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Douglas Adams, Narnia, and Trailers 380

Posted by michael from the aslan-says-don't-panic dept.
A few interesting movie tidbits: Joel Greengrass writes "Final post-production has been completed on the long awaited documentary, 'Life, the Universe, and Douglas Adams.' Narrated by Neil Gaiman, the film is a tribute documentary about the life, loves, and passions, of the greatest sci fi comedy writer ever, Douglas Adams. The film will be available for sale on August 4 at douglasadams.com." Reader The_Shadows writes "Sci-fi Storm and Scfi.com's Scifi-wire are reporting that Walden Media exercised options for feature-length, big screen versions of the Chronicles of Narnia, by C. S. Lewis. They have also found an Emmy award winning writer (Ann Peacock) to adapt the most famous book, 'The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.'" And finally, there's an interesting piece about the process of turning a two-hour movie into a two-minute trailer.
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Douglas Adams, Narnia, and Trailers More

Douglas Adams, Narnia, and Trailers

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  • Excercised options... (Score:2, Insightful)

    by samjam ( 256347 )
    "Walden Media exercised options for feature-length, big screen versions of the Chronicles of Narnia, "

    Of course that doesn't mean it will get any further than the film on Doom did.

    Sam

  • How to Make a Trailer: (Score:3, Funny)

    by superdan2k ( 135614 ) on Tuesday July 30, 2002 @02:53PM (#3980417) Homepage Journal
    Take all the best parts of the movie. String them together in one 2-minute epileptic-seizure-inducing orgasm of light and sound, preferably with some modern rock/psuedo-metal song in the background. Stick your title on the end in a grunge or techno font along with "This movie has not yet been rated," and a release date between 6 months and a year into the future.
    • Dont' forget the part where you make the plot in the trailer seem more interesting and bait-and-twist than the plot of the real movie.

      That's a common tactic .. people should go back and watch trailers aftering watching the movie; often they make the 'plot' in the trailer more interesting than the movie.
      • Roger Ebert has often commented that trailors usually sell you the movie that the marketing people wish was made, rather than the actual film. For example, the trailers for "The Royal Tennenbaums" might lead you to believe that it's a wacky comedy in the tradition of "Meet the Parents" and "There's Something About Mary", when in fact it was a ponderous dark comedy like the director's first film, "Rushmore."

        I don't mind misleading trailers nearly as much as the ones that give too much away. For example, Disney's "Iron Will", a great flick about a dogsled race. The trailer showed the goddamned end of the race! I realize it was based on a true story, but it was a story that maybe 2% of moviegoers knew, and that's being generous.

        Then there are the trailers which both give away the ending, and mislead you about the kind of film it is. (spoiler warning) For example, a trailer for "Cast Away" showed Tom Hanks getting home and being alienated from the world he left behind. Not only was that giving away the ending (grrr!), but it also made it look like the last 2 or 3 reels were about a rescued castaway trying to adapt back to the world, a film that might have been interesting if done well... But, as you hopefully already know if you are reading this after the spoiler warning, that's not what the film was. The whole damn movie is about whether he will survive and be rescued or not, and the part after the rescue is a 10 minute epilogue at the end of a 2 and a half out movie.

    • > Take all the best parts of the movie ...

      I remember seeing the trailers for Hot Shots (that *awful* Top Gun parody) and thinking it looked pretty funny. When my buddies and I went to see it in the theater, we discovered that ALL of the previews came from the openning credits. Assuming the rest of the movie must suck (or else they would pull scenes from it) we left. Snuck into a different movie.

      Much later I rented the movie and was relieved that I left when I did in the theater.

      Come to think of it, that was the only time a movie trailer has ever done anything for me. Usually (at least lately) they serve only as spoilers for movies. Now I flip the channel whenever a preview for a movie I want to see comes on TV and I try to show up for movies late to avoid the trailers.

