Comic-Con 2007, complete with all of the exclusive news and footage descriptions – the first look any audience has received from the next exciting chapter in the fantasy adventure series!
Richard Taylor, from Weta Workshop was the first to take the stage, carrying two swords (Glenstorm and Edmund swords) – the Centaur sword was nearly as tall as him!
He introduced the panel which included Mark Johnson (producer), Howard Berger (creature effects), Isis Mussenden (costume designer) and Dean Wright (visual FX supervisor). They all flew 24 hours from across the globe to be at Comic-Con to give an enthusiastic audience their first look at the action-packed film.
Andrew Adamson (director) was then introduced via satellite with a few minor technical difficulties. A gorgeous new conceptual look at King Miraz’s castle appeared in the background (the same image graced the Narnia goody bags that were seen throughout the con). Andrew amusingly passed the time by attempting to communicate by “signing” with the audience. Once his sound was corrected he greeted the fans and asked the panel of behind-the-scenes artists “What are you doing there? We need you for shooting!”
Currently on day 106 of shooting, he said he was glad that they were able to share a little more, a little earlier in the process than their last appearance at Comic-Con in 2005 for “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.”
He discussed the difficulty in adapting Caspian vs. the first film due to its non-linear, less cinematic structure of the story. As an example, he said they’ve expanded upon Lewis’ text like “Caspian…made many sorties…” by embellishing the battles.
Andrew then announced that the audience would be seeing a pre-viz (an animated storyboard) of one of those expanded scenes – an exciting raid on Miraz’s castle. The footage is described from memory, but here are some of the highlights…
The footage starts with a gryphon flying through the air, carrying what looked like Edmund in its talons. The air is foggy, probably providing some much needed cover for this daring raid. The camera swoops dramatically, following Edmund and the gryphon as they descend into the castle walls.
The shot widens to reveal more gryphons carrying what looked like Susan, Peter and others as well. This was very cool and unique to see the characters working in tandem with the gryphons for an aerial invasion! There is a quick cut to a battle line of Narnian creatures advancing slowly on the castle – perhaps the Pevensies must get in first to neutralize Telmarine guards and allow these troops to penetrate the castle from the ground?
The gryphon carrying Edmond noiselessly approaches upon a castle turret, with Edmond slicing a Telmarine guard in mid-air. He the signals to the others using his flashlight! Another gryphon with Susan in its grip flies into the courtyard, and Susan reaches into her quiver and in a spectacular mid-flight shot sends an arrow through another Telmarine guard.
Reepicheep and his band of courageous mice enter the courtyard through a gutter.
Reepicheep takes out a Telmarine guard.
At this point, the mission is still being undertaken stealthily. The Pevensies and their cohorts have yet to alert the larger Telmarine forces to their presence.
The sequence ended with much applause from the audience. Even in its rough, conceptual form this promises to be a suspenseful and spectacular action set piece, very creative in its execution.
Andrew then took the opportunity to discuss the story and how the film is shaping up in comparison to “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.” He said that King Miraz and the Telmarines have taken over Narnia, and the Pevensies return to a much more savage place then what they remembered. The film promises to be bigger, grittier and more epic in its scope than the first film. This was reflected in the footage glimpsed from the next video – the tone is definitely darker and moodier than the first film. It really feels dangerous – like the stakes have been raised significantly for our heroes.
The next piece of footage was a behind the scenes look at the filming of “Prince Caspian,” and it included the very first looks at characters in costume and finished scenes from the movie!
It starts with behind the scenes footage of various craftsmen (Richard Taylor wielding an axe in his workshop) and a room filled with conceptual drawings of Dwarfs.
Andrew Adamson narrates the footage. Here are some of the nuggets he offered, along with descriptions of the shots in the film – like the pre-viz they came fast and furious, so here’s the best guess of everything we saw.
- “Prince Caspian” brings the four Pevensies back to the world of Narnia. Thirteen hundred years have passed and the world they knew no longer exists.
- Footage – Pevensies on the beach in their school uniforms.
- Footage – Overhead view of the Cair Paravel ruins.
- Footage – Peter sword fighting in a courtyard at night.
- The character of Caspian features into the next three stories.
- Concept art – Trufflehunter
- Concept art – Reepicheep (this garnered some hearty applause from the audience)
- In “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” the action was a button on the end of the film where in “Prince Caspian” the action is more inherent to the story. There are battles throughout the film.
- Footage – The Pevensies with Trumpkin (he looks perfect!) in a boat. Looked like they were traveling up river.
- Footage – Overview shot of a big skirmish in the Castle courtyard (very dark tone)
- Footage – Though his back is to the camera, it looks like Peter is fighting Miraz. Miraz is decked out in spectacular bronzed armor with an intimidating battle face plate.
