One of those in attendance took the opportunity to interview director Michael Apted and producer Mark Johnson about the film, the use of 3-D and the casting process. She also asked a bit about the future of the franchise: is there hope for more Narnia beyond this film? If so, which book would be filmed next? And also, what about the voice of Reepicheep: why did casting go the way that it did?
Why is The Voyage of the Dawn Treader being released in 3-D?
On 3-D, he reveals that they spoke about doing the film in 3-D early on, but it was then too expensive. After Avatar became a phenomenon, something changed and most studios jumped on board and started converting their films. However, Michael Apted assures us that, because they have had nine months to convert the film to 3-D, they didn’t have to rush it at all in the way that Clash of the Titans was rushed in only eight weeks. He says that they’ll get very good value out of it and that we won’t see anything cheap or nasty, we can rest assured.
Mark Johnson adds to that, that Harry Potter opens shortly prior to Dawn Treader, and that is also a 3-D converted film. After Narnia will come Yogi Bear in 3-D and Tron: Legacy also in 3-D. He says that it’s kind of expected, but also that this film really lends itself to 3-D.
Casting Eustace
Michael Apted says that as soon as Will Poulter walked through the door, that was it, they knew that he was Eustace. They still looked at other potentials, but in their minds they had the actor for the job. Since they finished shooting, Will has grown about seven inches and his voice has broken. They couldn’t do more looping or extra shooting if they wanted to. They also had trouble because they had him picked out, but because the film was delayed, they couldn’t sign him yet, until they were sure that the film would be made, and they finally signed him about a year before they started filming.
Mark Johnson says that the next movie will have Eustace, if they do The Silver Chair next. He does, however, add that they could do The Magician’s Nephew next. The big question is, do they film The Magician’s Nephew and let Eustace grow older, or do they film The Silver Chair next and follow that up with The Magician’s Nephew. He says “We should put it to the fans [to decide].”
The Voice of Reepicheep
Michael Apted comments on the re-casting of Reepicheep, first with Bill Nighy and then Simon Pegg: Well, I did it with Bill, first of all, but it turned out that he was perhaps a little too old for it. He was great. I loved it. I did record him, but then we looked at it very carefully, and thought, “Well, it doesn’t quite have that energy.” He has more drollness of a slightly older man. And he was very disappointed, and I was upset. But you know, Simon came in, and we auditioned a lot of people. Simon was very good. He came in and just nailed it.
Apted goes on to say that Eddie Izzard was not asked to return because he wished to make some changes. He thought they could get more humor out of it and it was just his choice, really.
The biggest challenge for Apted
Filming the battle with the Serpent, Apted says, was the most difficult part of filming: The battle [with the sea serpent] was ridiculously difficult. Even for a film that is fairly conventional, going in the water, it was a little hair-raising. It was kind of dangerous. It was one of those films where you didn’t really have a quiet day. Every day there was some magic or something. It wasn’t like, “Oh, two people are going to sit down and have a cup of tea for three pages, so I could have a little rest.” You could never sit down.
You can read the rest of the interviews and more at Examiner!