Disney was on board next with a look at the extended edition of THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE. Producer Mark Johnson shared some of the new footage and vfx being worked on for the special DVD release. As well as promising the fans that PRINCE CASPIAN will be just as exciting as the original NARNIA adventure.
If anyone has a description of the footage, please send it to us. We know that part of it featured a very brief extended edition scene of the final battle in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, featuring new bat gargoyle-like creatures attacking.
This comes in from Latino Review:
The much awaited DVD release of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe received a warm welcome at the Disney panel. Mark Johnson, one of the award-winning producers of Narnia greeted the attendees with a preview of the 4-disc extended edition of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. In addition, he noted that the upcoming sequel, Prince Caspian, will begin principal photography in January of 2007 and that it will be bigger, badder and bolder than the first.
The first clip showed the grandson of Narnia author C.S. Lewis speaking about his grandfather and the legacy he left with his books. Additional luminaries on the DVD feature included academics as well as actors such as Ben Kingsley. Another clip featured was called, Visualizing Narnia, where the subject will be the blurring between CGI imagery and reality and its relationship to the making of Narnia.
“Everything in Narnia is magical,” Johnson said, “we’ve heard time and time again the question of how did they do that. Well, this DVD will answer those questions and much, much more.” The DVD will also include extras such as deleted scenes as well as before and after shots of scenes before the special effects were added.
During the question and answer session of the presentation, one fan asked the question of why the movie franchise was being made out of sequence with respect to the novels. Johnson said that they wanted to establish who the children were in the first movie and then proceed with the rest of the stories with the children being the main focus.
Another fan asked if all the novels will be made into movies. Johnson replied that every movie will be a challenge. He and his associates had no idea of the success that the first movie would bring. They were as surprised by it as much as anyone. He added that each succeeding movie had to be different and better the one preceding it or they would not attempt to make the movies.
Johnson concluded the presentation by saying how much he and his cast and crew appreciated everyone’s loyalty and support. Afterwards, a clip featuring the director of Narnia, Adam Adamson was played for the audience. In the video greeting, Adamson talked about the ultimate Narnia fan contest. All Narnia fans should go to the Narnia website (narnia.com) to find out more about it.
