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

Copperfox said:
I certainly HOPE they don't go so far. But I can't help remembering what a big change was made in the other direction for the LOTR movies, redefining Frodo from the equivalent of a late-thirties human into Teen Idol.
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true....(off narnia subject here) but the hobbit's life span is so great the way he ages would make him APPEAR to be in his teens....:rolleyes:ok, i am SUCH a nerd.
 
No, a hobbit's life expectancy is only a little greater than a human's. Bilbo was considered remarkable for living past his 111th birthday.
 
Copperfox said:
Speak for yourself! To this 56-year-old grandpa she looks as young as Hannah Montana!
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:D You sound like my grandpa. He's 84 and anyone under 60 is "still a kid" to him!

Anyway, I dont think Ben will make Caspian out as a cocky-know-it-all. Now Peter on the other hand...but thats a different story. :rolleyes: It'll be alright...Only four more weeks till we find out whats going on, then we can complain about it and then worry about all the changes theyre going to make to VODT....
 
It's also in what the author actually wrote. Mr. Tolkien says that Frodo's journey doesn't even begin until some YEARS after Bilbo left the Shire, whereas the movie seems to have it start within weeks after Bilbo left.

As for changes in "Dawn Treader," there is just one that I'm dreading. I can imagine Edmund saying to Aslan, "Sir, are You on Earth too?"--and then the screenwriter making Aslan answer, "Yes, but there I have MANY names. I am known as Brahma, and Krishna, and Gautama Buddha, and Buddha Amida, and Lao-Tsu, and Kwan-Yin, and Zeus, and Odin, and Amon-Ra...."
 
Copperfox said:
It's also in what the author actually wrote. Mr. Tolkien says that Frodo's journey doesn't even begin until some YEARS after Bilbo left the Shire, whereas the movie seems to have it start within weeks after Bilbo left.

As for changes in "Dawn Treader," there is just one that I'm dreading. I can imagine Edmund saying to Aslan, "Sir, are You on Earth too?"--and then the screenwriter making Aslan answer, "Yes, but there I have MANY names. I am known as Brahma, and Krishna, and Gautama Buddha, and Buddha Amida, and Lao-Tsu, and Kwan-Yin, and Zeus, and Odin, and Amon-Ra...."
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^yes! that always annoyed me in the movie!
 
Copperfox said:
As for changes in "Dawn Treader," there is just one that I'm dreading. I can imagine Edmund saying to Aslan, "Sir, are You on Earth too?"--and then the screenwriter making Aslan answer, "Yes, but there I have MANY names. I am known as Brahma, and Krishna, and Gautama Buddha, and Buddha Amida, and Lao-Tsu, and Kwan-Yin, and Zeus, and Odin, and Amon-Ra...."
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Oh, brother...now I'm a little worried...and theres still two years left! :eek:
 
Copperfox, I am not sure that Elijah Wood is too young for the role of Frodo, because I think that Hobbits aged slower than humans. Could someone help me about this topic?
 
Copperfox said:
As for changes in "Dawn Treader," there is just one that I'm dreading. I can imagine Edmund saying to Aslan, "Sir, are You on Earth too?"--and then the screenwriter making Aslan answer, "Yes, but there I have MANY names. I am known as Brahma, and Krishna, and Gautama Buddha, and Buddha Amida, and Lao-Tsu, and Kwan-Yin, and Zeus, and Odin, and Amon-Ra...."
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This will be sad and disrespectful, if it happens. It will be violation of the authors work, I am not sure that this is legal, I hope not. Better to cut it than to mutate it in such way.
 
Maybe Elijah Wood was cast as a youthful Frodo because the ring made the bearer age much more slowly than other people?
 
No, because it was BILBO who kept the Ring until his 111th birthday and gained the longevity benefits. They cast Elijah Wood (not to say that he didn't act his part well) because they wanted a Frodo for teenyboppers, period.
 
As some know, I have been reading the book again. I would like to point out that the book not only implies that a few years had passed between the time when Caspian had a nurse and the time that he fled for his life. It says so blatently; it talks about the meeting on the roof and then shortly there after it says "After some years there came a time when the Queen..."

Assuming Ed was around two years younger than Peter and Peter and Caspian were the same age, then I would say that Caspian was more like 14-15 in the book because Ed was already learning Algebra and Latin, it says so in the book. Seventeen, the age that Ben Barnes seems to think he is playing, is not too far out of that realm.
 
Well, he doesn't look 17 and he never will even if you slap him around and make him cry like a baby. He will still look like a 25 year old crying.
 
Where do we find that Caspian was the same age as Peter???????? When (in the book) the subject of a duel with Miraz comes up, the point is stressed that Caspian would not be taken seriously challenging Miraz BECAUSE CASPIAN IS A BOY. If Peter is no older than Caspian (his former Narnian adulthood, eventually reversed, does not count here), how can AGE be invoked as an argument for why Peter would be taken any more seriously???
 
