Sunday went behind the scenes of Disney’s new movie The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.
The Narnia film is not only a risk for the Disney Corporation – which is producing it – but also for native Aucklander Andrew Adamson, the man behind Shrek and Shrek 2,
The film is his first foray into real drama and real actors.
“It is definitely kind of jumping in the deep end from that perspective and probably the thing that was the most daunting at the beginning was the children cause everything else is relatively, you know, known or predictable and I guess that’s the thing with animals and children is that they’re the least predictable,” says Adamson.
Adamson says as a director gave a lot of energy to the film and it is rewarding to have it given back by the children, “because they are just so energetic. And it ends up being the most rewarding part of the process I have to say.”
Eight-year-old Georgie Henley who plays Lucy in the film says the cast and Adamson are like peas in a pod.
“We can have a good laugh together and Andrew’s so great because he is a really sweet guy and he gets you in the mood and you can always have a good laugh with him, but then he can go really serious.”
Once again New Zealand has been rented out as a movie location and for six months Sunday was granted exclusive access to the fantasy world that Adamson was creating
“I wanted to do a film back here… I had a new child who I wanted to spend time with her grandparents,” Adamson says.
He also says the locations had a lot to do with the decision to shoot in New Zealand.
see the Behind the Scenes video here: