For this week’s Mailbag, I looked in my inbox and realized a couple of things: first, there was only one e-mail for this week’s mailbag. I could take this to mean that it’s not a good feature to bring back, but that would be ridiculous. I enjoy the chance to answer e-mails and also to put my own voice into the site just a little bit.
On a related note, I share Andrew Adamson’s birthday. Who knew? Andrew, if you’re reading this, that must be the reason we have similar creative minds.
Anyway, let’s get to it.
Q: Is there more VDT concept art than meets the eye during the “Pre-visualizing Prince Caspian” DVD feature? Look to the upper left at the 2:20 mark. Is that red creature a dragon of some kind? It has a similar shape to whatever is shown flying over water at around the 9:58 mark. (This image appears again at 9:18 and 9:31.) Also, look to the right at 9:31. These images do not look familiar from PC and the colors are very different; could they be from VDT?
Mike
Paul: This question really speaks to me for more reasons than just being directed toward me. And I think he knows what I’m talking about. More than Meets the Eye. Transformers. Yes, I am a child of the 80s, and Transformers was a shot that I rarely missed.
Anyway, yes, that art is from the concept art for The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. However, the thing about concept art that we have to remember is that not all of it makes it beyond the concept art stage. One case that speaks to this is the Star Wars prequels. I can’t tell you how much concept art I’ve seen that never made the cut. Perhaps the most famous bit of concept art for a Star Wars film was painted by Ralph McQuarrie.
As he describes it: Luke is fighting Darth Vader in what was to have been a scuffle aboard the Rebel Blockade Runner soon after Vader’s Imerial captured the Rebel ship. Luke is wearing a king of breathing mask because Vader’s troopers apparently cut through a panel to get in, allowing the air supply to escape.
The Darth Vader costume – a grotesque breath mask and all sorts of other lifesupporting systems, computer readout, black cape and armor – was partly inspired by the impressive image of a Samurai warrior. George Lucas, in keeping with the idea that Vader’s whole being was to be mysterious, wanted the character to be entirely in black.
Now that the Voyage of the Dawn Treader is back in the early stages of Pre-production, new art will most likely be created to match new portions of the screenplay, while some art will be dropped from the slate as cuts are made. While the prospect is great that the artwork seen might be a glimpse at what we’ll see in the future, and it is likely… it’s not something that I would work myself up about too much.
Now, let’s get going with the old letters. These letters are at least 2 years old, and at most 1 year old.
Q: I heard that Anna wrote a book about being on the set of LWW or something like that, where can I find this book? I’d really like to know. Thanks!
-Ben Burton
Paul: I believe you’re referring to the journal she kept while on the set of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. It was published after the film’s release, but I don’t know if it has ever been released publicly. If anyone knows more about this, please contact us!
Q: Why did they decide to skip ‘The Horse and His Boy’and are they ever going to film it?
-Smith
Paul: This is a question that I used to get every day or so when Prince Caspian began filming. Prior to that, you could have replaced The Horse and His Boy with The Magician’s Nephew. The answer to this question is the same as the answer to that one. They haven’t really skipped anything. If you look at the original publication dates of the books, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Prince Caspian were the first two books in the series. Prince Caspian also carries the sub-title The Return to Narnia.
Are they going to film it, though? There are a number of things that need to happen. First, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader has to be a mega-hit for 20th Century Fox. Second, The Silver Chair has to also do very well. If those films to well, then we can almost certainly count on the rest of the series being filmed. Third, a script will have to be written that takes creative liberties with the characters based on some of the problems that it poses, with the portrayal of different cultures. It simply may not fly, as written.
Q: I was just wondering what you guys were going to do when the main characters like Peter and Susan get to old to play their part. Are you guys to get other people to play their parts? If you did that would be horrible.
-Softballgirl
Paul: The cool thing about the Narnia books is the cycle of characters. There shouldn’t be a time when an actor is too old to return to the role he or she originated, if or when the time arrises that they need to reprise that role. If you read the entire series, you’ll understand what I’m talking about. I’ll leave it at that.
Q: *spoilers* So, if not all of the original four siblings are in all the books, do you think the films will include them (such as Peter and Susan in VDT) in the films to please fans??? This would be awesome!!! But I’m just curious as to how they will handle this.
-Marie
Paul: This is a great question, and one that many are still wondering about today! When it comes down to it, movies have a way of changing things to include cameos. These appearances are fun for movie fans, and can be used to serve a few purposes. First, it can establish why a character isn’t a major part of the story, such as Peter leaving for the Professor’s, or Susan leaving for America. Second, it can also give fans a little treat. Third, in a series such as this, it gives the actors a chance to reconnect with the cast that they’ve come to know as a surrogate family.
Personally, I would count on seeing both Peter and Susan for even a brief moment, though they aren’t going to tell us anything about that, and most of us will have to wait until the film’s release on December 10, 2010!
Q: What order are the books being made into movies?
-Nikki
Paul: It appears they’re doing it in the original publication order of the books. If they can complete it, The Last Battle will be EPIC!
