Now for the thirtieth edition of the NarniaFans Mailbag! It’s good to be back, and I’m having a great time at this so far. I just need more letters. Then my esteemed team will be able to help answer questions (the earlier you ask them, the better). It gives us more time to do research and give you the best answer possible on the Thursday release date! This week’s questions cover the qualifications of Michael Apted, if there is any more Dawn Treader promotional material and scenes that a reader feels were missing from Prince Caspian.
-You_are_a_mouse
Paul: I do know a bit about Michael Apted’s previous work. Enough to know that he’ll do a great job with the film. He’s directed 67 previous titles, amounting to 100 previous projects accounting for all films and episodes of tv shows combined. This is his 101st film project. He’s got a James Bond film, episodes of Rome and Amazing Grace under his belt within the last 10 years, among other projects. He’s definitely qualified for it.
By contrast, Andrew Adamson has directed four films total. This includes Shrek, Shrek 2, and both Narnia films. He served as co-director with Vicky Jenson on Shrek, and Kelly Asbury and Conrad Vernon on Shrek 2 prior to working lead on the Narnia films. Did this make him less worthy of the Narnia films? Prior to the start of filming, I remember people were a bit concerned that the director of the Shrek films would be handling Narnia.
It’s understandable that you’re concerned for the future of the series, however, as a new director could take things into directions that you did not expect, or use a style that is so different from before, that it’s almost unrecognizable from prior films in the series.
But if you look at other film series as an example of changing directors mid-stream, you’ll see it can result in great results. Star Wars (1977) was directed by George Lucas, while directing duties for The Empire Strikes Back (1980) were handled by Irvin Kershner, and Return of the Jedi (1983) by Richard Marquand. Many feel that Empire is the greatest of the original trilogy, while I like Jedi best. Either way, it was a different director each time.
Harry Potter has been a sticky point with many fans of the franchise. I’m in the strange position of having never read the books (only listened to the book on CD for the seventh book). The first two films, like Narnia, were directed by one director. Chris Columbus created a paint-by-numbers pair of Harry Potter films, and was followed by a director that I felt was more than capable of taking over the series, and would welcome him to the Narnia series whole heartedly. Perhaps for The Horse and His Boy. Alfonso Cuarón was the director of A Little Princess, and because of that, was more than capable of handling the third Harry Potter film. The film, as I understand it, skips some of the book’s plot points that are “extremely important.” However, as someone that never read the book, I found the story lacking nothing. It was a complete movie and the first Harry Potter story that actually captured my interest. I felt that the fourth film regressed back to Columbus style drab, but the fifth film was more the style of the third.
The Lord of the Rings is another great example. Prior to the release, everyone was worried because Peter Jackson had never directed a major blockbuster. They were giving a novice director a budget of close to $300 million, and three release dates, and he was filming three movies at the same time. If the first one bombed, they still had two more films scheduled and near complete, save for pick-up shots. It was a major risk that turned into my favorite motion picture of all time (I don’t consider them as three separate films any more). Now they’re working on The Hobbit, and Guillermo del Toro is directing it. People are now saying that only Peter Jackson should.
It’s the same mentality that people have about actors. When casting the Joker for The Dark Knight, everyone was saying that Jack Nicholson could never be topped as the character. Then they cast Heath Ledger in the role, and the internet went crazy with people furious about it. People expected Ledger to be terrible in the role and were wondering why him. The answer was clearly evident as Ledger gave an Academy Award worthy performance as the Joker. Now people are saying that nobody could ever play the Joker as well as Heath Ledger. Really? If Ledger could top Nicholson, surely someone else could top Ledger.
I know this was a long and rather scatterbrained answer to the question, but I needed to put it all into perspective.
Q: Now, for a serious question–besides those two pieces of concept art I and my brother spotted in the PC extras (Magician’s house and Dawn Treader painting), are there any known verifiable movie spoilers of promo-material which have been released for The Voyage of the Dawn Treader yet?
-Lily_of_Archenland
Paul: Great question, Lily! Nope! Nothing yet. I’ve got some information that I can’t share, but that’s all it is: information. As for promotional products or images or anything, perhaps later on this summer we’ll start seeing promotional photos of actors in costumes, set pictures, and all of that.
-Madison
Paul: Yeah, you should get the Blu-ray. It’s pretty spectacular, and looks amazing. As for your question, though, I suppose it’s a matter of perspective on whether or not it completely ruined the movie for not including those scenes. I felt the scenes with Aslan and Lucy that were included were brilliant and well done.
Showing Aslan tossing the dwarf Trumpkin into the air? Is that what you are referring to? Apart from looking rather cheesy, it would have also been very expensive to create, with the effects that would have been required to accomplish such a shot. I’m also not sure what scene between Aslan and Reepicheep that you’re referring to. It’s late and I don’t have the book on me to look up what it might have been.
Perhaps others have a better response than that?
That’s it for this week’s mailbag! Sorry I went long on the first answer. It is something that I find I am talking about fairly often, and have a lot of great examples to back up my points. 🙂 Contact us with our contact form, or e-mail us with the subject “Mailbag” to get a question in!