Part
1 / Part 2
When I
got the call from JoBlo, in late September, asking me if I’d be
interested in flying to New Zealand to visit the set of THE
CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE,
I immediately cursed him out and promptly hung up! I’d made it
very clear to him after we saw THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF
THE KING in December of ’03 that I’d had my fill of hobbits,
enough in fact, to last me a lifetime.
Truth
be told, I like the LOTR films (the first and last one
anyway), but those hobbits were beginning to haunt me in my dreams,
and not the fun Jennifer Love Hewitt kind of “haunting” either.
However, after I hung up, I did some research and discovered that
C.S. Lewis’ seven books about the adventures in the land of Narnia
are altogether different from J.R.R. Tolkien’s hobbit trilogy. It
was an honest mistake on my part, you see, instead of growing up
reading Dr. Seuss and C.S. Lewis’ wonderful childhood tales, I was
instead enjoying a steady diet of Mad magazine and Archie comic
books (thanks for nothing mom & dad!). So I called JoBlo back to
apologize, took his chastisement for about a half hour, went to the
bookstore to buy some of Lewis’ books and then boarded a plane to
the land right under the land down under…
READ
PART 1 OF OUR SET VISIT HERE
THE
WHITE WITCH’S GREAT HALL
The next
soundstage we visited was the White Witch’s Great Hall, as
they’ve come to call it. It was a colossal completely iced over
ballroom-like locale which showcased at the far end her glorious and
immense throne (naturally larger than normal as the witch is larger
than humans, as mentioned in the book). Huge columns surrounded the
room and a large green screen enveloped the entire background of the
area as they intend to make the room even larger in scope and feel.
A crewmember was walking around with a special video-recorder
capturing every angle and dimension of the place, which was in turn
being fed into a nearby computer. This would allow them free reign
to manipulate the entire 3D range of the witch’s hall. All that to
say it would look even more grandiose than it already was. Again,
having just pictured this room a little earlier during my reading, I
was happily surprised to see the vision they ended up with for this
place. This is the room in which Edmund shows up about halfway
through the book, without his siblings, much to the dismay and fury
of the Witch. That scene, we were told, had already been shot.
THE
GREAT ICE RIVER FLOW
Next, we were
brought to a soundstage that can best be described as a frozen over
waterfall or ‘The Great Ice Flow River” as they’ve come to dub
it. It’s here where they shot the sequence in which the wolves are
in pursuit of the children. This is one of the scenes that isn’t,
word for word, from the book. The children will basically be
cornered on a large chunk of ice on the river, surrounded by wolves
at which point one of them will pull out the staff Father Christmas
had given to him before, puncture the ice and break free into the
river, away from the predators. Dean Wright, the movie’s
visual effects supervisor expanded a little regarding this
particular set:
“Also, the
kids come upon a frozen waterfall and that’s going to be a huge
sequence for us because we’re going to use a combination of
miniatures and CG ice, CG water and all that stuff and as the kids
run across the ice, the idea is it gets more and more precarious for
them. We’ll have ice cracking and water gushing and all sorts of
craziness will be going on around while they’re trying to make
their way across the waterfalls.“
THE
CAIR PARAVEL
Off to the side
we spotted several intricate columns, which we were told are to be
used in the castle of Cair Paravel, where the four youngsters are
meant to rule as the first Kings and Queens of Narnia and where a
huge party will be held in their honor. We dropped by that set in
the Cair Paravel on a later day. It was an immense ballroom-type
hall that the filmmakers plan to make even larger with CG. But as it
was, it was the least complex of the sets we’d seen so far, just a
large, royal looking reception hall.
THE
STONE TABLE
The stone table
set was, in a word, simple; and I’m glad for it. It’s high atop
a little hill they’ve built in one of the soundstages, fourteen
steps up, to be exact. There is also a large crack that runs right
down the middle of the steps. It would have been a shame if they’d
added a bunch of “bells and whistles” to what, as described in
the book anyway, is a very straightforward looking stone table,
lifted up by a few small stones in the middle of the forest. The
table had some ancient symbols and writings on it and was surrounded
by about 8 or 9 Stonehenge-like columns. I was tempted to rush up
and lay upon it just so I could tell people I touched it for years
to come, until I recognized how sad an that idea was. Besides, there
were “KEEP OFF THE GRASS” signs all over the place. We
re-visited this set later on to interview the director. In that
instance, they had Aslan laying upon it…
THE
NARNIAN WOODS
- MR. and MRS. BEAVER’S LODGE
On our final day,
we were driven down to a soundstage in the countryside, in Wainui,
to what was easily the most realistic and cozy looking set I’d
ever stood in. Picture a veritable winter wonderland as the
recreation of the snowy wooded areas where Mr. and Mrs. Beaver’s
lodge stands as well as where Mr. Tumnus makes his home. The
soundstage, which is as big as the renowned Pinewood studios in
England (where they shoot the Bond films), was packed with
real trees (200+) all drenched in the most genuine looking snow I’d
ever seen (and I’m from Canada). The authentic look was
created with a combination of detergent-type materials, paper snow,
insulated foam and Epson salts. The entire venture took them 10-12
weeks to build and 8 meters in the ground to dig into.
