Breaking! Mark Gordon to produce The Silver Chair

The BBC did the LWW.PC.VOTDT and SC, all on a small budget as it was childrens drama but in fairness to them they stuck to the books in fact the film LWW is more or less the same as the BBC version. In my view only three books could be made into films and they are LWW,MN and SC.
 
CORIN THUNDERFIST II said:
In many instances on the grounds of political correctness, the curse of our age!
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Agreed Corin, and a despicable curse at that!

Sir Cabbage said:
The worst damage they could do in this coming film character-wise would be with Puddleglum. They could make seem too gruff rather than glum, etc., or somehow downplay his moment of bravery in whatever silly way to spoil the meaning of such a breakthrough.
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Yes, the character Puddleglum was one of my favorites in this story! I found myself rooting for him quite a bit. I think that his moment of bravery could be spectacular if they did it right.
 
Cryfion said:
Agreed Corin, and a despicable curse at that!



Yes, the character Puddleglum was one of my favorites in this story! I found myself rooting for him quite a bit. I think that his moment of bravery could be spectacular if they did it right.
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It is intresting that Puddleglum was not human and was the only one who broke the spell. The only actor who has played Puddleglum is Tom Baker who also played Dr. Who, he was fab at playing that part and it would be hard to get some one to play it like he did.
 
Copperfox said:
Remaking Peter Pevensie into a USELESS DORK, who couldn't even come up with the single-combat idea till Sexy Caspian provided it, is LIGHT-YEARS BEYOND merely "not being exactly like the book." It was INTENTIONALLY HOSTILE to the whole SPIRIT of the book.
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I didn't like Peter's attitude in Prince Caspian either but I seriosly doubt all the people involved in the film said oh let's make Peter a jerk just to go against what actually happens in the book. Peter turned back to a good person in the end but I think getting there was a lesson for him. He had to learn not to be a big head and listen to others if he was going to make a great high king. In my opinion, that's what the intention was.
 
Sir Cabbage said:
The worst damage they could do in this coming film character-wise would be with Puddleglum. They could make seem too gruff rather than glum, etc., or somehow downplay his moment of bravery in whatever silly way to spoil the meaning of such a breakthrough.
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Or, even more ghastly, rewrite the story, so that it is Jill or Eustace that break the Green Witch's spell instead of Puddleglum. That would be horrendous! Whoever is cast as Puddleglum will be very hard put to improve on the way Tom Baker played him in the B.B.C version.
 
That would be much worse! I have faith at the moment that they will keep the moment for Puddleglum. It's a good lesson to have anyway, that even the more pessimistic and sorrowful amongst us can prove ourselves able and willing!
 
Same here! They should stick to the story as closely as possible. In the case of 'The Silver Chair' it is such an excellent book, as indeed are all 7 of the Chronicles of Narnia, that I can see no reason to change things.

Sir Cabbage said:
That would be much worse! I have faith at the moment that they will keep the moment for Puddleglum. It's a good lesson to have anyway, that even the more pessimistic and sorrowful amongst us can prove ourselves able and willing!
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Cometh the hour, cometh the marshwiggle!
 
That moment of Puddleglum's choosing to live for Narnia, even if there is no Narnia, is one of the epic moments of the book, and one most saturated with layers of meaning for us today. I cannot imagine anyone familiar with the book will want to change it in any way.
 
inkspot said:
That moment of Puddleglum's choosing to live for Narnia, even if there is no Narnia, is one of the epic moments of the book, and one most saturated with layers of meaning for us today. I cannot imagine anyone familiar with the book will want to change it in any way.
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No one familiar with it would want to change it.... UNLESS they were privately HOSTILE to faith, and wanted to PULL DOWN great examples of faith. You cannot have failed to notice that there are such persons at work in the popular culture.
 
Copperfox said:
Remaking Peter Pevensie into a USELESS DORK, who couldn't even come up with the single-combat idea till Sexy Caspian provided it, is LIGHT-YEARS BEYOND merely "not being exactly like the book"...
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Thank you for aptly capturing the Peter/anti-Peter tension in your latest sonnets.

I do hope with you that the screen writers will take heed to the voice of book fans and so-so box office receipts and make an adaptation we can cheer about as being true to the spirit of The Silver Chair.
 
Copperfox said:
The Caspian and Dawn Treader movies both made serious changes to the plots of the books; but the Caspian movie was FAR WORSE, because it ruined the PERSONAL VIRTUES of the characters, especially Peter. The Dawn Treader movie changed the SITUATION, but the PERSONALITIES of Lucy et al were not ruined.

Let's see, what might they ruin in a Silver Chair movie? I speculated on this long ago. What I dread is that, in portraying the abuses of Experiment House, the script might change Experiment House into A CHRISTIAN SCHOOL, blaming followers of Christ for all that evil.

But I will give ANY new Narnia movie a fair chance.
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I completely agree Copperfox. I actually just rewatched Voyage of the Dawn Treader a couple weeks ago (and it had been a very long time since I last viewed it) and I really really enjoyed it despite all the change and things I think they did wrong. I'm kind of passed that now. Prince Caspian still bothers me though. I hope Silver Chair is more like LWW when it comes to these things. No need to worry yet though, as the film is long off. (also there are some things that Douglas Gresham simply won't allow. He is a very Christian man and I think that the series is in safe and good hands. I have never seen a Mark Gordon film though, (as far as I know anyway) so this should be an adventure.

I really cannot wait for the Silver Chair film! It'll be great to see how they do the underworld. Just a prediction, but I suspect that I will prefer the first half of the BBC's Silver Chair to the new film, and that I will prefer the second half of the new Gordon film to the BBC's second half. This is because I think the BBC SC is just such a classic, and Puddleglum and the other characters are marvelous. But I feel that the underworld was really lacking, and odd, and didn't have that same feel to it as the book did. I also think that the dancing scene under the moonlight with the dwarves throwing snow balls is something really cool that lacked from the BBC film, so I hope (without holding my breath) that this new film really captures these scenes as they were in the book. :)
 
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Thanks for joining in, JMR7. And yes, the snow dance will be a _wonderful_ scene if it's done half-decently; it'll be entertaining enough to hold audience interest even _after_ all the suspenseful stuff is over. As for the Underworld, it _shouldn't_ be hard to do that well.
 
Yeah the underworld could be very good. I just hope they don't make the underworld creatures (don't remember what their called) into actual agents of evil. If there is a battle between Narnians and the underworldlings I'll be really upset.

Thanks for joining in, JMR7.
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Yeah I haven't been here for a while and when I was here I didn't post much. I'm really excited for the new film though. I wonder how long it will take to come out.
 
I agree. It would be totally wrong to have the creatures of Underland look and (even worse) behave like orcs, goblins etc. They were not at all evil by choice but as much victims of the Green Witch and her foul magic as was Prince Rilian.
 
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