irateplatypus

I read these books as a kid.... I'm sure I've read the whole set through 5-6 times. Well, apparently a movie of the first book "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" is going to be made with a lot of production $$$ put into it.

Is anyone else excited by this? It's going to be produced by Walden Media and distributed by Disney... how do you think those two companies will treat the story? I'm hoping it won't purposefully be skewed towards a very young crowd. The books were certainly intended to be accessilbe to a young audience, but there are lots of philosophical and theological statements in the books that may not fit right into a traditional kids movie.

I think that kids movies these days don't give kids enough credit, or at least assume that if everything isn't on a 3rd grade level it'll be turn off for them. So, this worries me that the movies will be "dumbed down"... but I can't wait to see how it all turns out.

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If you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly, you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance for survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.

~ Winston Churchill

Speed_Gibson

Just my guess, would be delighted if I was wrong but not holding my breath - far too simplistically with most of the not very subtle references to Christianity removed or mostly downplayed that seem to be incredibly offensive in this PC/idiotic phrases era.

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wordssmith22

didn't they make some pretty low budget movies based off of the series before?

anyways, one of my favorite book series, though i've only read it once and that was in 4th grade. still, good stuff.

CinnamonGirl

I'm excited, but also kind of...nervous? I guess that's the right word... I tend to be way over-critical when my favorite books get turned into movies. Here's hoping they at least stick to the story...

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"...for though she was ordinary, she possessed health, wit, courage, charm, and cheerfulness. But because she was not beautiful, no one ever seemed to notice these other qualities, which is so often the way of the world."


"Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?"

onodrim

My thoughts exactly. But Lord of the Rings came out alright, so I'm a little more hopeful then usual.

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-Carl Sagan

seretogis

If Disney has anything to say about it, it will be ruined. The story will be dumbed-down and any semi-obvious Christian reference will be slashed to bits.

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heccubusiv

great series of books, back in Middle school i would use them for book reports because i had read all of them a couple of times and the teachers loved the series

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irateplatypus

haha, i'm just as guilty!

yeah, i'm hoping lewis' estate has a some leverage on the production. since walden media is, after all, a company that has strong ties to books... maybe they'll have respect for the source material.

without the allegorical elements included, i just don't see the story standing on its own very well. but, onodrim has given me some hope... the lord of the rings did indeed turn out better than i had thought possible.

i'm like some of you, i get defensive when movies are made of books i love... somehow i'm worried that if i see a bad movie, the books will forever be tainted in my mind. i know it shouldn't make a big difference... oh well.

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If you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly, you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance for survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.

~ Winston Churchill

crow_daw

Yeah, I know for a fact that they already made a movie version of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. But I don't know if they ever did any of the other books. It kinda sucks that they only seem to want to make THAT book into a movie. That was never even close to my favorite book. But oh well, with a big budget and all, maybe this version will be good. I'm excited to see.

And I wish that they would make it into an entire movie series, instead of just this one adaptation.

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irateplatypus

yeah, there is both a cartoon and live action version of TLtWatW out there, the live action one is more pervasive. i've also seen a live action adaptation of "the silver chair" and a movie roughly based on the second and third books combined.

they were made-for-tv episodes produced nearly 15 years ago for british television. the acting is decent, script is good... but it sufferes from a low production budget. probably as good as you're going to get with the resources they had... but stories this ambitious require much more to get it right.

check'em out... they might be on everyonce in a while, sounds like a job for tivo if i've ever heard one.

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If you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly, you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance for survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.

~ Winston Churchill

CinnamonGirl

hmmm...I was kind of hoping, since the movie title is "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe," that all the books would be made...otherwise, why put the "the chronicles" in the title? Maybe they were just being thorough...but I'd love to see The Dawn Treader or the Silver Chair in movie form.

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"...for though she was ordinary, she possessed health, wit, courage, charm, and cheerfulness. But because she was not beautiful, no one ever seemed to notice these other qualities, which is so often the way of the world."


"Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?"

diergray

I believe I read somewhere that Nicole Kidman will be in it.

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Coll Storm

I have The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe on VHS from that series. It was produced by the BBC, and to be honest with you... I hated it.

I don't know why, but it was very dull. I actually remember the cartoon version of it, and looking back it was better.

The production for the BBC version saw any creature that flew as a cartoon. Even Aslan (sp?) was disappointing to me. I'm hoping that if this new film comes to see the dawn of light, that it's done in the correct way.

hilbert25

I'm pretty sure all of the chronicles were made into a series by the BBC. I remember seeing them all on tv when I was younger. They had a kind of melancholy feeling to them and were very subdued.

gwr_gwir

I don't remember seeing all 7 of them as BBC... I know that, as said above, the first three or four were... but I'm fairly certain "The Horse and His Boy"
"The Magician's Nephew"
and "The Last Battle" haven't been made yet...

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PredeconInferno

ewwwww this automatically turns me off to this movie. I have an illogical hatred of that woman.

