Q: At what point will the decision be made to start on the next one? Opening weekend, or even before?
MARK: You know, technically, I’ve heard that there is some reluctance to start the sequel until the original has proven itself to be a success. That’s kind of too late for us, because it means the sequel- the earliest it could be available is two, two and a half years after the original, which I think is too late. Also we have a problem because the kids will almost grow out of the roles. We are about to have the writers start on Prince Caspian and that’s motivated by a number of things. That’s the one the four kids really figure in, and they are a year older, at the opening they’re at the train station to go off to school, it’s a year later, so that we can live with. Already, I don’t know if anyone has mentioned this to you, but Georgie and Skandar, who play Lucy and Edmond, have both shot up between 3 and 5 inches since we started filming. We are shooting the movie very much in continuity, so it actually helps, they become more grown up in the coarse of this adventure.
Q: You talked about the battle scenes in the book. Are there any other elements that you’ve expanded on?
MARK: We’re going to start this movie during World War 2, so we see the bombing of London, and then we go to the Pevensie’s house, and we see them running into the bomb shelter, and then their put on the train to be sent to the country side, which is where the professor lives and the adventure begins. So we get to start the movie with a big action sequence, and also, for a young audience, it tells us that there is a battle in Britain and it’s true, thousands of kids were sent into the countryside while London was being bombed. And, like the battle, that’s one paragraph in the book.
Q: Any other things?
MARK: Those are the two big things, I’m sure there are some others; I think we’re very faithful to the book, both in spirit and the specific. And I’m very aware of it, very often you do a movie based on a book and there are loyal readers of the book who don’t want you to change anything. Years ago, I produced the natural and people were furious that we’d changed the ending, even though – who wrote it, loved it, and we have a movie out this summer in the states, the notebook, and some people are upset that we made changes to it.
Q: Is there a run time you’re aiming at?
MARK: No. Lately, a lot of kids movies have been long, 2 ½ hours. I don’t think this needs that kind of time at all. Ideally I’d like it to be a two-hour movie but it really does come down to what works for us.
Q: What was the most difficult sequence to shoot?
MARK: The interiors of the white witches compound, it is so hard to light, the camera man, Don McAlpine, who shot “Moulin Rouge,” said to me, “I have no idea how to do that,” and came in over the weekend and played with fluorescent lights, and was hanging Christmas lights around the set. And then there are little things. The wolves, they look great, but Andrew’s really tough, he said, “they look too happy. They look like they’re having a good time.” So we had to arrange it in some way so they’d look angry, teach the wolves to act”¦(laughs)
Q: What’s the most rewarding thing you’ve done?
MARK: You know, Lucy meeting Mr. Tumnus just brings tears to my eyes, it was so sweet, there’s is a sense of”¦he’s been told that humans are evil, and he all of a sudden meets this little girl, and seeing the two of them just become fast and dear friends. And I think it was the first time I sat there and really felt the potential of the movie. I always knew that it was there, but I just looked at that and thought, “This movie is going to really work.”