Ben doesn't look like 25 in the Film, not at all (also he is 26 by now, turning 27 in August. Or was it September? Doesn't matter anyway). I think he looks the same age as Will, so what's the problem? All the actors are older then their Characters, Ben needs to play an older guy in the next one anyway. So you think they should have taken a 14 year old that doesn't actually know how it really is to become "a man"? A 14-year old that is going to play a 17-18 year old in VODT? That doesn't work.
Ben might be a "cocky, super-cool and know-it all" guy, but he is an actor. He has to play the part the way it is written, not the way he is. To quote Ari Gold from Entourage at this point: That's what actors do. They pretend.

Also, if anyone read one of the last Interviews with Ben: He said Andrew was fascinated by the way he did one of the lines. I think Andrew wasn't waiting for Mr. Superhot to appear. He was looking for an actor who would be a great Caspian. He already picked 4 other Kids, and they are more than brilliant. So why should he have given up Ben because he was "too old". If he thinks that he is the best man for the job then he will be.

I hope some of you will remember these discussion when they are around Ben's age :rolleyes:
 
Copperfox said:
Where do we find that Caspian was the same age as Peter???????? When (in the book) the subject of a duel with Miraz comes up, the point is stressed that Caspian would not be taken seriously challenging Miraz BECAUSE CASPIAN IS A BOY. If Peter is no older than Caspian (his former Narnian adulthood, eventually reversed, does not count here), how can AGE be invoked as an argument for why Peter would be taken any more seriously???
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Actually in Chapter 13 of Prince Caspian after Caspian asks if he could fight Miraz and avenge his father, Peter says,
Prince Caspian said:
We have seen that you are a king and a warrior, but he thinks of you as a kid.
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Miraz raised Caspian, so he will always think of him as a kid. If you've raised someone since they were small, you kind of always think of them as small. My point being is that they don't say Caspian is a kid, but rather Miraz THINKS of Caspian as a kid.

Also in Chapter 8, I find this very interesting, after the Pevensies tell Trumpkin who they are, he says,
"The King, Trufflehunter, and Doctor Cornelius were expecting...help. To put it in another way, I think they'd been imagining you as great warriors. As it is- we're awfully fond of children and all that...."
I find it very interesting that he uses the pronoun we're, the antecedent to that being The King, Trufflehunter, and Doctor Cornelius. If Caspian (the King) is supposed to be a child or a kid, then why is he "fond of children"?

In chapter 12, the quote that Ben Barnes usually refers to, describes Caspian as "a boy about his (Peter's) own age". A boy could be a "youthful, male person" (according to the Free Online Dictionary). So we could assume that Caspian, is not being described as a kid, but rather as a youth, maybe even a naive youth.
Also, if Peter is let's say 15 in Prince Caspian then Caspian, being "about his age", could very well be a couple of years older, so 17 would be a fairly accurate age to put Caspian in.

Also, some people may be biased, because we pretty much knew that Ben Barnes was quite a few years older than that before we really saw any clips. And I have to admit, he doesn't look 17 in some (or rather most) of the action clips that we've seen him in. But remember that those are for advertising, they are playing up his looks and a swashbuckler persona. This may come as a shock to you but they're doing this for profit. (surprise surprise) :rolleyes:
But in the little that we've seen him in other parts, like the clip in Trufflehunter's cave, or even the clip in The Dancing Lawn. He does look like a youth.

Look at the two pictures below, and you can see that he could pass for a 17 year old.
What's really the difference between a 17 and a 25 year old, anyways? I don't really think there's much, there are some 17 year olds who look older and some 25 year olds who look younger. I recall one interview Ben Barnes had he said that all he had to do to look younger was shave twice a day, or something like that. So, there's really not THAT much of a difference.
 

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^I totally agree with this.^

Some more interesting quotes from the book that may help reconcile the age of Caspain:
Like NoG said there is this one: "a boy about his (Peter's) own age" from where they are rushing into the cellar of Aslan's how to stop the calling up of the White Witch, it is what I based my assumption on that Peter and Caspian were the same age.

This Quote makes these about Ed more interesting:
Orginally Written by CS Lewis in Prince Caspian in Chapter Thirteen:
"'Who can he be? It is not the boy Caspian.'"
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and
Also from the Thirteenth Chapter of PC:
"'No indeed,' said Sopespian. 'This is a fell warrior, I warrant you, wherever the rebels have got him from. He is (in your Lordship's private ear) a kinglier man than ever Miraz was....'"
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and, also,
Thirteen Chapter of PC too:
"'I must plainly say that to meet that young man in battle.... And if (as is likely) his brother, the High King, is more dangerous than he....'"
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I don't care how one may skew these quotes, despite the fact that Aslan breathed on him and the greatness of Aslan was around him, if Ed was ten years old he would not have been mistaken as a man, I could see maybe a tall twelve year old, but not a ten year old.

Now in another book, HHB, there is a young prince from Archenland named Corin, he has learned to fight but wasn't allowed to use it and did not even have a real horse, just a pony. A dwarf would let Corin fight in that book, how is it that two dwarves would let Caspian do so.
 
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