As a young boy growing up in New Zealand Andrew Adamson read all six books in C.S. Lewis Chronicles of Narnia and said to himself I will make a movie of this someday. Unlike the millions of children who thought that, Adamson has made that dream real. After co-directing both Shrek films to monstrous success Adamson parlayed that into directing the huge budgeted The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. Adamson has created a beautiful film that will be remembered by generations of people to come.
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe opens Dec. 9th
Daniel Robert Epstein: How did you decide on the look of Aslan?
Andrew Adamson: I decided he should be slightly larger than life. He actually gets even slightly larger after his resurrection. In the books, hes described as many different sizes going up to the size of an elephant at one point. So he actually grows and shrinks in the childrens minds. I felt going into it that a lion the size of an elephant would just look really weird and be very difficult to shoot. So I wanted to make him the epitome of all lions so I looked at photos of all different lions. I found one really big lion, which I contemplated using, but the trainer said, Well, hes really big, but hes not really that tame. I thought that combination was probably bad. Thats one of the reasons why I ended up doing a little CG with a combination of animatronics because I could actually control that I could have a lion that was very physically impressive.
I wanted him to be a real character in the film, to not have people question whether he was CG, animatronic or anything like that. I didnt want people to question whether he was in the kids imagination so that when hes going to his death, you feel his vulnerability. When Lucy reaches out and touches him, youre not thinking about the technique so much as just the tenderness of that moment.
DRE: How did you find the kids?
AA: First I wanted kids that were similar to the characters. I went to Pippa Hall as a casting director because she had found Jamie Bell for Billy Elliott. She found a very real child who was very close to the character of Billy Elliott and that made it a very convincing performance. We looked for 18 months. She put 2,500 kids on tape. She went to schools and theatre groups. Georgie [Henley who played Lucy Pevensie] came out of seeing a tape of a bunch of school kids. Skandar [Keynes who played Edmund Pevensie] came from Pippa. He had these great dark mischievous eyes. So each one came from slightly different paths, but largely it was just about them being very similar to the characters.
DRE: C.S. Lewis had the kids go back at the end of the first book because he had a larger vision in mind.
AA: Actually when C.S. Lewis wrote this book, he didnt know he was writing a series. He did actually just sit down and write this book for his goddaughter and you could tell because he made a lot of mistakes. When he wrote The Magicians Nephew that we found out that the Professor had been to Narnia before. In the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, theres no hint at that. I brought that into the film because I'd read all seven books and knew a lot more than C.S. Lewis did when he wrote the first book. So I was definitely conscious of the larger world. The world expands through those seven books. As you get more worlds, more people, more countries and more people in Narnia or the world of Narnia, I think C.S. Lewis vision expanded and I tried to make this movie reflective of that larger world.
DRE: How did you justify the kids going back?
AA: I dont know. Thats actually a very good question. They always did to me because they did in the book. So I didnt really have to justify it. Since we had them go to the Professors house to escape World War 2 bombings, the question I did have to ask, was Can I get away with not having them go back to their mom? In the end I decided it really was a story about these four kids and you can kind of project on it.
DRE: Do you feel any pressure because the Lord of the Rings films were such hits?
AA: No, not really. I think Lord of the Rings was actually a huge aid in making this film. Between Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter, they showed the studios you can take decent piece of literature, adapt it faithfully and it can be commercially viable.
DRE: Did you talk to Peter Jackson at all?
AA: Peter and I have known each other since I worked a little bit with him on The Frighteners. So I did talk to Peter. I went to visit him while I was scouting. He was finishing up the third Lord of the Rings. Suddenly they decided they were going to help me cast the film. Fran [Walsh] got on the Internet and we stayed up until two in the morning. One thing that I did find useful was asking him how much you adapt and how much you leave out. He said it was more than I would think, but the trick is that if people like it, they dont mind. If you make good choices, they dont mind the changes, which I guess is a somewhat obvious thing to say. But it was a relief to hear because I felt like keeping very close to the book.
