The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
 

I loved this series when I was a kid...I really need to reread the books. Hopefully the movie(s) will do them justice...

Wow...Very Cool.

Amazing, amazing books. I try to reread them every few years, they're still that good, even now.

Let the Christian symbolism commence. Tolkein went out of his way to make it very cleat that LotR was in no way a religious allergory whereas Lewis was almost the exact opposite. It is a long time since I have read the books but it will be interesting to see how they deal with some of the slightly more 'contentious' issues that can be seen in the books.

Yeah Matt, that's what I wonder too. The books are so full of Christian symbolism, I'm not sure how that will play into the movie.

Poster looks promising. Books were great. If they are even close to the quality of the LOTR flicks, we should be in good shape.

If they simply stay true to the story line, then it will have to be there. It's not like we're talking about books that people have construed to portray Christ after the fact; Lewis himself stated that was his intent from the start, and it is all over the place.

My favorite part (paraphrased):

"Aslan is a lion. Is he safe?"

"Of COURSE he's not safe! He's a LION! But he's the king, and he's good."

Good stuff.

I can't wait to see this either. I haven't read the books in quite a long time, but CS Lewis was a huge influence on King's X (the first KX album, and first song on their second album, are both named Out of the Silent Planet), so I have more than a passing acquaintance with Lewis just through that connection with King's X.

There was supposed to be a video game based on the franchise a while back but nothing ever came of it. You could make one hell of a story-based video game with these but it would take an amazing designer.

SI

Sounds cool. I don't know why they'd get rid of the Christ imagery. If they do, why bother? It would cut too much out of it. I think it's a tribute to how great the writing is, that it can be filled with Christian symbolism, and I can still enjoy it.

Looks cool, but imho the Lords of the Ring trilogy was an abberation on the "movies based on books". Not many can pull it off, and from what I've read, a good portion of that is because a two hour movie equates to about 100 pages of a novel (not sure if it's the granny print :) ).

I loved those books as a kid. Are they still popular with today's generation of kids?

i'd really like to check this movie out. the movie poster looks awesome, so that's a start. i've read four or so of Lewis' Narnia books, but i like this one the best.

Hello?!?!?

Christian imagery is en vogue now -- it's no longer a bad thing for mass media. Look, they're selling a bazillion copies of every Left behind book as soon as the ink is semi-dry. Who's to say that overtly Christian imagery in a story like this is a detriment?

A fact which is *stunning* to me, considering how poorly written those suckers are.

Amen.

Double amen.

I guess I should be fair here. Technically, I can only say for sure that the first half of the first book was poorly written. I'm making an assumption about the rest of that book, and the series. :p

Isnt the whole problem that in the Narnia series the main characters change so much, and really the first book would be the only really solidly filmable one? Its been forever and a day since i read the series, but I could have sworn the first one was about a million times better than any of the others?

that's what i say. that's the best one of the lot if you ask me. but judging by the title of the movie, they seem to implying this is one of the movies in the Chronicles, as if we should expect more films under this umbrella. they should really stop after this one. then again, if they can make a feature length film out of the Grinch Stole Christmas, they can make a movie out of most of the "minor" books in the series.

Eurekas Castle was better.

I've read most of the Left Behind series.

It ain't Hemingway, that's for sure... but I've read worse.

The point is, there's a huge, largely untapped market there.

From Movies.com:

10/01/04
According to this set-visit report, writers have been hired to start the screenplay for the second installment of the series, Prince Caspian, though Disney will wait to see how the first film performs before officially giving it the green light. If all goes well, it looks like all seven books in the series will get the movie treatment, though some of the books could be combined into a single flick. (ComingSoon.net)

I wonder if this series wouldn't be better animated.

excepting Aslan, of course, yeah, most character don't appear in more than 1 or 2 books, and even then there's usually a time gap. But are they doing all the books anyway? I assumed it was just TLW&TW

this is probably my favorite series of books. In fact, I own two sets. But, I don't really expect much out of it. I have a hard time seeing how it would translate to the big screen without being turned into total suckage.

So which ones do you combine? Just thinking offhand, none of the first five work that way. Maybe they're thinking of the last two?

and my two favorites (The Magician's Nephew and A Horse and His Boy) really don't follow the same path/feel of, say Lion, Prince Caspian and the Dawn Treader. Both (I think) take place a good deal before the others and involve completely different characters. Silver Chair and Last Battle I don't remember well enough.

Time to visit Half Price Books, I think...

I think if you wanted to play it safe, then perhaps. But I think it could be an incredibly intersting/good live-action movie if done well.

This book was, if I remember correctly. I seem to recall watching this as a kid.

Just checked imdb.com:

Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, The (1979) (TV)

Directed by Bill Melendez Writing credits David D. Connell C.S. Lewis (book) (more)

Trivia: Was the first animated full length movie made for television. All other previous animated television specials were one hour or less.

Are you old enough (or young enough as the case may be) to remember the little books and such we were given in school to "prepare" us for the broadcast? I remember it was a real big deal.

dola: BTW, I sadly have never read any of these books (but I have read several C.S. Lewis books like Mere Christianity and The Screwtape letters).

THAT I don't remember. Then again, maybe we didn't get those books where I went to school.

I ordered the full set in shrink rap from an Amazon retailer for $8.95+shipping.

http://www.apple.com/trailers/disney...of_narnia.html

Looking like it's going to be good.

that was reportedly the author's wish. (re-ordering the series)

edit: damn timestamp bug.

Interesting thing I saw this year in a colleague's classroom. There has been some revision of Narnia. The latest versions of the collection appear to have placed "The Magician's Nephew" first, before "Lion." Because "Nephew" is really the backstory to the whole series, it seems that the latest editors have seen fit to change the order.

not bad (the clip).

http://movies.channel.aol.com/franch...f_narnia_movie

Looks great...

Loved these books as a kid. I still have the entire set too. Funny thing is, I read them before I knew what religion was. It would be interesting to read them now.

Is there another format for the trailer other than Apple Craptime?

Edit: nm, found it here: hxxp://www.scifimoviepage.com/art_narnia.html

Edit 2: nm, that's just Making Of. Still looking for something other than Craptime.

Agreed. That trailer was pretty good. I am definitely looking forward to that. It has been so long since I read the series, though. I may have to pick the books up again to catch up.

I wonder if they are just sending this out as a trial run, or if the plan is to use it to leap intot he rest of the series? It would be a shame to start the story and not finish it.

When's it comung out.

Saw the trailers while watching the second Harry Potter movie on ABC last night. Looks very good. Also, they were showing stuff about the 4th Harry Potter movie- Daniel Radcliffe still looks about the same but the other two kids look a bit different.

SI

I got to see the movie tonight at an advance screening. I would say it's "good." It's very faithful to the book, no doubt about that. I do not recall any additions or removals of significance at all. The action scenes look pretty realistic, and it's a fairly violent movie at times without ever seeing actual blood.

I just had a list of minor gripes with it that held it back from being great. I just felt the movie could have been a bit darker, in the sense of making the situations feel a little more realistically dangerous/surprising to the kids. With the overt religious symbolism, I think the movie *could* be a huge box office hit if they kind of market it at chrisitans groups as a whole (and find that it's well received).

I'll be interested to hear some more thoughts once the movie is out and others have seen it.

Well it should be at least ok. Started with the same solid foundation as all three LotR films:

New Zealand Director
Filmed in New Zealand