The Chronicles of Narnia

By Mark Sommer In a November 17, 2009 Blog entry by Mirko Grillini, who plays a "belligerent Telmarine" in the movie, role changes for the characters Rhince and Rynelf have been confirmed.

By Mark Sommer Walter Hooper and J I Packer were not exactly life-long friends of C S Lewis, but they did know him. In recent interviews they discuss what Lewis and his works meant to them.

By Mark Sommer Ernie Malik, publicist for the Voyage of the Dawn Treader movie, gave an interview yesterday, November 5, on location at the studio. Click through to see what tidbits about the film he had to share.

By Mark Sommer What if Caspian had slept another hour or Biblo and the Dwarves had missed the timing of the Secret Door on the Lonely mountain? And what does any of this have to do with me?

By Mark Sommer Like the American animated version from 1979, the BBC TV version of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is very faithful to the book by C S Lewis. But the few differences are revealing.

By Mark Sommer is a not-for-profit labor of love started by John Burkitt as a tribute to C S Lewis and the help the Chronicles of Narnia were in his personal life during some hard times.

By Mark Sommer Some troops in Iraq are finding that the war experience this year has been a bit more peaceful than in previous years. Beyond Narnia, a book club started on an Army base in Iraq, helps soldiers pass the time.

By Mark Sommer A Texas State professor discovered a manuscript that he believes was an effort toward a planned collaborative work by JRR Tolkien and C S Lewis. Click through for a link to an interview with the professor on the CSLewis.com blog.

By Mark Sommer Walden President Micheal Flaherty was the guest speaker at the Asbury College's "Engaging the Cluture" weekend in April this year. Videos of the interview responses to questions about Walden Media and the Narnia films are now online. Click through for a link.

By Mark Sommer Tomorrow morning "Narnia:The Exhibition" will open in the Houston Museum of Natural Science in Sugar Land, Texas. Click through for details.

Related articles from FortBendNow, Your Source For Narnia Movie.

By Mark Sommer On the northern tip of Michigan's lower peninsula is a resort destination that people have visited for over 100 years. Petoskey is decked out in beautiful autumn colors this time of year, but it is also time for the annual C S Lewis Festival.

By Mark Sommer While it can be assumed that the filmmakers’ faithfulness to the book shows their respect for the abilities of C S Lewis, the parts that are removed reveal more about the film than what is preserved.

By Mark Sommer There is quite a discussion going on at NarniaWeb.com about a character that has apparently been added by the filmmakers to the Dawn Treader story. Could this have something to do with making slavery the centerpiece of the film?

By Mark Sommer Aslan’s Country has set up a discussion forum where you can ask Dr. Ward questions about his book, Narnia Planet. This will be a great opportunity to interact with the Lewis scholar.

Related articles from NarniaWeb.com, NarniaWeb.com » Word on the Street.

By Mark Sommer The critically acclaimed production of The Screwtape Letters, based on the C S Lewis novel of the same name, is coming to California soon. Click through for details.

By Mark Sommer See my comments on recent decisions by Disney Studios which affect (in one way or another) the Chronicles of Narnia and Middle-earth (The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings) franchises. Click through for a link.

By Mark Sommer Fortunately for Narnia fans, Barnes seems to have suffered no lasting effects. Let’s hope he is better at steering the Dawn Treader, and stops horsing around. Ben Barnes must have been feeling a little déjà vu when he woke up after being knocked out after a scene for the movie Easy Virtue. At le...

By Mark Sommer Further confirmation that the next Narnia Film, Voyage of the Dawn Treader, will begin filming soon comes from the Premiere of Queensland (Australia), Anna Bligh. According to GoldCoast.com.au, Bligh, who is also Minister for the Arts, reported that

By Mark Sommer The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Hancock The Spiderwick Chronicles Twilight Wanted Prince Caspian has been nominated for the 2009 Saturn Award for Best Fantasy Film. It faces some stiff competition.

By Mark Sommer If you would like to follow my blogging adventures through the land of the Inkilings, you can do so by following my Twitter account. Not only will you be informed when I make new entries to Narnia News, or The Hobbit…Whole News, you can see what articles I am posting about C S Lewis and JRR Tolki...

