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First Voyage of the Dawn Treader Footage Screened

Over the last couple of days, I’ve been in Los Angeles with many fascinating people from all over the United States. Grace Hill Media, Twentieth Century Fox and Walden Media were our host as we gathered for the L.A. Lakers and Boston Celtics basketball game on Thursday night, while meeting Mr. Phil Anschutz, the owner of Walden Media. It was an incredible night, meeting many of the people that are going to be incorporating Narnia into their programs this year.

Concept Art of the Film

The next day we were all taken by bus to Fox Studios where we were given a tour of the lot, and brought to the screening room at the studio. There, at the screening room entrance, were costumes and concept art from the film, as well as armor and weapons. The concept art was the same that I saw in Australia at the film production offices, shipped over likely for this event. The art was beautifully painted, and captured the film better than my own imagination. The visuals are beautiful, but made even moreso by what they represent.

The event’s speakers

Speaking at the event were producer Mark Johnson, director Michael Apted, producer Douglas Gresham, Walden Media president Micheal Flaherty, C.S. Lewis expert Devin Brown, Anschutz Film Group CEO David Weil, and President of Production at Fox 2000: Elizabeth Gabler.

They were asked questions by host Hugh Hewitt as well as members of the audience.

Story, art and the Trailer

Prior to the footage screening, Michael Apted showed a reel of concept art, while explaining the art and the plot of the film. After a few discussions about what it took to even get Narnia onto the big screen, we were treated to the first 5 minutes of film that they’ve completed. It was a magnificent trailer, that I will not go into great detail on.

You’ll be pleased to learn, though, that it maintains the Narnia spirit of the first couple of films. In fact, it was so magical that I was almost drawn to tears from what I saw and heard. It appears that Liam Neeson has already recorded his lines as Aslan, and Michael Apted has confirmed that Reepicheep’s dialog has been recorded by Bill Nighy already last week. In the trailer we saw the entrance into Narnia, spent time at the Magician’s house, and many shots of Aslan’s Country at the end of the film. There was also a shot of Ben Barnes as King Caspian in what appeared to be a weighty piece of dialog. The trailer featured many lines spoken by Aslan all throughout. The music was taken from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe featuring the haunting vocals of Lisbeth Scott, as well as some original music later on, that I did not recognize but hope that it is also included in the film. It is unclear on how much music composer David Arnold has yet written for the project.

The trailer also featured a few moments between Lucy and Gael, some incredible shots of Lucy and the Magician, and the incredible work of Dante Spinotti as the cinematographer on the film. Each of the five islands in the film has a very distinct and unique appearance and most are based on actual locations in our world.

They finished filming about eight weeks ago, and the movie has already been assembled into a rough cut that pleased Andrew Adamson, director on the first two films. What we saw included many of the great sequences straight out of the book.

Adapting Narnia

The filmmakers spoke about the difficulty of adapting these books for the big screen, as there are “Narnia Police” everywhere. The main thing to remember is that, in adapting a book, the author of the book can say what people are thinking about all they want. That sort of thing has to be translated to a visual medium. If it weren’t, it’d be no different than watching a film of an actor sitting in a chair, reading the book to you. They were asked if they planned on completing the series, and producer Mark Johnson addressed this, saying that he would be very disappointed if the series was not produced to completion.

Many people have asked why Michael Apted was chosen to direct the film. He’s an unproven director, when it comes to children’s movies. However, he’s got a great eye for realism and character. He knows how to capture relationships between characters very well. One of the things that was mentioned was that, with The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, the story is really about the relationships between the characters. It is a very personal movie, despite all of the effects and adventures. It’s going to really take you on an adventure along side the characters. There will be many lessons that can be learned from it, and this is a film that should really tug on our heartstrings.

The footage displayed the growth of Georgie Henley as an actress, really owning the role of Lucy, yet again. Will Poulter is pitch-perfect as Eustace Clarence Scrubb and the rest of the cast looks like they’ve hit a home run this time out as well. The Dawn Treader herself? Absolutely breathtaking on screen. The pictures seen thus far do not do the ship justice.

Overall, the event was very encouraging about the state of the Narnia film and the series as a whole. It’s a definitive return to Narnia that is both magical and moving. This is a film that will surprise the world with the quality of the writing, the story and the character development as it brings you along on a journey of redemption and adventure. The theme of temptation runs throughout as each character deals with it in his or her own way, leading to great discussions long after the credits have rolled.

Prior to the screening, Courtney and I gave Douglas Gresham a hug and thanked him for the opportunity to propose on the set and afterward I spoke with Director Michael Apted about the same. A broad smile crossed his face, and I spoke briefly about the film and I thanked him for the vision that he brought to it.

The film is in good hands.

A big thanks to Walden Media, Twentieth Century Fox, and Grace Hill Media for the invitation to the event. It was unlike anything I had experienced before. I’d also like to thank everyone else that was there for making it such a pleasing event to attend. To those that were present, please feel free to contact me any time. I’m here to help.

My impressions of the even do not even come close to doing the experience justice. I’m very pleased by how the film is coming together, and cannot wait to see the finished film. The acting, the writing, the cinematography, the art direction… it’s all very good and very magical. I wish that I could tell you the two moments that made me so happy that I nearly cried, but I will keep silent on those. But from what I know, those two things are only two of five events that I could list off that will really touch the viewer very deeply.

Be excited, Narnia fans. I don’t think that you’ll be disappointed. The audience walked away with a very positive impression of the route that they’ve taken with the film, and I think you will be as well. It has something for everyone.

Aslan is On the Move

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader will be in theatres everywhere on December 10, 2010

Please also read the report of my colleague, David Hollandar of NarniaWeb, who was also at the event. You can read his report, posted here.

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