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CinnamonGirl

So far, imdb only has one cast member listed...Tilda Swinton as the White Witch. She looks rather White Witch-ish, imo Anyway, I guess the rumor had Kidman playing the Witch, so...nope.

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"...for though she was ordinary, she possessed health, wit, courage, charm, and cheerfulness. But because she was not beautiful, no one ever seemed to notice these other qualities, which is so often the way of the world."


"Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?"

Rubyee

I am so leary about this. They are good, classic novels that I love to read still, but it scares me to see anyone try and put them into a movie.

My main concern is the CG- this story is definitley going to need it, and CG can either make or break a movie.

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minusthesoul

Im pretty worried about this and His Dark Materials being made into movies. I think they are going to dumb down both for the young audiences even though both series have serious aspects and appeal to the older crowd as well.

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Slavakion

Isn't The Magician's Nephew the first book in the series? I know that the older editions have The LWW as 1st, but I have MN in a scholastic edition () and it has a nice big 1 on the spine. Also, it makes more sense, plotwise.

I'm hoping they don't screw it up. I recently reread them (first time since I was, like, six) and I didn't even see the Christian end coming. Then I realized why I was so confused the first time I read them.

Speed_Gibson

The story of Uncle Diggory and Aunt Polly (?? it has been at least four months since I read that last) is the earliest in the storyline as it is set in the 1880's when they first met and freed the white witch from her devasted dying world. That was book 6 if I recall correctly in the sequence of how they were written though.
My personal favourites are Voyage of the Dawn Treader (Reepicheep is such a great character), The Silver Chair, and The Last Battle.

*the above post may and probably does contain spelling or other small errors in names, etc as I do not feel pedantic enough right now to fix them via google or other means*

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Started talking to yourself I see.
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Black Adder

almostaugust

I just listened to the score for the tv series the other night at work.

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Bobaphat

I just really hope they don't ruin this series of books. I loved them as a kid and I would hate to see hollywood butcher them.

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Slavakion

Yeah, that's what I meant.

Deominous

Robbery is OK in movies.
Killing people is Ok in movies.
Having sex is OK in movies.
Rape happens in movies all the time.
Why do we get squeamish when God is mentioned?

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losthellhound

There was a television series of the Narnia stories.. They went through all the books except the first one.. The magician's nephew??

They were played on YTV. They were pretty good, campy but good

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losthellhound

This must be the same ones that I saw.. they were all british children and it had a very BBC feel to it

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"Life is possible only with illusions. And so, the question for the science of mental health must become an absolutely new and revolutionary one, yet one that reflects the essence of the human condition: On what level of illusion does one live?"
-- Ernest Becker, The Denial of Death

UyEnHeAd

Do they have a director for this movie yet? I didn't read through all the posts so i'm sorry if it was already stated.

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irateplatypus

hey, i know this thread has been idle for a while... but in the immortal words of jeffrey lebowski "some new shit has come to light man"

brian cox has been chosen to voice aslan.

aintitcoolnews.com just posted a short video of the production process here

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If you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly, you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance for survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.

~ Winston Churchill

Sue

that looks AWESOME!

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joeb1

One of my all time favorites as a child.

I wonder if Peter Jackson could do them justice?

I really have not read them in so long. Maybe it is time to revisit these classics.

Maybe get my kids interested in them. I don't know if they would have the same affect on them. As they had on me....

After all.. they do have Harry Potter now. Maybe Narnia would be boring to them now????

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Spektr

Narnia was one of my favorite series of books when I was a kid. I highly recommend the low budget BBC live action series and the cartoons, horrid acting, yet endlessly entertaining.

Homey_V

I really didnt like those books when I read them, so I doubt I'll enjoy any move thats an adaptation of them.

I hate veild Christian references, but that just added to my dislike, its not the sole cause of it.

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djflish

I never read the books, but there was a BBC mini-series of them which i loved when i was a kid.
But im sure that hollywood will once again rape my childhood memories...

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gnort

The trailer has just been released.

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

All I have to say is "wow."

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onodrim

Yeah, the trailer is very promising. It seems like they're being faithful to the story which is good to see.

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"The world is so exquisite with so much love and moral depth, that there is no reason to deceive ourselves with pretty stories for which there’s little good evidence. Far better it seems to me, in our vulnerability, is to look death in the eye and to be grateful every day for the brief but magnificent opportunity that life provides"
-Carl Sagan

Spektr

I'm excited, I loved the books as a kid. But I have to say, I am skeptical about whether or not it will live up the cinematic gem that was the BBC series.

Willravel

I just watched a special on Chronicles of Narnia on encore. They stole their theme from the 'Children of Dune' miniseries that aired on the Sci Fi channel a year and a half ago. I'm still going to see the movie, but stollen scores are really distracting, espically for me. I guess John Williams was busy with Scary Potter.

genuinegirly

I'm looking forward to it! Saw a preview the other day that looked pretty appealing. I read the books when I was a kid too. When I first found out about the film, I was super skeptical. Pretty sure it will be worth it though.

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braindamage351

You can't stand stolen scores but like John Williams? *Is confused*