By Mark Sommer A couple weeks ago I mentioned in Narnia News that Anna Popplewell, who played Susan in the Narnia movies, was running in a London Marathon for charity. The Marathon took place yesterday. Miss Popplewell finished the race under trying circumstances, and exceeded her fund-raising goal. An...

By Mark Sommer Tommy Ill is apparently fairly well known in New Zealand as a “part-time rapper.” You can actually buy his music on Amazon.com. It seems that he has also gotten into writing parody articles for New Zealand’s Stuff, an online magazine. His latest is “J.K. Rowling’s The Hobbit is coming to cinemas...

By Mark Sommer Disney’s website, Narnia.com, has apparently been taken offline. The url takes you to the Go.com site, with the message “Page Not Found.” There are still pages promoting the DVD’s of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Prince Caspian, but the other Narnia content has apparently been rem...

By Mark Sommer Variety.com has a series of articles about composer Harry Gregson-Williams in yesterday’s online posts. Williams is the music writer for the Chronicles of Narnia movies. Variety.com has a series of articles about composer Harry Gregson-Williams in yesterday's online posts. Williams is...

By Mark Sommer This is Home, Switchfoot’s song that plays during the closing credits of Prince Caspian, has been nominated for a Dove Award for Best Pop/Contemporary Recorded Song. This is Home, Switchfoot's song that plays during the closing credits of Prince Caspian, has been nominated for a Dove Aw...

By Andrew Townsend C S Lewis believed that just as myths can charm us and enhance our lives, so too can the medieval view of the Universe. Dr. Ward contends that Lewis used the medieval concepts of the cosmos to provide a hidden meaning and coherence to the Chronicles.

By Mark Sommer After Charlotte Staples Lewis dies (apparently—You can never quite be sure with this show!) in last week’s episode of LOST, I wondered if the show writers were done with the Narnia imagery. As I reported a little over a year ago, when Charlotte Lewis arrived on LOST, she is seen splashing ar...

By Greg Wright Be patient, stay tuned, and be thankful that Potter and Tolkien are at least still hot… and, for now, that the Fantasy genre is still, more or less, a guiding light of moral clarity.  Prince Caspian at least proved that! The Fantasy genre will soon be halfway through its likely Glory Years, a...

By Mark Sommer This is apparently how the author is able to reconcile herself to her love for Narnia. The otherworldliness of Narnia can be enjoyed, and the references to Christianity ignored. Miller talks about the writings of Lewis and JRR Tolkien on mythology, and does an admirable job explaining the...

By Mark Sommer First of all, Prince Caspian is probably one of the least favorite books in the series, while Voyage of the Dawn Treader is one of the favorite. For that reason alone, it seems to me that Disney has jumped ship at the wrong time. In 2005, Disney showed how to market Narnia. In 2008, Disney showed h...

By Mark Sommer Even for us who are used to cold, snowy winters, the phrase by C S Lewis in his first Narnia book, “always winter and never Christmas,” takes on new meaning when we take the snow brush and ice scraper to the windshield one more time. I even found myself in my Facebook status wishing “out loud” th...

By Ed Travis Aslan’s statement also rings true for Prince Caspian as a film. Things never happen the same way twice. And for anyone who struggled with the first film like I did, I recommend this installment. Andrew Adamson has written and directed a film superior to his earlier run, and Prince Caspian has...

By Mark Sommer But I digress. As our own Hollywood Jesus writer Yo pointed out,  “Thanks to a crowded summer, the much-anticipated Narnia sequel didn’t do as well as some thought it should have.” It was “A Better Movie Released At The Wrong Time.” It remains to be seen whether sales of the DVD and Blu-ray vers...

By CoachZ I don’t get to the theater very often, which is why I mostly write for the DVD section of Hollywood Jesus. I was able to watch The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian in the theater and wrote an article here .  That seems to be what Peter and Susan have to do throughout this movie: learn from the...

By Yo One of the things Caspian did best was to flesh out some very important characters for Dawn Treader. I thought Ben Barnes did a fine job as Caspian, Skandar Keynes was tons better as Edmund, and Reepicheep was brought to life perfectly; he was just as I remembered him from the book. With these t...

By Mark Sommer To order the “Educational Edition” of Prince Caspian, click here. Disney has just announced that it will be releasing educational editions of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Prince Caspian. These include additional bonus features about inspiration, narrative, point of view, a...

