All parts of the "Chronicles of Narnia" in order: the history of creation, interesting facts

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

"The Chronicles of Narnia" is the same series of films based on a series of seven fantasy books written by Clive Staples Lewis. It was these stories that made the hearts of the children of the 2000s beat faster. So what's the story behind the incredible fairyland movies?

Let's start from the beginning…

So, who in the world is not familiar with the story of the brave children of Pevensie, the Great Lion Aslan and the magical land of Narnia? But as many already know, books are one thing, but their adaptations are quite another. Let's look at all the parts of The Chronicles of Narnia in order and find out how the masterpiece was created.

Backstory

In 1996, young producers Frank Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy applied for permission to film the first installment of the then-popular Clive Staples Lewis book series The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. However, they received a very sharp refusal, which was explained by the simple stubbornness and unwillingness of the author to see his offspring on the big screen. It andIt is understandable, because the cinema of that time left much to be desired. Soon a very persistent young American screenwriter Perry Moore appeared in Lewis's life. Moore over the next two years negotiated with Lewis himself and his literary agent Douglas Gresh, who in 2001 signed a contract to film the first part of The Chronicles of Narnia with the young company Walden Media. Thus began the transformation of a magical story into a more real form of art.

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

Now more about the movies. If we want to carry out our analysis of all parts of The Chronicles of Narnia in order, then we need to start with the very first film. Four children go to the village. They go to a family friend, in whose house they discover a mysterious wardrobe. Going inside, they find themselves in Narnia - a country where fantastic creatures live, and magic is not fiction, but reality. Later it turns out that Narnia is under the rule of the White Witch, who turned Narnia into a land of eternal winter. Children, with the help of King Aslan (Lion - the founder of Narnia), must fight the Witch in order to break the spells and free the inhabitants of a wonderful country.

History is silent on the number of scenarios that came to Lewis's mind while writing the first part of the series. It is only known that the plot often changed, and in 1947, guided by the negative reviews of his friends, Lewis even destroyed the manuscript. Only in the early spring of 1949 was theversion of the book that suited both Lewis himself and his friends.

The prototype of little Lucy was Lewis's goddaughter - Lucy Barfield. The girl was the adopted daughter of the writer Owen Barfield's best friend. Carol sent his goddaughter his manuscript for her fifteenth birthday.

The creation of the film, the original title of which is "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" (in the title of the first part of the series of films, the word "clothes" was replaced by "magic"), was no less complicated process, to which a team of several talented people has been going for several years. The film was directed by Andrew Adamson, who is both a producer and co-writer. Prior to The Chronicles of Narnia, he directed two parts of Shrek. Adamson is known as a good special effects specialist, which helped a lot with the creation of animals through computer graphics. The film's scriptwriters are the notorious Christopher Markus, Stefan McFeely and Ann Peacock.

To find children for the four main roles, the director looked through about 2500 records of children, Adamson met with 800 of them, allowed 400 to audition, and eventually selected 120. The children selected to play the main roles in the film turned out to be older than their heroes: Georgie Henley was 10 years old during the filming of the film (according to the script of Lucy Pevensie 8-9 years old), Peter was about 17 (William was shot from 15 to 18 years old), Susan - 15 (Anna was 13-17 years old at the time of filming), and Edmund - 12-13 (Skandar was filmed from 11 to 14 years old, in addition, he grew by 26.5 cm inat the very beginning of filming, so his height became very different from the height of Edmund's character).

Initially, Michelle Pfeiffer claimed the role of the White Witch, but later the actress refused the offer. As a result, the role of the White Witch was given to Tilde Swinton. The actress deliberately read the book after filming wrapped.

Aslan the Great Lion was supposed to be voiced by Brian Cox, but Aslan is voiced by Liam Neeson in the final film adaptation.

Filming began on June 28, 2004. The first was the scene of the children in the train car. Since it was the first day of filming, the kids were extremely insecure on set. An interesting fact is that Skandar Keynes's line "Get off! I know how to get on the train!” was pure improvisation. Filming was done before June 2004, but they were "costume": they drove and filmed small episodes. Filming wrapped in January 2005. The fight scene between Edmund and the White Witch was the last footage to be filmed.

Filming took place in New Zealand and the Czech Republic. Signs in Oakland that the crew used to get to the set were written Paravel to confuse crowds of fans trying to get to the set.