    • That's a teaser, this is a trailer... (Score:5, Funny)

      by isaac ( 2852 ) on Tuesday July 30, 2002 @04:06PM (#3981101)
      Take all the best parts of the movie. String them together in one 2-minute epileptic-seizure-inducing orgasm of light and sound, preferably with some modern rock/psuedo-metal song in the background. Stick your title on the end in a grunge or techno font along with "This movie has not yet been rated," and a release date between 6 months and a year into the future.

      No, that's a teaser.

      A trailer is where you start with some soothing an peaceful scene, when

      [Mike Oldfield's "Tubular Bells"/Sam the Sham & the Pharoahs' "Louie Louie"/Smashmouth's "All-Star"]

      starts playing and Don LaFontaine [everything2.com] intones the words "In a world

      [gone mad/where dreams come true/where shit happens]..."

      and some fast paced cuts show the the audience that this movie is supposed to be

      [scary/funny/action-packed].

      Then Mr. Fontaine tells us about the "one

      [man/woman/dog]

      [brave/smart/stupid]

      enough to

      [fight for something/change everything/screw everything up]"

      while we see our protagonist looking

      [determined/happy/dumb as a sack of hammers].

      Then a quick montage of the

      [funniest/exploding-est/tear-jerking-est]

      scenes interspersed with a voiceover telling us what

      [A-list/B-list/C-list]

      celebrities have top billing and that the movie is

      [based on a book by somebody/based on a true story/based on an older, better movie/from the director of some other movie that made money],

      then finally we get the title of the movie and a screenful of tiny text acknowledging all the people who got paid enough to feed a village in Botswana for a

      [month/year/decade]

      for their work on the film.

      This is a standard part of any film school curriculum, you see. Job applications in Hollywood test you on this stuff.

      -Isaac

    • Don't forget to have trailer-only dialog that is as good as or better than anything in the theatrical release. Men in Black, Major League 2, etc.

  • Narnia Movie (Score:3, Interesting)

    by DaytonCIM ( 100144 ) on Tuesday July 30, 2002 @02:58PM (#3980465) Homepage Journal
    A movie version of Narnia? Outstanding! I remember devouring the collection several times as a kid.

    Admittedly, I'm a little hesitant about how a filmmaker could bring CS Lewis' vision to the big screen, but I'll still fork over my $8.50 to see it.

    If the Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe does well, maybe some conglomerate studio can hire Tim Burton to film CS Lewis' other great book: The Screwtape Letters.
    • Actually, there ARE movie versions already, if you are eager to see some right now instead of waiting. I think they were PBS or BBC productions though, and it was more than a decade ago. But I remember them being fairly good.
      • Though, come to think of it, don't trust me on them being good or not: I was like seven when I saw them... back then I thought He-Man had great dialouge.
        • They ARE good! The feature the best Doctor from the Doctor Who series as Puddleglump in one of them. They were very well done for their time as far as special effects go. And the acting is way better that what one would expect from them. I still enjoy them and my parents have the set on tape.

          Kintanon

    • Re:Narnia Movie (Score:2, Informative)

      by turman81 ( 204429 )
      Actually, the BBC adapted a few (all?) of the books into a mini series in 1988. As I recall (and it has been since the fourth grade that I have seen them), they were all very good.

      Here is the link for the video (I don't feel like coding a link, sorry):

      http://www.bbcshop.com/bbc_shop/dept.asp?dept_id=4 62&shop=bbc

  • Narnia (Score:3, Interesting)

    by I_am_Rambi ( 536614 ) on Tuesday July 30, 2002 @02:58PM (#3980472) Homepage
    Every movie that comes out does not follow the book. LoTR followed very close to the book, but wasn't quite on target all the time. I have enjoyed reading the Narnia series, but am alittle weary of the movies. C.S. Lewis is a great author, and I would hate to see his books turned into not so great of movie. I just hope that the movies follow the story line very close for me to even think of going to watch/buy them.
    • I have enjoyed reading the Narnia series, but am alittle weary of the movies. C.S. Lewis is a great author, and I would hate to see his books turned into not so great of movie.

