The Chronicles of Narnia is the same series of films based on a series of seven fantasy books written by Clive Staples Lewis. It was these stories that made the hearts of children of the 2000s beat faster. What is the story of making incredible films about a magical land?
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So, who does not know the story of the brave children of Pevensi, the Great Leo Aslan and the magical land of Narnia in the world? But as many already know, books are one thing, but their screen versions are quite another. Let's look at all the parts of the Chronicles of Narnia in order and find out how the masterpiece was created.
Background
In 1996, young producers Frank Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy applied for permission to film the first part of the then-popular Clive Staples Lewis book series “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”. However, they received a very sharp rejection, which was explained by the simple obstinacy and unwillingness of the author to see his brainchild on the big screen. It is understandable, because the cinema of that time left much to be desired. Soon, a very persistent young American screenwriter Perry Moore appeared in Lewis's life. Over the next two years, Moore negotiated with Lewis himself and his literary agent Douglas Gresh, who in 2001 signed a film adaptation of the first part of The Chronicles of Narnia with a young company Walden Media. Thus began the embodiment of a magical story into a more real form of art.
"The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe"
Now more about the films. If we want to carry out our analysis of all parts of the "Chronicles of Narnia" in order, then you need to start with the very first film. Four children go to the village. They go to a friend of the family in whose house they discover a mysterious wardrobe. Once inside, they find themselves in Narnia - a country inhabited by fantastic creatures, and magic - this is not fiction, but reality. It later turns out that Narnia is ruled by the White Witch, who turned Narnia into a land of eternal winter. Children with the help of King Aslan (Leo, the founder of Narnia), must fight with the Sorceress to destroy spells and free the inhabitants of a wonderful country.
History is silent about the number of options for the development of events that occurred to Lewis during the writing of the first part of the series. It is only known that the plot often changed, and in 1947, guided by the negative reviews of his friends, Lewis even destroyed the manuscript. Only in the early spring of 1949 was a version of the book created that suited both Lewis himself and his friends.
The prototype of little Lucy was Lewis's goddaughter - Lucy Barfield. The girl was the adopted daughter of the writer’s best friend Owen Barfield. Carol sent his godmother his manuscript for her fifteenth birthday.
The creation of the film, the original title of which is “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” (in the title of the first part of the series of films the word “wardrobe” was replaced by “magic”), was an equally difficult process, to which a team of several talented people walked for several years. The director of the picture was Andrew Adamson, who is also the producer and co-writer of the script. Prior to The Chronicles of Narnia, he directed two parts of Shrek. Adamson is known as a good specialist in special effects, which helped a lot when creating animals through computer graphics. The screenwriters of the film are the notorious Christopher Marcus, Stefan McPheeley and Anne Peacock.
To find children for the four main roles, the director looked over about 2500 records of children, Adamson met with 800 of them, admitted 400 samples, and eventually selected 120. The children selected for the main roles in the film were older than their characters: Georgie Henley was 10 years old when filming the movie (scripted by Lucy Pevensi, 8–9 years old), Peter was about 17 (William was from 15 to 18 years old), Susan was 15 (Anna was 13-17 years old at the time of filming), and Edmund was 12-13 (Scandar was shot from 11 to 14 years old, in addition, he grew by 26.5 cm at the very beginning of filming, so that his growth became strongly tlichatsya from Edmund character growth).
Initially, Michelle Pfeiffer claimed the role of the White Witch , but later the actress refused the offer. As a result, the role of the White Witch received Tilde Swinton. The actress intentionally read the book after the shooting.
The voice of the Great Leo Aslan was supposed to belong to Brian Cox, however, in the final version of the adaptation of Aslan, he is voiced by Liam Neeson.
The filming began on June 28, 2004. The first was a scene of children in a train carriage. Since this was the first day of shooting, the children were extremely insecure on the set. An interesting fact is that the replica of Scandar Keynes “Get out! I know how to board the train myself! ” was pure improvisation. Filming was carried out before June 2004, but they were "costumed": they drove and shot small episodes. Filming ended in January 2005. The scene of the battle of Edmund with the White Witch was the last footage.
Filming took place in New Zealand and the Czech Republic. On the signs in Auckland that the crew used to get to the set, Paravel was written to confuse crowds of fans eager to get on set.