DRE: Were you worried about any similarities in battles scenes between your film and their films?
AA: A medieval battle is a medieval battle. To some degree theres going to be similarities because everyones wearing armor and wielding swords. Theres only so much you could do. I couldnt think of a more different battle though in all honesty because weve got these mythological creatures. Weve got a menagerie of mythological creatures who are in broad daylight. Its played very much from the emotion from the two kids point of view. What I liked about this battle going in is the fact that I got to use all these different creatures. The birds can fly in with rocks. Youve got centaurs that can wield swords and minotaurs that can use their heads as much as they use the weapons.
DRE: I spoke to Howard Berger from KNB about the practical effects. He said that you were planning on using more CGI until you saw what his company could do for you.
AA: I kept my options open as long as possible. Howard definitely went far beyond what I expected. When I first talked to all the different prosthetic and animatronic companies, Howard was so enthusiastic because he said, Ive done hundreds of movies but I want to do a movie that my children can see. I thought thats really a very exploitable trait. He came up with some radio-controlled heads that did far more than Id ever seen before. Even in the type of latex that he developed for the heads of the cyclops created more sophisticated movement.
DRE: Have you thought about the eventual sequels?
AA: I have largely been thinking about just finishing this one and to some degree deliberately not thinking too much about the next one because its just too overwhelming. Since we made these characters more three dimensional that family story would continue in Prince Caspian.
DRE: When they release the set of the Narnia books now they actually put them in chronological order, which drives me crazy.
AA: That came from when a child wrote C.S. Lewis and said, My mom says the book should be in this order, but I think they should be in this order because this happens, and this happens. C.S. Lewis wrote a letter back saying, You know what? I agree with you. The publisher, HarperCollins at the time, changed the order based on that letter.
DRE: But you dont find out until later things like where the lamppost came from. Its kind of fun.
AA: I agree. I read them in the original order. I like the Magicians Nephew and the way it ties things together, but there are huge paradoxes even within The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. Edmund goes to the White Witch and she says, A doorway to the world of man? Shes fascinated by this idea. At the end of this scene he goes, I dont know how to get home. She goes, Oh, its over there. There are a lot of people that think he put everything in very deliberately. I think he wrote certainly this first one very much from his heart. I think it was almost stream of consciousness because as you read it, you realize not everything is completely filled out and that its more of an emotional story than an intellectual story.
DRE: How did you come to cast Tilda Swinton?
AA: When I came to doing this film, I looked back at the character of the witch and realized that the character as written by C.S. Lewis had become a clich. Over the years weve seen the evil stepmother and the cackling witch too many times. So I knew that I wanted to kind of create a more sophisticated type of evil. I knew that besides Tildas physical stature, which obviously was appropriate for the White Witch, that she is somebody that would stay away from the clich. Shes made such interesting acting choices throughout her career that she would so I felt she would make pretty good choices in this. We talked a lot about what was terrifying for children. The two things we really came to were emotional detachment because kids yell at each other, but cold, emotional detachment is not something they can come relate to. Then inconsistency, which as a recent parent Ive read enough books to know thats the worst thing you can do to a kid. Those are two qualities that the White Witch in the film has.
DRE: How did Liam Neeson come to be the voice of Aslan?
AA: Liam asked if he could read for me which was a very unique thing. So we got on the phone and even over that tinny little speaker I could hear the resonance and warmth in his voice. Since Aslan doesnt have a lot of screen time before he goes to his death, I knew that I needed to make him likeable to the kids so the audience could understand why they felt so close to him.
DRE: How was shooting in New Zealand?
AA: That was a challenge. There were definitely locations I went to and Id say This is fantastic and someone would tap me on the shoulder and say, Well, its already been used [by Lord of the Rings]. When I got to where we shot the battlefield scene I couldnt believe that it hadnt been used before because it was so stunning.
DRE: What do you feel is the message for this film?
AA: I think its two things. Obviously theres the family story and the story of family unity and empowerment through unity. Then I think the other message that really comes through that was also present in the book is that of forgiveness and sacrifice.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe opens Dec. 9th
Daniel Robert Epstein: How did you decide on the look of Aslan?
