I managed to see a preview of Prince Caspian at the movies on Friday May 9, as a member of the press. Having read the Narnia books as a young boy, I was reasonably familiar with the story and expected a swash-buckling effects-laden experience. I was not disappointed. Here’s the trailer.
Filming was shot by NZ director/producer Andrew Adamson, whose earlier work includes Shrek I, 2 and 3, and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Familiar NZ scenes for me were the Dart River near Glenorchy (I spent a week walking through there in 1991) and Cathedral Cove on the Coromandel Peninsula (I spent Christmas there in 1982). Studio shots were filmed in Barrandov Studios, Prague, Czech Republic. Other scenes were filmed in Slovenia and Poland.
As Trumpkin says, “You may find Narnia a more savage place than you remember”. Adamson takes the stories of battle hinted at by C.S. Lewis and brings them to the foreground. People and creatures die, though without any clear bloodshed. This is a family movie after all. A whole new sequence is added to the plot - the storming of the Telmarine castle. Battle scenes are provided with elaborate plot twists.
In the book the Pevensies (Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy) connect up with the Narnians towards the end. For the sake of dramatic interplay between the characters (including tension between Peter and Caspian) that meeting is introduced much earlier.
Adamson brings the story into the 21st century with an alternative to the C.S. Lewis sheltering of the female gender. Susan is clearly engaged in battle in the movie and enjoys a romantic attraction to Caspian. “It would never have worked out”, she says.
There are subtle flavours added by the casting team. Caspian, Miraz and the other Telmarines speak with Hispanic accents, a reference to their pirate origins. The centaurs appear to have an African origin. It makes good sense in terms of increasing the ethnic spread of the audience, but runs the risk of perpetuating the English jingoism that formed the backdrop of C.S. Lewis’ world.
My favourite character would have to be Trumpkin, played by Peter Dinklage. This dwarf has a deeply cynical, humorous and yet reflective character that appears to have been developed through years of patient long suffering.
The theology of this C.S. Lewis novel is subtle, with hints of questions relating to the absence and invisible nature of Jesus. Why can some see him and others not? Would the plot have been different if Lucy and her siblings had responded to Aslan’s guidance earlier? Aslan twice reminds Lucy that things don’t happen the same way twice, once in a dream sequence and once in waking mode. Was that a glitch in the script or an example of dramatic irony?
Be prepared for a long movie with stunning cinematography, simmering effects and a storyline that will keep you guessing.
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, will be released in cinemas nationally in Australia on June 5. Heritage HM will also be delivering a range of resources to churches and schools Australia wide. For details contact 07 5445 6865 or email info at astounded.tv.
I’ve just heard (via Stephen at Prodigal Kiwi) that Mike Riddell’s 1997 book, The Insatiable Moon, is being developed as a feature film. In fact the film proposal is being taken to Cannes Film Festival this week.
The book (and now screen play) focuses on Arthur, a Maori man who is known to the residents of Ponsonby, Auckland, New Zealand, as the self-proclaimed second son of God. Arthur has a mission, which includes finding the Queen of Heaven (who turns out to be Margaret of Pakuranga). He interacts with the local vicar, a few homeless people and people living in the boarding houses of Ponsonby, to challenge the status quo of respectable society.
Mike, when he wrote the novel, was lecturer at the Baptist College of New Zealand in Auckland, a role he’d taken on after years pastoring at Ponsonby Baptist. Mike resigned and moved to Dunedin, knowing that many Baptists would have trouble with the gloriously graphic sex scene in the novel, let alone the ‘blasphemous’ exploration of a psychiatric patient’s claims to be the second son of God.
Arthur will be played by Rawiri Paratene , known around the world for his role as Koro in Whale Rider. I remember Rawiri’s poetry performances (with jazz pianist Mike Nock) from his time in Dunedin when he was Robert Burns Fellow at Otago University. Rawiri is likely to be joined by Timothy Spall, James Nesbitt and John Rhys-Davies.
Film director and photographer Peter Rodger is working with composer Alexander van Bubenheim to shoot Oh My God, a film set in over 22 countries, exploring the different ideas and thoughts people from around the world have on God. Rodger is treating the film as a work in progress and has released a four minute trailer based on filming already done in India, Kenya, Israel, Palestinian territories, Morocco and the United States of America.
Peter explains some of the background to the Oh My God project.
“We are experiencing days of religious turmoil, of fundamentalism, fanaticism and the breakdown of spirituality through technology and reason. After the collapse of the piety that was rooted in myth, cult, occult, ancient myths and religions, I ask the question, “What is God?” It’s not so much “Who is God”, but “What” is God?”
“I want this question to be answered from the mouths of many different people - from religious leaders to a peasant child; from an industrialist to a fisherman off the coast of India; from a Hollywood celebrity to a Maasai Warrior.”
Peter says that many of his subjects were stimulated by the question, “What is God?” to start thinking, in some cases coming back to ask for a second interview to express new insights.
The trailer is available to download in HD Quicktime,