The box office surpassed all expectations, reaching the mark of 720 539 572 dollars, the turnover from disk sales amounted to 442 868 636 dollars. The film "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" was the most successful both in terms of fees and the reviews of critics and viewers among all the current adaptations of the series.
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
Lucy, Susan, Edmund and
Peter Pevensi magically return to Narnia again. Compared to England, where not much time has passed, centuries have passed in Narnia. The king of the neighboring state of the Telmarines Miraz usurps power and longs to destroy the remnants of a magical land. But his nephew - the young prince Caspian - decides to help Narnia survive and find the former world. To help Caspian, the young kings and queens of Narnia gather an army of fabulous creatures - the inhabitants of Narnia. They wonder if Aslan, the founder and patron of Narnia, will come to their aid?
To determine the choice of location, Andrew Adamson (director of the film), traveled to five continents. The main places where the shooting of the second part of the famous series of novels took place were New Zealand, Czech Republic (King Miraz Castle), Slovenia (bridge over the river), Poland.
The most difficult thing was to find an actor for the role of Prince Caspian, who, according to the scriptwriters, should be 17 years old. As a result, Adamson chose the British actor Ben Barnes, who at the time of filming was already 26 years old. In Prince Caspian, Ripichip was completely recreated using computer technology. And Cornell John (the Glenstorm centaur) was instructed to master stilt jumpers, which were later turned into horse legs. They did this using computer graphics. Make-up artist Howard Berger's team out of 50 make-up artists who have had more than 4,600 makeup sessions.
The Prague historical film studio Barrandov has become the place where the main sets of Prince Caspian were erected. An interesting fact is that the castle of Miraza, which was erected on the territory of the film studio, occupied 1858 square meters and was apparently partially based on the appearance of Pierrefonds Castle, the short one is in France. For almost 4 months, two hundred carpenters, plasterers and artists worked on the castle. In one scene, the image of the castle was enlarged 3 times using computer graphics.
The same wooden bridge, which became one of the sites of the last battle between the Telmarines and the Narnians, was erected on the Socha River (Slovenia). It was built thanks to the efforts of 20 engineers and builders. To implement the plan of the main artist Roger Ford, who designed this bridge, the engineers had to temporarily change the course of the river. And the London Underground station, from where Pevensi brings the children to Narnia, was not in London at all. Realistic subway scenery was built at the Henderson Film Studio (north of New Zealand).
One cannot but pay attention to the stunning costumes in which the characters of the film are dressed in most of Prince Caspian. A total of 70 people worked on them. It can be seen with a naked eye that the costumes from Prince Caspian are allegedly taken from the Middle Ages. Talmarin roots are rooted in pirates, which is why their vestments are so close to Spanish clothes. 1042 pieces of clothing were sewn for the main actors, and for the king of Miraz, his retinue and soldiers of the Telmarians, 3,722 pieces of clothing were made, including helmets, masks, shoes and gloves.
New Zealand designer Richard Taylor (Weta Workshop) designed 800 weapons for both troops.
The Chronicles of Narnia: Part Three
Concluding our conversation about all parts of the “Chronicles of Narnia” in order, we turn our attention to the latest film version of the saga. Filming locations are picturesque expanses of New Zealand and Australia. The original title of the book by C. S. Lewis, based on which the third part of the popular series was shot, sounds like “The Vanquisher of the Dawn, or Swimming to the End of the World”. We'll talk about the adaptation of this book.
There are some interesting facts about the latest (at the moment) film adaptation of The Chronicles of Narnia:
- 90 days - that’s how much time it took to shoot the “Vanquisher of the Dawn”.
- One of the main characters in the film was created at Cape Cleveland Point. The structure weighed 125 tons and a height of 140 feet. After the outdoor scenes were shot, she was disassembled into more than 50 elements and reassembled in the pavilion to continue shooting.
- In the film, the sea serpent is one of the creatures of the Isle of Darkness, in the book the heroes encountered it by chance before discovering the Island of Dead Water.
- The film shows how the main characters of the story are subjected to temptations that were not mentioned in the book.
- The song Instantly, which sounds in the finale of “The Vanquisher of the Dawn,” is performed by Russian singer Sergei Lazarev.
- This film received the lowest ratings from critics (from the entire series).
Conclusion
So we looked at all the parts of the "Chronicles of Narnia" in order. I want to believe that very soon we will be able to contemplate the exciting new adventures of the Pevensi children on the big screen. The fourth part of the series, the film "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Silver Throne," is currently under development.