The box office exceeded all expectations, reaching $720,539,572, with a turnover of $442,868,636 from disc sales. The film "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" became the most successful both in box office and in terms of reviews from critics and viewers among all the existing film adaptations of the series.

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

Lucy, Susan, Edmund and Peter Pevensie magically return to Narnia again. Compared to England, where not so much time has passed, centuries have passed in Narnia. The king of the neighboring state of the Telmarines, Miraz, usurps power and wants to destroy the remnants of the magical land. But his nephew - the young Prince Caspian - decides to help Narnia survive and find its former peace. To help Caspian, the young kings and queens of Narnia gather an army of fabulous creatures - the inhabitants of Narnia. They wonder if Aslan, the founder and patron of Narnia, will come to their aid?

To decide on the choice of filming locations, Andrew Adamson (director of the picture), traveled five continents. The main places where the shooting of the second part of the famous series of novels took place were New Zealand, Czech Republic (King Miraz's castle), Slovenia (bridge over the river), Poland.

The most difficult thing was to find an actor for the role of Prince Caspian, who, according to the scriptwriters, should be 17 years old. As a result, Adamson chose the British actor Ben Barnes, who was already 26 years old at the time of filming. In "Prince Caspian" Reepicheep was completely recreated using computer technology. And Cornell John (Glenstorm the centaur) was ordered to master jumper stilts, which were later turned into horse legs. They did this using computer graphics. Make-up artist Howard Berger's team consisted of 50 makeup artists who have done over 4600 makeup sessions.

Prague historical film studio Barrandov became the place wherethe main scenery of "Prince Caspian" was erected. An interesting fact is that Miraz Castle, which was erected on the territory of the film studio, occupied 1858 square meters and was partially based on the appearance of the Pierrefonds castle, which is located in France. Two hundred carpenters, plasterers and artists worked on the castle for almost 4 months. In one of the scenes, the image of the castle was enlarged 3 times using computer graphics.

The same wooden bridge, which became one of the scenes of the last battle between the Telmarines and the Narnians, was erected on the Soča River (Slovenia). It was built thanks to the efforts of 20 engineers and builders. To implement the plan of the main artist Roger Ford, who designed this bridge, the engineers had to temporarily change the course of the river. And the London Underground station, from where Pevensie takes the children to Narnia, was not at all in London. The realistic subway set was built at the Henderson Film Studios in northern New Zealand.

One can't help but notice the stunning costumes that the film's characters wear for most of Prince Caspian. A total of 70 people worked on them. It can be seen with the naked eye that the costumes from Prince Caspian seem to have been taken from the Middle Ages. Talmarine roots are traced to pirates, which is why their attire is so close to Spanish clothes. 1,042 garments were made for the lead actors, and 3,722 garments were made for King Miraz, his retinue, and the Telmarine warriors, including helmets, masks, shoes, and gloves.

New Zealand designer Richard Taylor (Weta Workshop) designed 800 weapons for both troops.

The Chronicles of Narnia: Part Three

Concluding our conversation about all parts of the "Chronicles of Narnia" in order, let's pay attention to the last movie of the saga that has now been filmed. Filming locations are the picturesque expanses of New Zealand and Australia. The original title of the book by C. S. Lewis, based on which the third part of the popular series was filmed, sounds like The Voyage of the Dawn, or Sailing to the End of the World. Let's talk about the film adaptation of this book.

There are some interesting facts about the latest (currently) filmed part of The Chronicles of Narnia:

1. 90 days - that's how long it took to film The Dawn Treader.
2. One of the main characters of the film was created on the sea cape of Cleveland Point. The structure weighed 125 tons and was 140 feet high. After the outdoor scenes were filmed, it was dismantled into more than 50 pieces and reassembled in the studio to continue filming.
3. In the film, the sea serpent is one of the creatures of the Island of Darkness, in the book, the characters encountered it by chance before discovering the Island of Dead Water.
4. The film shows how the main characters of the story are subjected to temptations that were not mentioned in the book.
5. The song "Instantly", which sounds in the finale of "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader", is performed by Russian singer Sergey Lazarev.
6. This film received the mostlow critical scores (of the entire series).

Conclusion

So we reviewed all the parts of the "Chronicles of Narnia" in order. I would like to believe that very soon we will have the opportunity to contemplate the new exciting adventures of the Pevensie children on the big screen. The fourth part of the series, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Silver Throne, is currently being developed.