Bigger, better Narnia

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, which came out in 2005, proved a blockbuster.

Not surprisingly then, Disney has reunited director Andrew Adamson (Shrek, Shrek 2) and most of the cast of the last film for a second instalment of author C.S. Lewis’s beloved stories.
In The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, the wardrobe is gone, the White Witch is dead and Aslan has been missing for over 1,000 years.
With Narnia now ruled by the sinister King Miraz, the four Pevensie children – Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy – must make a perilous attempt to rescue the mythical creatures and talking animals that Miraz has driven into hiding and restore Narnia’s rightful ruler, the young Prince Caspian, to the throne.
Miraz is determined to ensure that the power stays in his bloodline, even if that means killing his nephew Prince Caspian so that Miraz’s own son will be next in line for the throne.
Screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely help Adamson tell the tale of the dashing Prince Caspian and his quest.
Shot over a period of seven months in New Zealand, Poland, Slovenia and the Czech Republic, the new film is on an even bigger scale and will feature more effects shots, more magical creatures and some of the largest sets created for a film in recent years (King Miraz’s castle alone occupied 20,000 square feet at the Barrandov Studios in Prague and was six stories high).
“We start epic and then get more epic,” jokes director Adamson.
Will the four children and Prince Caspian restore peace and prosperity to the once-beautiful realm of Narnia? Find out when The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian opens May 15.

Growth of a child star

TWELVE-year-old Georgie Henley plays Lucy, the youngest of the Pevensie
children and the first to encounter the great Aslan on their new adventure in Narnia.
In the last weeks of shooting Prince Caspian in Praguem before she returns to school in her hometown of Ilkley, West Yorkshire, she spoke
about her role in the sequel.
How did it feel coming back for a second film?
Much less nerve-wracking than the first time! It was fantastic because
I had met all these amazing people on the first film and I started to
miss them after a while. There’s a fantastic array of new characters
in this film, like Prince Caspian, played by Ben Barnes. We were
worried that we wouldn’t like Prince Caspian but we all think he’s
wonderful.

* Has the character of Lucy changed at all since the last film?
I think the character has grown up a bit, just like me. She’s braver this
time and has her own point of view. She argues with Peter, for example,
and she’s not so keen to follow everybody around.

* There are a lot more action scenes in the film. Is Lucy involved in those?
Yes, and I love getting into the action because in the last film I was
just sweet little Lucy.

* You also do some horse-riding in the film, don’t you?
Yes, Anna (Popplewell), who plays Susan, and I both do a lot of riding.
I have a horse called Cameron that I practice on. I’ve just started
cantering on the horse and I love the feeling.

* Being one of the stars of The Chronicles of Narnia films must have changed your life a good deal. Is it how you imagined?
It hasn’t really changed my life. I had this glamorous time in London
when I went there for the premiere on the last film and we had amazing experiences like going to Japan and New York for premieres there. But when I go back to Ilkley, I’m just Georgie and I don’t really get recognized a lot and I like it that way. I just like being at school and being a normal person and doing normal things,

* You are already scheduled to start work on the third Chronicles of Narnia film, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, at some point during 2008. What can you tell us about that film?
I don’t know much about it myself yet. I just know it’s mostly on water
and it’s set on a ship, so I am guessing it will be less horse-riding and more front crawl. – Courtesy of Disney