The enormity of
the forest was a little overwhelming. All of us standing there,
having come from outside, into another outside, into another
world, well, damn it, it was almost as though we’d crossed through
our own version of a magical wardrobe (yikes, did I just write
that?). What my very bad analogy was trying to suggest is that the
forest had all the romance and magic you’d imagine the Narnian
woods would have, and then some. We all just stood there, silent for
a few minutes taking it all in. From the detail of the acorns on the
trees, to the Beaver’s little hut below us, it was truly a place
and time plucked straight from the pages of C.S. Lewis’ book.
The spell was broken when I spotted the two stuffed Mr. &
Mrs. Beavers and Father Christmas passed out in the brush. Okay,
Father Christmas wasn’t there but the beaver “stuffies” were
and I did get a chuckle from seeing them. They’re just visual
aids, of course…
Then they broke
out the WOLVES for us. Okay, it was one wolf, but we did go
and see the other nine, most of them siblings, later on. The wolves
are actually half-huskies, half-wolves and have very crucial roles
in the film. Not only is one of them the witch’s main henchwolf,
Maugrim, but they also chase the kiddies across the perilous
waterfalls and break into the Beaver’s abode for some
investigating about halfway through the movie. We were told we could
break out our cameras and snap a few pictures of the wolf. Behind
it, you can see part of the Narnian woods that I just described.
THE
FINAL BATTLE SCENE
During our 5-day
visit, we were also brought to an office to view a sort of
‘animated storyboard’ or pre-visualization on one of their
computers. The sequence was to be the final battle scene at the end
of the film and it lasted about 8 to 10 minutes. Although it was
computer animated, it was still interesting to see the vision they
had for the extended conflict that precedes the ultimate finale of
the book and movie. Seeing Peter in his armor and battle gear,
sitting bravely on his horse, no longer a boy but a man leading his
“troops” on the battlefield looked satisfying enough, but it was
when both sides finally collided, with all the different species and
creatures clashing, fighting for their lives, that was when I got a
real idea of how momentous the filmmakers want to make this ultimate
struggle between good and evil. Eagles dropping huge chunks of ice
on the enemies from up above and seeing all the dwarves, good and
bad, heading towards one another, battleaxes, arrows and all, were
just a couple of the many highlights of the clip.
Bear in mind,
this is only a preview of what they’re aiming at, but if the pre-vis
is any indication of what’s to come, the battle will rival some of
the best we’ve seen from recent movie epics.
[insert image
of both sides clashing in battle]
When our five-day
roller coaster ride in and around the world of Narnia came to a
close, I was not only having horrific nightmares of being attacked
by minotaurs every night, but I was also left with the feeling that,
LWW has the potential of being to all those who are young at
heart what LOTR was to players of Dungeons and Dragons
worldwide – a truly special and memorable experience. I’d even
venture to guess that someday, with a possible Narnian franchise on
the horizon, the name Andrew Adamson might carry the same weight and
importance as that of Peter Jackson’s. Time will tell, I suppose...
Uh, actually, the
box office numbers in December of ‘05 will tell… I guess
the previous line just sounded cooler.
I’d like to end
this report with a special shout out to Jack and Clay (the Disney
reps) and to the four super slick online film journalists that I
traveled with; one very cool lady and 3 badass gents, who not only
made this set visit twice as exciting and memorable as previous ones
I’d been to, but also promised to stand by our edict of
“Whatever happens in Aukland, stays in Aukland.” Let’s break
out the vegemite and the meatpies, friends...
Stay
tuned to JoBlo.com for Q&A’s we conducted with the cast and
crew of THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE in the coming weeks and
months.
READ
PART 1 OF OUR SET VISIT HERE
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