- Andrew said he always wanted the battle to include different fighting styles for the various creatures. In “Caspian” we’re now able to see how fauns fight differently from minotaurs, and centaurs and gryphons…
- Pre-Viz Footage – a faun running along a balcony ledge, jumping from the railing to the wall and slashing through soldiers in mid-air. This gave an example of what Andrew is looking to do with various fighting styles – it was fluid, fierce and acrobatic. Very cool stuff!!
- Pre-Viz Footage – gryphons lift up Dwarfs (as though they were arming themselves with weapons!) and dive vertically down the face of a cliff.
- Footage – Pevensies climbing down a deep gorge.
- Footage – Susan fights a Telmarine with one arm, while hooking another soldier around the neck with her bow. It appears she’s become a much more accomplished warrior!
- Footage – medium shot of Miraz in full bronze battle armor. Looks awesome!!
- Footage – Peter does an impressive running horse mount,
- Footage – a column of charging Telmarines on horseback.
- Footage – a beautiful wide shot of soldiers running towards the Bridge of Beruna.
- Footage – a quick shot of an enraged Miraz without his helmet/face plate, revealing our first look at Sergio Castellitto in character.
- Footage – Peter Dinklage as Trumpkin in shackles.
- Footage – Peter fighting a creature (a hag?)
- Footage – final shot of the Pevensies in Aslan’s How, standing solemnly before the stone table.
After the footage came the big surprise of the panel – our first introduction to Caspian himself, Ben Barnes! The satellite camera pulled back to reveal Ben Barnes, who looked overjoyed (despite the fact that it was the middle of the night for Andrew and Ben!) to be a part of this special unveiling for the fans.
Richard Taylor then led a Q&A. Here are some additional bits of news and information revealed from the panel discussion.
- Dean Wright – biggest challenge is creating a performance that is emotional. He’s currently working on the gryphons for the castle raid.
- Ben Barnes – finds it challenging interacting with Reepicheep.
- Mark Johnson – as long as the fans keep embracing the films, the plan is to make all seven. They finish “Caspian” in three weeks and start shooting “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader” at the end of January/beginning of February.
- Andrew Adamson – said he couldn’t imagine not being involved in the remaining films, though this is his last turn at the director’s chair.
- Andrew Adamson – in response to a question about whether there will be a consistent look and feel throughout the films, Andrew said that they will maintain continuity by looking to the books, but bearing in mind that each of the books are completely different stories.
- Howard Berger – very excited about taking the design of two species further in particular – the Dwarfs and the Satyrs (where he was able to break the human form).
- Andrew Adamson – told a story about shooting a scene with Anna and Will where Aslan tells their characters that they won’t come back to Narnia. This was a very emotional sequence since it reflected the fact this is the last time Anna and Will be a part of the films.
- Isis Mussenden – everyone on set has formed a strong family bond especially Georgie, Skandar, Anna and Will who are brothers and sisters now.
- Dean Wright – there are two huge epic battles that he’s working on, including the castle raid, new creatures (which he couldn’t reveal), and a river god who comes to life and helps turn the table on the Telmarines.
- Richard Taylor – took his family to Prague and his son met Ben Barnes as Prince Caspian in full costume. Ben treated his son as though he were in the presence of royalty, creating a fun and wonderful illusion for him.
- Mark Johnson – it was easy to get everyone back who worked on the first film because of the great atmosphere and camaraderie. The big challenge has been that each Narnia story is vastly different from the preceding and following stories. He said that “Caspian” is darker and contains more action but is still connected thematically and though it is very much its own film, it is still very much a part “of the quilt that C.S. Lewis wove so beautifully.”
- Howard Berger – brought the head of a Satyr (named Tyrus). It looked much different than the satyrs of the first film. The horns were curvier, the face looked more animalistic and it had an “old-soul” feel to it. He did a servo demonstration, showing the remote-controlled movement of the eyebrows and mouth. Howard also mentioned that his experience this time was even more enriching because he was able to create more detail and variation within each specie. The creatures in the first film were designed with the age of 30 in mind, but for “Caspian” there will be ranges and different degrees in age, gender, body size, etc.
- Isis Mussenden & Richard Taylor – the scope is 4 times the size of “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.” 300,000 pieces of armor were created.
At this point in the presentation a Telmarine soldier took the stage in full battle armor. Isis and Richard went on to explain the look of the Telmarine. The Telmarines descended from pirates and their look was meant to reflect a barbaric race, with Mediterranean, Tibetan, first century Spanish and fourth century Greek influences.
Richard said that they built over two and a half thousand swords, but that the most beautiful piece that he constructed was Miraz’s armor. The rich bronze armor incorporates the different cultural influences mentioned above, and it is also emblazoned with pictographs of Telmarine history.
Howard Berger ended the panel with a special treat for a select few fans – he tossed two types of crew t-shirts into the crowd. One had a low-tech hand-drawn stick figure of Prince Caspian, while the other had a photo of a 70s style centaur – very funny stuff!
That’s it! The presentation revealed a lot of cool information, and definitely served to wet the appetite for more – a delicious hors d’oeuvre to hold us over for the main course next May!!