New Zealand magic in new Narnia movie
15 May 2008
The latest in the movie adaptation of C. S. Lewis' Narnia books has hit the big screen notching up another triumph for the New Zealand film industry.
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, is the sequel to the 2005 fantasy hit 'The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe,' and has again had a major New Zealand input.
New Zealander Andrew Adamson who directed the first in the movie series has also directed Prince Caspian. It has been partially filmed on location in the North and South Islands with special effects produced by Weta Workshop in Wellington.
Auckland born Andrew Adamson is well known on the international film circuit. Director of the Academy award winning Shrek movies, Adamson has credited his homeland for having a major impact on the movies he makes. 'New Zealand gave us the magic of Narnia,' says Adamson.
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian began filming in February 2007. The cast spent six weeks on location in the Haast River Valley on the South Westland coast, in forests near Paradise Valley and Glenorchy outside Queenstown and at Cathedral Cove on the Coromandel Peninsula in the North Island. They also filmed at Henderson Studios’ sound stages in Auckland which were also used for The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. Once filming finished in New Zealand last March, the company relocated to Eastern Europe.
Critical Acclaim
Critics say Prince Caspian, which was released to cinemas on May 16, is darker and funnier, more substantive and more engaging, more violent and more technically accomplished than The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. It picks up a year after the Pevensie children left Narnia and returned to school during World War II-era London. But 1,300 years have passed in the magical land where they once served as kings and queens and it’s now under the rule of the Telmarines and is in ruins. The animals have gone into hiding in the forest and the majestic lion Aslan hasn't been seen in a millennium.
With The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe receiving three Oscar nominations and grossing more than US $637.8 million ($941 million) at the box office worldwide, Auckland born Adamson can expect further success with Prince Caspian. He says the Narnia Chronicles were very important to him as a child and he would be 'perfectly happy if he could adapt all seven novels into movies.'
No Place Like Home
Adamson still has strong bonds with his homeland and his wife is also a 'Kiwi.' Although their base is in Los Angeles, they try to return home with their young child as often as possible (see Videos section for an interview with Andrew).
He says New Zealand was the perfect place to film Prince Caspian. 'The thing that New Zealand offers that a lot of places don't is a proliferation of old-growth forests,' Adamson says, explaining what drew him back to his native country. 'There's not an area of Europe that hasn't been felled and re-grown at some point, so finding an old growth forest is very difficult. In New Zealand, the whole west coast of the South Island is covered with ancient forests.'
Filming Locations
Two sites in Mercury Bay on the Coromandel Peninsula served as the settings for scenes in which the Pevensie children took their first steps back into Narnia. One was Cathedral Cove, on the eastern shore of the peninsula, and a majestic bluff rising several hundred feet above the ocean where the siblings discover the ruins of Cair Paravel, defined by a deep river chasm book-ended by cascading waterfalls that plunge 200 feet into the glassy waters. Actress Anna Popplewell who plays Susan Pevensie says 'the water shimmered so clearly audiences won’t believe it’s real water. It appears to be an optical illusion created by VFX in post-production.'
The third South Island site chosen for filming was Paradise, a privately-owned horse ranch about an hour's drive from Queenstown. 'There were a couple of locations that were perfect for this movie that only New Zealand could offer,' says producer Mark Johnson. 'In many ways, it is a fairytale country with the kind of locations that make your jaw drop.'
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