      The BBC series was VERY close to the books, as you might expect. (no damn hollywood "make it our own" motivation).

      I think they will remain the best 'screen' adaptation. I think narnia is best left as a very personal experience. As such, in some ways, I'm not sure it even belongs on "the big screen".

  • 2 minute movie trailers (Score:4, Funny)

    by maddskillz ( 207500 ) on Tuesday July 30, 2002 @02:59PM (#3980478)
    Getting a movie to fit into two minutes shouldn't be too dificult, since it has already been proven you can get five books into a trilogy

  • The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (Score:3, Insightful)

    by f00Dave ( 251755 ) on Tuesday July 30, 2002 @03:01PM (#3980500) Homepage
    I'm betting that they're going to attempt a Harry Potter/LotR of this classic. And I'm also betting that if they don't get precisely the right people, it's going to tank. Hard. My bet's on the tanking.... ;-)

    But anyway, it's sort of a shame to see the best literatre of my youth ("'The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe', 'Lord of the Rings', etcetera) turned into Hollywood extraveganzas. Where's the imagination? The visualization of the scenes and characters was, for me, the whole joy in those works? Perhaps it's just a sign of our times, that an active imagination is now considered to be a Bad Thing.

    Admittedly, a fantastic job has been done with LotR, so I'll keep my fingers crossed.
    • Just a side note they left out.

      All three "Lion, Witch, and Wardrobe" will be created using cgi. :-)
    • I grew up with these books and loved them. Same goes for Tolkien's work. Recently, I've enjoyed the Harry Potter books. Now, looking at the feature-film-adaptation craze, I'm worried about what could happen to Narnia.

      No offense to anyone here, but I for one wasn't terribly impressed with the LOTR movie. I thought it looked and sounded amazing. . .but I came away dissapointed at some of the changes to the story. I.e. Liv Tyler's part, Frodo's portrayal, changing the council, the hour-long moving-stairs thing, Galadrial's portrayal, etc. I understand that this is one man's interpretation of an epic, but still. . .

      After seeing Harry Potter, I thought that the movie did a MUCH better adaption of the book than LOTR did. The scenes that were removed made sense. The changes made the movie more accessible. They were not for the sake of adding hot actresses. After seeing the movie, I wanted to read the book, so I did--and enjoyed it. I don't think this is because I saw the movie before reading the book either.

      Looking ahead to the Chronicles, I'm somewhat worried. I see a potential for a lot of bad CG (wasn't Harry Potter's strongpoint either). I just hope that whoever helms the project reads the whole series along with a biography of C.S. Lewis (a fascinating man who was a very close friend of Tolkien's. Spoke many languages and was extremely christian) before looking at any script treatments. Also, he/she might want to watch the cartoon version, which I remember as being pretty close to the story and quite enjoyable.

      • I agree on LOTR: I feel many of the changes cannot be justified by a different media: they seemed far more like "a different market." The movie was good, but it gutted some of the most important themes and key interchanges not simply to save time, but to replace them with some rather pedestrian dialouge. How could anyone not include the interchange about Sauruman's cloak of many colors, the white page overwritten, and the path of wisdom? It was replaced with fairly dull bad guy taunts good guy dialog.
    • I'm betting that they're going to attempt a Harry Potter/LotR of this classic.

      They're going to sue any little kids who have the audacity to make it known that they are a fan (Harry Potter)/make a damn fine silver screen adaptation with plenty of subtle homoeroticism? [nyu.edu](LotR)

  • Narnia (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Com2Kid ( 142006 ) <com2kidSPAMLESS@gmail.com> on Tuesday July 30, 2002 @03:05PM (#3980535) Homepage Journal
    Great series of books, I read The Magicians Nephew and The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe in second grade, excellent series. C.S. Lewis's science fiction books are also rather nice, though he has a rather nasty habit of starting a series well and then having each successive book get worse and worse (lucky if you can read through the third one. . . .) but it was years ago that I last read C. S. Lewis so my opinions may change should I read those books again.