Andrew Adamson: I decided he should be slightly larger than life. He actually gets even slightly larger after his resurrection. In the books, hes described as many different sizes going up to the size of an elephant at one point. So he actually grows and shrinks in the childrens minds. I felt going into it that a lion the size of an elephant would just look really weird and be very difficult to shoot. So I wanted to make him the epitome of all lions so I looked at photos of all different lions. I found one really big lion, which I contemplated using, but the trainer said, Well, hes really big, but hes not really that tame. I thought that combination was probably bad. Thats one of the reasons why I ended up doing a little CG with a combination of animatronics because I could actually control that I could have a lion that was very physically impressive.
I wanted him to be a real character in the film, to not have people question whether he was CG, animatronic or anything like that. I didnt want people to question whether he was in the kids imagination so that when hes going to his death, you feel his vulnerability. When Lucy reaches out and touches him, youre not thinking about the technique so much as just the tenderness of that moment.
DRE: How did you find the kids?
AA: First I wanted kids that were similar to the characters. I went to Pippa Hall as a casting director because she had found Jamie Bell for Billy Elliott. She found a very real child who was very close to the character of Billy Elliott and that made it a very convincing performance. We looked for 18 months. She put 2,500 kids on tape. She went to schools and theatre groups. Georgie [Henley who played Lucy Pevensie] came out of seeing a tape of a bunch of school kids. Skandar [Keynes who played Edmund Pevensie] came from Pippa. He had these great dark mischievous eyes. So each one came from slightly different paths, but largely it was just about them being very similar to the characters.
DRE: C.S. Lewis had the kids go back at the end of the first book because he had a larger vision in mind.
AA: Actually when C.S. Lewis wrote this book, he didnt know he was writing a series. He did actually just sit down and write this book for his goddaughter and you could tell because he made a lot of mistakes. When he wrote The Magicians Nephew that we found out that the Professor had been to Narnia before. In the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, theres no hint at that. I brought that into the film because I'd read all seven books and knew a lot more than C.S. Lewis did when he wrote the first book. So I was definitely conscious of the larger world. The world expands through those seven books. As you get more worlds, more people, more countries and more people in Narnia or the world of Narnia, I think C.S. Lewis vision expanded and I tried to make this movie reflective of that larger world.
DRE: How did you justify the kids going back?
AA: I dont know. Thats actually a very good question. They always did to me because they did in the book. So I didnt really have to justify it. Since we had them go to the Professors house to escape World War 2 bombings, the question I did have to ask, was Can I get away with not having them go back to their mom? In the end I decided it really was a story about these four kids and you can kind of project on it.
DRE: Do you feel any pressure because the Lord of the Rings films were such hits?
AA: No, not really. I think Lord of the Rings was actually a huge aid in making this film. Between Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter, they showed the studios you can take decent piece of literature, adapt it faithfully and it can be commercially viable.
DRE: Did you talk to Peter Jackson at all?
AA: Peter and I have known each other since I worked a little bit with him on The Frighteners. So I did talk to Peter. I went to visit him while I was scouting. He was finishing up the third Lord of the Rings. Suddenly they decided they were going to help me cast the film. Fran [Walsh] got on the Internet and we stayed up until two in the morning. One thing that I did find useful was asking him how much you adapt and how much you leave out. He said it was more than I would think, but the trick is that if people like it, they dont mind. If you make good choices, they dont mind the changes, which I guess is a somewhat obvious thing to say. But it was a relief to hear because I felt like keeping very close to the book.
DRE: Were you worried about any similarities in battles scenes between your film and their films?
AA: A medieval battle is a medieval battle. To some degree theres going to be similarities because everyones wearing armor and wielding swords. Theres only so much you could do. I couldnt think of a more different battle though in all honesty because weve got these mythological creatures. Weve got a menagerie of mythological creatures who are in broad daylight. Its played very much from the emotion from the two kids point of view. What I liked about this battle going in is the fact that I got to use all these different creatures. The birds can fly in with rocks. Youve got centaurs that can wield swords and minotaurs that can use their heads as much as they use the weapons.
