Prince Caspian: Ben Barnes & why is he so old?

Caspian'sQueen, I also have some issues with the man being 25 (ask anyone! feel free to check out the other thread and see my posts.), but I'm going to stop talking about it until I can totally calm down. I'm one of the most anti-BenBarnes-as-Caspian people here on the forum, and trust me, please- this is starting to lose its worth. It's a lost cause and the rest of us bitter people might as well get over it and move on with our lives. They've already made their decision and there's no way we can stop it. :)
 
And I wish you guys would stop putting words into out mouths. Just because we are expressing our opinions over Ben's age doesn't mean we are dissing the whole movie and saying it is all going to turn out terrible. Everyone is entitle to their own opinions, and you feel free to disagree or debate it, or just ignore it.
Sorry about that; I needed to get that off my chest. Nothing personal against any particular person. :)

And having said that, I am officially over this age business. I'm not exactly leaping for joy, but I'll live. I think I'm going to investigate and see what positves are in this person. I think I've been too caught up in the negatives.

;)
 
*Throwing in some humor*: Unless there's some freak accident while they're filming, in which he's run over by a crazed fan...er bus driver in a bus or they go duck hunting with him and someone pulls a 'Dick-Cheney' on him. Or...well the possibilities are endless. But...yeah...pink-cheetah's right. Nuthin' we can do now.

Cyon
 
Please, I never meant to imply that Disney hired on Ben Barnes because of any monetary concerns they have. I have pointed out before that since they are doing Prince Caspian and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader back-to-back, that they probably hired Ben because Prince Caspian is supposed to be between 17-18 on the Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Thus it is easier to have the same actor for both films than to hire one younger Caspian and then an older one and try to make them look nearly the same. Ben's other roles have included playing high school age kids. Many of the people playing high school age teens are in their 20s for those parts in both TV and movies. The girl who played Joan in the TV series Joan of Arcadia a couple of years ago was in her mid 20s playing a junior in high school. Happens all the time.

I also do not believe that Prince Caspian will be of any less quality than TLWW, especially with Andrew Adamson as director, Doug Gresham as co-producer, and the current four Pevensie children back. I think it will be a good quality adaptation of the book.
 
It's over. No meaning to resisting. Dead For Dreams And All. And besides, the only way it's going to change is if some freak accident occurs...I doubt that'll ever happen...and to what GOOD ENDS, at? Emo Ending And All to such a journey. And now I've gone poetic, so I'm not sure if I'll be understood atoll.

Cyon
 
I know I said I was not going to post on this thread again last night but I have one more thing to say
This was said by C.S. Lewis's Stepson about the script in a very recent interview:

Gresham: We create the scripts in a collaborative manner, I meet with the writers and Andrew, and we go carefully through every line, honing and refining until we are satisfied that what we have is right. I have as much "voice" in this process as anyone on the team who are all very respectful of my knowledge and expertise.

And Andrew Adamson said this about the closeness to the book:

Adamson: "It's very close [to the book] in the same way that The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was. With that film what I really tried to do was imagine this story was real and CS Lewis had written a book for children about it but I was going to tell the real story so it had a bit more depth, a bit more action, a bit more grit and reality to it. I think that's true with this one as well."

And Paul said this about Ben's age in the mailbag:

A: The fellow playing him is 25, and that's a very good thing. He's someone that is able to play younger. In fact, I won't be surprised if people believe him to be younger. It's funny how many times we see people in movies that we think are younger than they actually are. Just look at the cast of High School Musical, for example. Some of the high school students are actually out of college! So don't let his age get to you. It'll make it easier to make him look older for Voyage of the Dawn Treader. They won't need to hire an older actor to fill his role at all. It's a win-win situation for the studio, and for us!

And here are the facts about the ages of the "highschool" students in High School Musical:

the woman who plays Taylor in HSM is 27 and she plays the part of a highschooler perfectly, Ashley tinsdale is Twenty-two, Lucas Grabeel is twenty-three, zac is 19 and a half. they all play highschoolers, so I think that the age is a non-issue.
 
Seriously, you look at celebs in Hollywood: I bet you didn't know that Johnny Depp is over 40! Brad pitt is over 40; Tom Cruise........ the list goes on and on.

The fact is, (and we're not all dried up "farts" as you've referred to us, and you shouldn't be judging us on our posts that quickly because it's degrading) the process for the casting on Caspian is finished. If you don't like it, either dont' see the film or stop posting in the film section(s) on the forum.
 
Though.. also count on Disney someday making a Chronicles of Narnia II, III, and 2 1/2.
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2 1/2? Oh Jarrod, that's downright EVIL :D

Yes indeed the Great Lion locked the door on the dead world. Yes indeed that was meant to be the last word. And yet curious hands and a very old brass key came together one absolutely splendid day in Aslan's Country. Eyes darted about in the dark and cold to behold the frozen world and a voice of sinister darkness hissed these fateful words, "A perfect place for Ice Hockey..."

NARNIA II: Lord of the Rinks
 
Pardine said:
I think that you are getting too hung up on this guy's age and not enough on can he pull it off.

You'd be surprised. The guys who played the "hobbits" in TLOTR were old too.