    Narnia has been banned from my local school district do to 'religious' content. Pisses me off, had it not been for Narnia there is a good chance that I would never have developed my love of reading. Liberals /can/ go to far at times. :

    And what the hell is wrong with /books/ with religious content? Hell it is OK to read every body elses religiously derived fiction but just not Christian religiously derived fiction? It seems to me that if church and state are to be separate, then the state should not work their asses of concentrating on just isolating out any one particular religion! As it is the removal of Narnia was an obvious attempt at "see we are't being biased, look here, we are removing Christian inspired literature! Yeeesh. That IS called bias folks!!!

    (By banned I mean it was banned from being read in the classroom as part of school work or assignments, students can still check them out from the Library of course, I mean they /are/ damn nearly classics and all. :-D )

    I do think that some of C. S. Lewis's works should be mandatory reading though if just to show students that things do NOT have to be the way that they are. My word, people cannot even IMAGINE that schools used to not have as much fighting or sex in them! .... Ugh! People must be reminded that it IS possible to get through schooling without punching and fucking your way from one class to the next. :(

    • Re:Narnia (Score:2, Interesting)

      by DaytonCIM ( 100144 )
      My Nephew spends six weeks every Summer with his Father and Step-Mother in Florida. Last Summer, his Step-Mother took him and his 3 Step-Brothers to the local bookstore and waited outside for 3 hours in order to buy Harry Potter books.

      My Nephew said the whole family read after Dinner.

      Then, he arrives this Summer and finds out that his Father's church has recently banned the book and now he and his Step-Borthers are forbidden from reading it, watching the movie, or discussing the story.

      My 9 year-old Nephew's comment: "What's different between this Summer and last?"

      Sad...
    • Liberals /can/ go too far at times.

      Why is that such a revelation?

    • Re:Narnia (Score:3, Insightful)

      by goldmeer ( 65554 )
      (By banned I mean it was banned from being read in the classroom as part of school work or assignments, students can still check them out from the Library of course, I mean they /are/ damn nearly classics and all. :-D )

      Do they use Greek Mythology as part of school work or assignments? If so, I smell a double standard that may need exploration.

      • Do they use Greek Mythology as part of school work or assignments? If so, I smell a double standard that may need exploration.



        Oh hell yes, heck 3 months was spent on Muslim culture, a good year on Chinese religion and culture, 2 months on Mexican Folklore, and so forth. Very comprehensive education in every area BUT Christianity. (well, not completely true, the Spanish Inquisition and such was covered marvelously, but the entire mythos was ignore)
      • Do they use Greek Mythology as part of school work or assignments? If so, I smell a double standard that may need exploration.

        Maybe Lewis can get back into the classrom with "Til We Have Faces"
    • ---Narnia has been banned from my local school district do to 'religious' content.---

      Which district is this? Seems pretty whack of them: do they also ban T.S. Eliot's the Wasteland? Lewis's book isn't even singualrly Christian: though I could see how class discussion (which is what classroom interaction would involve) couldn't avoid but talk about the Christian allegory, and maybe its that discussion that they fear.

      ---I do think that some of C. S. Lewis's works should be mandatory reading though if just to show students that things do NOT have to be the way that they are.---

      Isn't this what MOST fiction, especially fantasy fiction, "shows." Not that I agree with banning Lewis from assingments, but this comment seems a little silly.

      ---People must be reminded that it IS possible to get through schooling without punching and fucking your way from one class to the next. :(---

      And reading Lewis will do all that?
    • Liberals /can/ go to far at times.

      As can conservatives... but I'll agree that banning books because they were inspired by religion is absurd.
    • Did they also ban The Illiad and The Odyssey? How about Les Miserables? Once you open that can of worms, things can get, well, messy.

      I seem to recall the Bible being available in my high school library, along with a copy of the Book of Mormon that looked like it had never been checked out. I don't recall a copy of the Koran, but I know the Bhagavata Gita (sp?) was there.

