The Biola Media Conference was held today, April 23rd and the 90% completed trailer was previewed for the attendees. The next paragraph is a complete run-down of the trailer (with lots of spoilers) from glumPuddle whose sister attended the conference.
The trailer opens with Mrs. Macready telling the children the rules of the house “Don’t touch this, don’t go here, and above all don’t bother the professer.” Curious Lucy touches an artifact and Mrs. Macready tells her no. Throughout the trailer, the words on the screen say something to the effect of “There are many doors in this house…and many rooms….but only one…leads to another world.” We see Peter or Edmund closing their eyes and counting “1..2..3..” Lucy fingers the knob on the wardrobe. Then it begins opening. My sister said that she got chills because the sound effect for the creaking of the wardrobe door was so creepy. The door opens and a light shoots out of the wardrobe. Next is what my sister says was the highlight of the trailer: a HUGE sweeping helicopter shot of the four children walking across some kind of bridge (from the concept art that we’ve already seen with the sunset). Susan says something like “I can’t believe this” or “This is incredible.” My sister couldn’t quite remember what order the images appeared in, but here’s what she saw: Tumnus and Lucy having tea, the children bowing before Aslan (yes, you totally see him!), the Witch doing some kind of dance, a few breath-taking battle shots….and above all, the final shot of the trailer is Aslan standing on a rock and roaring. I asked her if it was a real lion, and she said that it looked real, except the face looked like it had too much expression to just be a normal lion. So, she supposes that the face was CGI.
Disney’s marketing plan is that they want to go to “every church in America.” The last shot was actually filmed less than a month ago. Apparently, they wanted the weather to be different so they had to wait. They filmed the scene where they come back through the wardrobe. When asked why the filmmakers kept Lucy’s hair brown, the answer was simply “Director’s choice”.
VirtualNarnia was also able to attend the conference. Their report at virtualnarnia.com has some very interesting notes from Rick Dempsey’s presentation. Visit the link above for their whole news story
– The voice casters have decided to go for a younger voice for Aslan than originally thought.
– The movie will reportedly be faithful to the book, largely due to the influence of Douglas Gresham, Lewis’ stepson. According to Rick Dempsey, “We cannot sneeze without Doug giving us permission.”
– There will likely be a song with lyrics in the end credits, as in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. In addition to the soundtrack CD, there will likely be a CD of music inspired by the movie.
– If the first movie does well, it is likely that Prince Caspian, Dawn Treader, and The Silver Chair will be made as well. The others, particularly The Horse and His Boy, are less certain, unless the franchise does very well, because they would be harder to adapt for the screen. But I spoke to Rick Dempsey and he said he had recently looked at The Horse and His Boy again and thought it could be made.
– The teaser trailer will be released on May 7th.
– The trailer will accompany Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith (almost certain).
– The movie will likely be rated PG or PG-13. Battle scenes will reportedly be less graphic than those in the Lord of the Rings.