Q: Why did it take you so long to start filming the second movie, Prince Caspian; but work is already started on the third, Voyage of the Dawn Treader?
-Togciadc64
Paul: This question was posed on June 2, 2007. At that time, Disney expected Prince Caspian to do at least as well as LWW. As we all know, now, it didn’t. We Narnia fans could have told them that. Prince Caspian isn’t a very well known, or even very popular, Narnia book. They decided to start early on Dawn Treader, because they planned on created what was then called The Caspian Trilogy. It would be composed of the three films that comprised Caspian’s story. But why did it take so long after LWW? Because they were waiting to get the Box Office receipts for it. They wanted to be sure it was successful.
Q: According to the book “The Magician’s Nephew” two trees – a gold and silver tree – were planted by Andrew Kirke near the lamp-post. But in the movie, when Lucy arrives on the first night, and also after many years before returning to England, they pass the lamp-post but the gold and silver trees are not seen. Why is it so?
-Manasi Lad
Paul: There are a few possibilities. First, it had been many many years since the planting, so the landscape might have changed by then. Second, they weren’t mentioned in the book, which may have been a result of Lewis having not planned on writing seven books. Third, the book doesn’t actually specify how close the trees are to the lamp-post.
Q: In “Evacuating London” from the LWW soundtrack there is someone singing in some parts of the song. I can’t distinguish the lyrics… do you know what they are or where I can find them?? Thanks!! Love the site as always 😀
-Marie (same one as a few letters above)
Paul: I had the same question, so I went straight to the source, Lisbeth Scott herself! She responded with the lyrics, which you can find here: Evacuating London.
That’s all of the letters I had time for this week. Stay tuned next week, as I dive into the archives again for more of the letters from 2007, as well as more letters from all of you, over the course of the week!
Yes, Paul, I know what you mean. After all, we are both children of the 80’s 🙂
Cue up Stan Bush’s The Touch!
Clearly we need to meet up at some point and relive that decade. Soo many classics…
I don’t think giving Peter and Susan roles in VDT would please fans. At all. Quite the opposite, in fact.
Can you back that up? I mean, if it’s mentioned in the book, why shouldn’t they give it a short moment or two in the film? And remember, the film world is very different from the book world. Just look at Jurassic Park and The Lost World: Jurassic Park.
I agree. I would love it if Peter and Susan were in ‘The Voyage of the Dawn Treader’ for a few moments!
I think it would be like a little treat to see Peter and Susan in the VDT!!!
A small change like that would be no big deal, and kind of fun (and this comes from someone who tends to catalog every deviation from the original story!) Susan and Peter are in the story, just in a different location rather than where the story is focusing.
The biggest problem for a story purist is usually when the script plays fast and loose with the characters, as “Caspian” did with Peter and his whole “identity crisis, let’s storm the castle” business. I’m far more concerned with the way the ads portray Edmund doing a light version of the same thing!
Oh, don’t be such a Puddleglum!
Seriously, Paul is right. And in the context of just showing them in our world, I also think this would be great.
Thanks a ton for the vote of confidence, Mark! It means a lot. I honestly didn’t understand what the problem would be with bringing them back for narrative purposes. It would answer a lot of the potential questions that we’d get.
Part of Anna’s Journal from LWW was published in the illustrated movie companion. It wasn’t the full thing but it was a small part.
How do I send in a question for the Mail Bag? I really want to know, because I have some questions! Thanks to anyone who can give me an answer!
Use the contact form. You can find it by clicking on “Contact Us.”
Regarding the order of the movies: Andrew Adamson said in the May 2008 Roundtable Interviews (New York) that he thinks it would be best to do The Magician’s Nephew last. Here is what he said (Interview Questions inserted for clarity):
Well, the question was [about] doing their [Peter and Susan’s] last scene. Has anyone discussed (in fourteen years from now) whether or not there will be a movie seven? And whether they’ll walk back on?
AA: You know, it’s funny, obviously nobody knows. I think the studio will keep making them as long as people keep paying to come and see them. Because it’s actually interesting in that the end story probably wouldn’t be the last one to tell. Probably the first story would be the last one to tell. Because it’s the prequel, The Magician’s Nephew. And I know that Tilda would be more than happy to come back and do that. And it would be interesting. The Last Battle would have some real challenges. Obviously, if we did do it, all that time from now our kids are going to be pretty grown up.. And we did discuss, not very seriously, the idea of shooting all their scenes sometime in the next few years, but I don’t think that’s really going to happen.
So you think that they would do the creation of the world after the end of the world?
AA: I think so. I think it kind of makes sense, really, because then it becomes a kind of like
I would like to point out something about the question posed by Manasi Lad. In The Magician’s Nephew, Uncle Andrew accidentally drops some coins into the young Narnian soil which grow into two trees, one silver and one gold. Later on in the book, Aslan commands that these trees be chopped down and made into crowns for the first King and Queen of Narnia, Frank and Helen.That is why they are not in The Lion,The Witch,and The Wardrobe. They had been chopped down hundreds of years ago.
Wow, good point, Maggie. I had forgotten about that.