    • Narnia has been banned from my local school district do to 'religious' content... Liberals /can/ go to far at times. :

      Lewis got his revenge on these idiots in advance through his withering commentary on exactly this kind of thinking in the book "The Abolition of Man". (As well as his description of Eustace's parents and the school they sent him to.) The Abolition of Man should be required reading for the school administrators that made this decision (or ALL school administrators for that matter).
      Lewis on the students of this type of education:

      That is their day's lesson in English, though of English they have learned nothing. Another portion of the human heritage has been quietly taken from them before they were old enough to understand.
      Lewis on the administrators:

      It is an outrage that they should be commonly spoken of as intellectuals. This gives them the chance to say that he who attacks them attacks Intelligence. It is not so.... It is not excess of thought but defect of fertile and generous emotion that marks them out. Their heads are no bigger than the ordinary: it is the atrophy of the chest beneath that makes them seem so.

    • Narnia has been banned from my local school district do to 'religious' content. Pisses me off...

      That's just plain idiotic. Narnia's a far cry from, say, the Screwtape Letters. What are they going to do next, ban Shakespere for Christian overtones?

      Liberals /can/ go to far at times.

      Heh, so can conservatives. Harry Potter comes most immediately to mind.

      I think we should teach kids about all the different major religions, including the holy books of each, so that we can give both evangelicals and atheists a massive coronary.

      I do think that some of C. S. Lewis's works should be mandatory reading though if just to show students that things do NOT have to be the way that they are. My word, people cannot even IMAGINE that schools used to not have as much fighting or sex in them! .... Ugh! People must be reminded that it IS possible to get through schooling without punching and fucking your way from one class to the next. :(

      OK, so help me out here. Exactly how is C S Lewis, in particular, supposed to accomplish this?

      • Re:Narnia (Score:2, Insightful)

        by rodgerd ( 402 )
        Because Lewis' hatred of women will give the next generation appropriate ideas about how to relate.

        Lewis was in many reagrds a fine writer, but he was also a deeply fucked up guy with serious problems vis-a-vis women. He was a strong opponent of tertiary education for women (unlike his friend Tolkien), amongst other things.
    • though he has a rather nasty habit of starting a series well and then having each successive book get worse and worse (lucky if you can read through the third one. . . .)

      In your particular situation of being pissed at the local school district for banning Lewis' religiously inspired books you may enjoy "That Hideous Strength" more on a second reading. The whole book is a commentary lampooning & warning against the kind of thinking that goes into such a decision.

    • Re:Narnia (Score:4, Interesting)

      by tshak ( 173364 ) on Tuesday July 30, 2002 @06:18PM (#3982439) Homepage
      Narnia has been banned from my local school district do to 'religious' content.

      Although there was religious inspiration, there was no religious dogma. The same goes for LoTR. Both Lewis and Tolkien collaborated at times and both were known Christians. And what about Madeleine L'Engle? An incredible author with incredible books, also influenced by Christianity. Also, Atheism is just as much a world view as [Insert Religion Here]. All books are influenced by the authors worldview. The problem comes when these worldviews are taught as "The Right View" in a public school system. I don't think any of the mentioned books are selling a worldview of any sort. It's one thing to study a religious text in class, and then preach it as being the Truth. It's another to read a fictional story that is mearly influenced by the authors worldview.

    • Re:Narnia (Score:3, Insightful)

      by ruin ( 141833 )
      Narnia has been banned from my local school district do to 'religious' content. Pisses me off, had it not been for Narnia there is a good chance that I would never have developed my love of reading.

      The funny thing is, when I first read this post, for a second I was vaguely ticked off that someone might ban a book based on its simple religious allusions, but then a little voice in the back of my head said "yeah, right. Nobody banned any 'Chronicles of Narnia.'"

      By banned I mean it was banned from being read in the classroom as part of school work or assignments, students can still check them out from the Library of course

      A few seconds later, and it turns out that little voice was correct. "Banned" in this case is being incorrectly used to mean "not included in the curriculum." Big deal. Lots of books weren't included in the curriculum. Those crazy liberals! They ban books but forget to like, try to stop anyone from reading them.

