Originally scheduled to begin filming in October of this year, filming was pushed into early 2009, for a January start date. Now, it appears that date will also be missed, as filming looks to be starting in April of 2009.
Ben Barnes Online has a forum post by member “Kim” that was at the Prince Caspian panel at the London Expo.
We managed to get front row seats for the Heroes Panel which was immediately before the Prince Caspian one. I’m afraid I was completely oblivious to the whole thing & I could not tell you one thing that was said! I was feeling very tearful & absorbed in my memories of Ben & the anticipation of seeing him again! When Ben came on we were to the left hand side of him – what an exquisite view that was – couldn’t keep my eyes off of the man! Ben was his usual scintillating, effortlessly sexy self! Warwick acted as compère, asking Ben and the other guy who played the lead-centaur questions and discussing their experiences of the filming. Cat was brave enough to ask Ben a question, though I can’t remember what it was (sorry Cat). I remember someone asking Ben a rather enigmatic question about how he got on with the women in the Narnia crew – Ben answered that there were 2000 people in the crew! (I think the questioner was hinting at the famous practical joke “kiss” from the director’s assistant or maybe she was just basically wondering if every woman on the set fell hook, line & sinker for him – as one would expect). Ben mentioned the women centaurs were wearing skin-tight green lycra trousers – “I liked that” he said naughtily!!! Warwick then said: “so if you want to impress Ben, girls, get out your green lycra trousers!”. I remember another question about whether Ben was nervous when he started filming Prince Caspian – he relayed the anecdote about his introduction to the set & the filming of the first scene, where he’s falling off his horse & gets dragged through the forest. He said that the director just barked at him: “get down on the floor”! He said that if anyone were nervous for seven months they’d have an ulcer.
The Panel were discussing that the centaur-bloke had also played the wolf in the scene with the White Witch and they shared a wonderful anecdote about Ben seeing the wolf costume in the corner of the set not realising that the head was animatronic – he went up to it and had a huge fright when all of a sudden it snarled angrily at him! Warwick said that Ben let out a “squeal”! Ben butted in at this point with the classic line: “But it was a manly squeal”. Hilarious! Ben and Warwick also had some banter (a bit like he does with Colin Firth) about the fact that Warwick’s character was killed off & Warwick wondered if he could be a Dufflepud in the next film – Ben said “no” quite flatly (& sexily!). Ben said that VODT was due to start filming in April 2009 (plenty of time for him to make something else in the meantime perhaps?!) I also remember someone asking Ben about Dorian Gray – he didn’t disclose anything we don’t already know though.
My favourite bit of the panel was when Warwick showed some lovely personal never-before-seen pics of him and Ben together to the music of Michael Jackson’s “Ben” – it was so funny & Ben was hilarious – “oh god, I know this music!” he said mock-petulantly and stood up to watch it. He then did something quite breathtaking! As the screen was on the wall behind the panel’s seats, instead of straining to look at the screen as he had been doing (affording me quite wonderful views of his hair and, ahem, derrière), he got up and sashayed stunningly down the catwalk-like structure in the middle of the room and sat down in the centre of it, leaning back to watch the screen! At this point I was not watching the screen anymore – my eyes did not leave Ben for one second – I cannot tell you how extraordinarily sexy he looked sitting there giggling and scoffing at Warwick’s distorted pics! No doubt Andrea will have taken lots and lots of pics of this – it was a photo opportunity to die for!
Referring to the picture of Prince Caspian & Nikabrik running through the forest fleeing the Telmarines, Ben explained how there were actually no ferns in that particular wood – they had all been placed there in pots by the set-gardeners; as the scene involves them dashing swiftly through these ferns, they both ended up falling flat on their faces many times! Ben said Warwick fell over 2000 times! Warwick responded to this by saying that Ben fell over less than him but Ben’s falls were more spectacular & embarrassing – actually he said Ben “fell on his arse” – at which point Ben said: “go on, say ‘arse’ again”! Apparently footage of Ben & Warwick falling over the fern plants is a treat we can look forward to on the DVD bloopers!!! Yay!
The Panel ended with a competition to win a DVD of Prince Caspian – but it wouldn’t be able to be sent to the winner until November 17th!!! Warwick’s idea of having a game of “Aslan says” (sort of like “Simon says” – the rules just went completely over my head – I was concentrating on Ben) failed miserably – when everyone was supposed to stand up and a lot didn’t, Ben laughed and said: “you just couldn’t be bothered!” Ben was chuffed because he came up with a better idea for awarding the DVD by asking the question relating to the names of Reepicheep’s companions.