For example:
Frodo, Elijah Wood, 23
Samwise, Sean Astin, 33


And of course the other hobbits are just as old, if not older. Yet, they looked younger and smaller.

I would recommend that you get used to Disney doing things you don't like. As a long time fan of them, they're rather good at it. In the end, I imagine it'll all turn out relatively okay.. since this isn't a sequel.

Though.. also count on Disney someday making a Chronicles of Narnia II, III, and 2 1/2.
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That's true. I mean, good grief, Hayden Christensen (Anakin Skywalker, though not much of an age difference) was playing a nineteen year old kid, yet he was like 22 or 21; and Natalie Portman in Ep 3 was playing a 27 yr. old, yet at the time, was only like 22 or 23. :rolleyes:
 
Caspian's Queen

You are too much:D, this is the most funniest thing I've seen in ages, having the time to give Ben Barnes a suggested face lift. You probably were dead serious as most die hard fans are, and thats a good thing. Its nice to see fans that go to such lengths to view the film in its purist form from the book.

...I'm sorry.....hehe... but its just too much for me to get over it, I know I should be cool, calm and collected but I apologise for my 'laugh out loud moment' if you find it offensive.

You really put a smile on my face today..
 
Luckily, so long as the rights are not sold to Disney, there will not be such sequels cause they will not have the right to make them.
 
Yeah, I think you're right. Y'know, after watching a fan trailer for PC on youtube that used James Franco as Tristan in "Tristan and Isolde" as Caspian, I'm beginning to think this whole Ben business isn't going to be as bad as I thought it was before.

Hey...PC STARTED FILMING TODAY!!!!!! WHOHOO! :D :D
 
Yeah *starts working on her count down* I never put words in your mouth, I just feel like I was having to defend every little decision made by the director from someone elses attack, from "Gosh, I wish they would switch the people playing Trumpkin and Nikkabrik," to "Ben Barnes is to Old."
 
" I think that you are getting too hung up on this guy's age and not enough on can he pull it off.

You'd be surprised. The guys who played the "hobbits" in TLOTR were old too.

For example:
Frodo, Elijah Wood, 23
Samwise, Sean Astin, 33

And of course the other hobbits are just as old, if not older. Yet, they looked younger and smaller. "



The hobbits were never portrayed as boys. They were portrayed as what they looked like: little men.

Elijah Wood, who was 18, not 23, when they started filming the Lord of the Rings, was the youngest hobbit and he was portrayed as a young man, which is what he was/is. There was no attempt (and no need) to make the guys playing the hobbits look younger, just smaller.

But Ben Barnes, at 25, is going to have to portray a young boy. This is wrong. Just knowing that he is 25 and watching him interact with Georgie Henley (an 11 year old girl), as if he's around her age, would be very strange and make me very uncomfortable.

Ben Barnes is nearly as old as James McAvoy, Mr. Tumnus, and his interaction with Georgie was slightly unsettling (and rightly so- he was a kidnapper). Imagine how much more bizarre and unnerving it will be to see Barnes with Georgie/Skander.

Again I say, why didn't they just get a boy?

There is separation of ages for a reason...
 
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Caspian'sQueen said:
" I think that you are getting too hung up on this guy's age and not enough on can he pull it off.

You'd be surprised. The guys who played the "hobbits" in TLOTR were old too.

For example:
Frodo, Elijah Wood, 23
Samwise, Sean Astin, 33

And of course the other hobbits are just as old, if not older. Yet, they looked younger and smaller. "



The hobbits were never portrayed as boys. They were portrayed as what they looked like: little men.

Elijah Wood, who was 18, not 23, when they started filming the Lord of the Rings, was the youngest hobbit and he was portrayed as a young man, which is what he was/is. There was no attempt (and no need) to make the guys playing the hobbits look younger, just smaller.

But Ben Barnes, at 25, is going to have to portray a young boy. This is wrong. Just knowing that he is 25 and watching him interact with Georgie Henley (an 11 year old girl), as if he's around her age, would be very strange and make me very uncomfortable.

Ben Barnes is nearly as old as James McAvoy, Mr. Tumnus, and his interaction with Georgie was slightly unsettling (and rightly so- he was a kidnapper). Imagine how much more bizarre and unnerving it will be to see Barnes with Georgie/Skander.

Again I say, why didn't they just get a boy?

There is separation of ages for a reason...
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Oh good heaven's, now let's bring Tumnus into this discussion which has no bearing whatsoever. As long as nothing sexual is implied, I don't know if it'd make anybody cringe or squirm.

I'll have you know that the guy who played Pippin was about 25 when they wrapped filming (not sure of his exact age, but he wasn't exactly as young as his character) so what is the big deal?

(and I think, though I could be wrong, Frodo was the oldest of the Hobbits, with pippin being the youngest, so again, why not just stay on Prince Caspian?)
 
Pardine said:
And to be fair, When Frodo began his journey, he was 38 years old. So I stand corrected. They were not young men, but we missed the 17 years between Bilbo's eleventyfirst birthday and Gandolf returning with news about what the ring was.

So.. if a young person of, what, barely 18, as you said? Can play a near 40 year old man.. why can't a near 25 year old man play a teenager?
Click to expand...

Whoa, 17 yrs. passed? :eek: I didn't know that, but you have a good point.
 
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