DRE: I spoke to Howard Berger from KNB about the practical effects. He said that you were planning on using more CGI until you saw what his company could do for you.
AA: I kept my options open as long as possible. Howard definitely went far beyond what I expected. When I first talked to all the different prosthetic and animatronic companies, Howard was so enthusiastic because he said, Ive done hundreds of movies but I want to do a movie that my children can see. I thought thats really a very exploitable trait. He came up with some radio-controlled heads that did far more than Id ever seen before. Even in the type of latex that he developed for the heads of the cyclops created more sophisticated movement.
DRE: Have you thought about the eventual sequels?
AA: I have largely been thinking about just finishing this one and to some degree deliberately not thinking too much about the next one because its just too overwhelming. Since we made these characters more three dimensional that family story would continue in Prince Caspian.
DRE: When they release the set of the Narnia books now they actually put them in chronological order, which drives me crazy.
AA: That came from when a child wrote C.S. Lewis and said, My mom says the book should be in this order, but I think they should be in this order because this happens, and this happens. C.S. Lewis wrote a letter back saying, You know what? I agree with you. The publisher, HarperCollins at the time, changed the order based on that letter.
DRE: But you dont find out until later things like where the lamppost came from. Its kind of fun.
AA: I agree. I read them in the original order. I like the Magicians Nephew and the way it ties things together, but there are huge paradoxes even within The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. Edmund goes to the White Witch and she says, A doorway to the world of man? Shes fascinated by this idea. At the end of this scene he goes, I dont know how to get home. She goes, Oh, its over there. There are a lot of people that think he put everything in very deliberately. I think he wrote certainly this first one very much from his heart. I think it was almost stream of consciousness because as you read it, you realize not everything is completely filled out and that its more of an emotional story than an intellectual story.
DRE: How did you come to cast Tilda Swinton?
AA: When I came to doing this film, I looked back at the character of the witch and realized that the character as written by C.S. Lewis had become a clich. Over the years weve seen the evil stepmother and the cackling witch too many times. So I knew that I wanted to kind of create a more sophisticated type of evil. I knew that besides Tildas physical stature, which obviously was appropriate for the White Witch, that she is somebody that would stay away from the clich. Shes made such interesting acting choices throughout her career that she would so I felt she would make pretty good choices in this. We talked a lot about what was terrifying for children. The two things we really came to were emotional detachment because kids yell at each other, but cold, emotional detachment is not something they can come relate to. Then inconsistency, which as a recent parent Ive read enough books to know thats the worst thing you can do to a kid. Those are two qualities that the White Witch in the film has.
DRE: How did Liam Neeson come to be the voice of Aslan?
AA: Liam asked if he could read for me which was a very unique thing. So we got on the phone and even over that tinny little speaker I could hear the resonance and warmth in his voice. Since Aslan doesnt have a lot of screen time before he goes to his death, I knew that I needed to make him likeable to the kids so the audience could understand why they felt so close to him.
DRE: How was shooting in New Zealand?
AA: That was a challenge. There were definitely locations I went to and Id say This is fantastic and someone would tap me on the shoulder and say, Well, its already been used [by Lord of the Rings]. When I got to where we shot the battlefield scene I couldnt believe that it hadnt been used before because it was so stunning.
DRE: What do you feel is the message for this film?
AA: I think its two things. Obviously theres the family story and the story of family unity and empowerment through unity. Then I think the other message that really comes through that was also present in the book is that of forgiveness and sacrifice.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
VIEW 9 of 9 COMMENTS
As a young boy growing up in New Zealand Andrew Adamson read all six books in C.S. Lewis Chronicles of Narnia
Dude... it's seven books.
PointBlank said:
It'll be interesting to see how they avoid the racist shit in "A Horse and His Boy"
I've been wondering that, too. I love the series, but I was shocked at how racist that book is.