of the White Witch, Adamson turned to British actress
Tilda Swinton. Swinton is an angular beauty who has rarely dipped her
toe in the Hollywood’s waters (except in small roles in Vanilla Sky and Adaptation), but she says she saw herself as a natural for her role.
“I'm very tall, very white and very, very evil,” laughs the 5'11”
actress. “I'm going to have children backing away from me for the rest
of my life!”
Adds Adamson: “It is funny, because whenever you tell people that Tilda
Swinton plays the White Witch, people just nod. I mean, she's just so
perfect.”
It took a marathon two-year search across England, stopping off at
countless schools, drama groups and youth clubs, to find the four lead
children. The final choices were newcomer Georgie Henley, nine, who
plays Lucy; Skandar Keynes, 13, as Edmund; teenage actress Anna
Popplewell , 16, as Susan, the cautious older sister; and William
Moseley, 17, as Peter, the eldest.
|
Creatures from the film. |
“I was quite intimidated by the idea of directing the children before
the first rehearsal,” Adamson admits, “but I found that the kids
actually charge you up because they have so much energy. Directing
them, it's challenging sometimes, but we have really brilliant kids. I
find that I'll get into a scene with them and they'll give back as much
or more than I'm putting in, which is really wonderful.”
As for making the transition from animation to live action, Adamson
says that has been a relatively easy switch. “To me, it's the same job,
with a different process. It’s really still working with story, working
with actors – to me the computer-generated characters in Shrek
were actors – empathising with the actors, empathising with the
characters, translating the emotions of the film into something unique.
I suppose what is a bit different is that when I'm doing animation, I'm
able to concentrate on one character at a time. and all my focus goes
to one thing at a time. With a live-action film, like here, you know
it's the four kids and adults and 150 people in rubber masks running
around in the background!”
“Personally,” laughs Tilda Swinton, “I think we're greatly privileged,
as human beings, to be working with Andrew, because we're the first
humans he's ever directed. But then, think about the creatures in the
film and the effects – which will be amazing – because he really knows
that stuff inside out.”
In fact, the human cast are complemented by such a vast number of
original and mythical characters and creatures that their creation (a
mix of live action and CGI) will add a full-year of post-production
work on top of the lengthy six-month shoot. Those characters include
Aslan the Lion (voiced by Brian Cox); the Fox (voiced by Rupert
Everett); and Mr. and Mrs. Beaver (Ray Winstone and Dawn French); and
literally dozens of others.
The team charged with bringing them to screen includes visuals effects
supervisor Dean Wright, visualist Richard Taylor (both veterans of the Lord of the Rings trilogy) and makeup artist Howard Berger.
“This is actually the largest creature show ever done in film history,” Berger explains. “It's way bigger than Lord of the Rings, which basically had two creature species, the Orcs and Goblins. Narnia has 23 individual species.”
In Auckland, and on locations throughout both the North and South islands, production designer Roger Ford (of Babe
fame) created some of the most spectacular sets ever. They include
Jadis's ice dungeon and her “great ice hall,” and the Witch's
courtyard, which took eight weeks to build, and is populated with six
dozen frozen Narnian creatures. All were hand-carved from styrofoam
moulds by a team of 10 New Zealand artists over a five-month
period.
|
Andrew Adamson talking about the film. |
“The sheer size of this movie is mind-blowing,” says
producer Mark Johnson, “and there's so much to wrap your head around.
Bear in mind that apart from what you see around you, we had a second
unit shooting in London some days, and went to the Czech Republic for a
while.”
“Just to walk on to the sets, you feel you are in the world of
Narnia,” says an enthusiastic Tilda Swinton, while young actor Skandar
Keynes says that he found it hard not to grin through a scene the first
time he was on set. “I had to try really hard not to smile because the
set is just amazing. It really is magical.”
Everyone on set was also in awe of the costumes created by Isis
Musssenden. Says Swinton, who stands more than seven feet tall when in
full White Witch gear: “My dress is made out of a substance that's a
little bit like the bottom of an amazing waterfall I saw in the middle
of New Zealand. So it's like the White Witch is made of water or ice or
smoke or something natural and she's covered in fur. And she has hair
that doesn't look like hair, it looks like it's come from the ground. I
mean, really, you just put on a costume like that, and you don't have
to act. You just become the character.”
Elsewhere on set more effort was required to get into the motion of
things. Since most of the film's non-human characters were to be
created by computer artists after the shoot was over, many cast members
had to act with imaginary characters.
Says cast member William Moseley, who plays Peter, “So much had to be
what was in our heads, though the sets were amazing, of course, and
that helped a lot.”
All in a day's work, says Adamson who worked on the first Shrek for nearly five years. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, he opines, would be best compared with a sprint, albeit “a long-distance sprint”.
“It's definitely intense. I mean, you get up and you're thinking about
the film and then you shoot all day and then you go home and think
about it some more.
“But personally I wouldn't have it any other way. I think for me, I
have to immerse myself completely in a story. I mean, I sleep – you
have to sleep – but there are nights when I dream about Narnia as well.”
Copyright © NarniaNews.Ru - Нарния по-русски! Все права защищены.