By Mark Sommer This is the second installment of an interview with Ben Barnes, who plays the character Prince Caspian. Ben: Yeah, Caspian’s gotta pee too. Ben: Right, exactly. I was thinking like really, they’re going to have [a photo] like: “Fan / Caspian / Men’s room sign!” That’s not cool… You were?

By Mark Sommer Ben: When? When we were doing the movie? I bet it will be on the DVD. Was it the same guy [from the movie]? For Dawn Treader. Ben: I play Caspian, I think. It’s public, we all know. On NarniaWeb[.com] we know. Ben: On NarniaWeb we know. OK, good. Cool. Sweet. They know everything on NarniaWeb.

By Mark Sommer Secondly, the C S Lewis Company is not in the habit of filing litigation against those who use the “Narnia” name. Those who follow the law, and use the name for a legitimate non-commercial purpose, have been left alone. A quick search of the Internet bears this out. Here are some examples: Narn...

By Mark Sommer Next time: The first installment of the interview with Ben Barnes, who plays the title character in the movie. Adamson: "I think children like to be scared ... as long as you let them off at some point. ... humor can undercut things that seem over-sincere or saccharine ... I just try to inject it where it'...

By Mark Sommer Next time: In the second installment, Andrew Adamson talks about “Faith and Doubt” in the film, and the need for a connection–and a certain disconnect, with the first film. Producer Andrew Adamson discusses how the 1950's children's book evolved into a bit more modern action-driven mov...

By Mark Sommer Next time: The first installment of an interview with Andrew Adamson, co-writer and producer of the two Chronicles of Narnia films. "I know that [C. S. Lewis] was anti-movie during his day, but let's face it, if you were going to make Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe when C. S. Lewis was alive it wa...

By Mark Sommer This is the second installment of an interview with Prince Caspian writers Chris Markus and Steve McFeely. Can you talk about why Lucy sees Aslan and the other children don’t? Chris: Lucy has a car? I didn’t know that! Because obviously you have Prince Caspian who’s put his life on the line…

By Andrew Townsend Yesterday evening I was watching the new Prince Caspian film on its opening night in England. It was a big event for me to see my first new Narnia film since reviewing the books for Hollywood Jesus. When I wrote my review of the Prince Caspian book last December, the film trailer had just appear...

By Mark Sommer Steve: Structurally it’s just not a movie if you were to just transcribe the book. I mean, it’s a 180-page book; the kids get there, and they meet a dwarf named Trumpkin who tells them a 60-page flashback they’re not involved in about a kid we’ve never heard of named Prince Caspian and, they sa...

By Mark Sommer According to an article on Billboard.com, the soundtrack of The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian made its debut on the Billboard 200 this week. With sales of about 16,000, the soundtrack is ranked Number 26. Click here to see the article on Billboard.com. The soundtrack of The Chronicles...

By Ken Priebe However, given that this story structure happens, later in the film Lucy disappears for quite a long time after leaving in pursuit of Aslan. The film focuses on the ensuing battle in real time, leaving the brave warriors and the audience wondering, what about Lucy? Why aren’t we cutting ba...

By Mark Sommer Douglas Gresham, Lewis’s step-son and co-producer of the Chronicles of Narnia films, has called Prince Caspian “A Poorer Story, but a Better Movie.” When I first saw that, I bristled a little. I have also been reading through Two Roads through Narnia, a book published by Hollywood Jesus Bo...

By Mark Sommer My review should show up on HJ Live! at midnight. Prince Caspian is due to appear in theaters across the country in less than 9 hours. Find out if you area has a midnight showing tonight. Plus... my review of the movie is scheduled on HJ at midnight eastern time. And... our Caspian coverage is just gettin...

By Mark Sommer There is a painting by Pauline Baynes that graced the front of the paperback version of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe for years in Great Britain. (This cover was not available on American editions until recently.) The scene is just after Aslan is resurrected and Lucy and Susan are danc...

By Mark Sommer Audio - Focus on the Family interview with co-producer Douglas Gresham (Lewis’s step-son) Christianity Today’s interview with Director Andrew Adamson - includes a discussion about Susan’s involvement in the battle, and Lewis’s changing attitude toward women as the books progress...