      People must be reminded that it IS possible to get through schooling without punching and fucking your way from one class to the next

      I hate people like this cause they talk about high school like it's one long orgy of drug use, oral sex, compulsory homosexuality, and secular indoctrination. If that's the case, then WHY DIDN'T I GET ANY?

  • Adams (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Skyshadow ( 508 ) on Tuesday July 30, 2002 @03:07PM (#3980551) Homepage
    When I read (on /.) that Adams had died, I pulled my leather-bound copy of Hitchhiker down off the shelf, flipped to a random page and started reading.

    I happened to open to the bit where they go to see God's final message to his creation. I'm not normally a very emotional person, but when I was reading that I cried like a little kid. For a geek like me, Adams was my John Lennon -- hearing that there just wasn't going to be anymore stories made the world seem gray.

    I wonder if the book made up from his notes is worthwhile, or if it'll just seem.. I dunno... wrong.

  • Aslan (Score:2, Funny)

    by Skyfire ( 43587 )
    Heh, they should get Sean Connery to be the voice of Aslan. That would rock
  • Just a comment really... The Narnia books were some of my favorites as a child. I also remember rushing home to watch the (somewhat brutal) live TV show that told the stories. I would look forward to a good movie based on them.

    My real point of this post is I often comment that I think Harry Potter really isn't that different from the Narnia books. I think the success is just a product of modern marketing on something of quality. If C. S. Lewis was writing now, I think we would see the series become a wild success, just like Potter.

    I am not really commenting on the quality of the movie, more the books. The movie was alright, and it did stay true to the story, but it was not a classic or anything. I think the C. S. Lewis books would be the same way if they were coming out now. Great books, enjoyed and loved by poeple around the world, but they would also become a piece of pop culture. 1000's of toys and games, movies, etc. of varying quality would come of them.

  • Problem with publishers Rant. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by teamhasnoi ( 554944 ) <teamhasnoi@yahoA ... inus threevowels> on Tuesday July 30, 2002 @03:16PM (#3980629) Journal
    Whoever here has read the Books of Narnia may be interested to know that the publishers in their 'infinite wisdom' :P have rearranged the series so "The Magican's Nephew" is the first book in the series. This is very annoying. Yes, I know that you can just read them in the original order, however, new readers of the series are denied CS Lewis's original vision through ignorance of the change. I fear this change will make it to the movie (plus a ton of Harry Potter-esqe BS that is incongruous with the story).

    The series should stay the way it was written, not re-ordered [narnia.com] by a focus group and committee. This is what leads to mediocre films, books, and music.

    See also: Ren and Stimpy, The Simpsons, NSYNC & Britney (and their ilk), Dr. Pepper Red Fusion, New Coke, any Disney anything, Windows ME, ect.

    I know repackaging "content" and the like is a fine way to make an extra buck when the bottom line needs a push and nobody wants to take a chance, but just leave it alone already!

    • The Magician's Nephew clearly sets the stage for the rest of the series, regardless of when, exactly, it was written. I was fortunate enough as a child to have come across and read that book first, and was always bothered by the fact that it wasn't packaged as the first book in the series! That they now do so is good news indeed. It was always far more annoying to me as a child to see others reading the books out of order and feeling that they were missing out on the best possible storytelling experience.
    • This Link [factmonster.com] shows the timeline for Narnia.
      I have no idea if C.S. Lewis thought the books should be read out of chronological order or not, but the current order is in the correct chronology.

    • Re:Problem with publishers Rant. (Score:4, Informative)

      by xA40D ( 180522 ) on Tuesday July 30, 2002 @04:31PM (#3981377) Homepage

      I first read the Narnia books when I was about 10. They have to be the first books I ever read that I still read today.

      When I first expressed an interest in the Narnia books I was told that The Magician's Nephew was the first. But as my Grandparent's copy had dissapeared I was given The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe first, and The Magician's Nephew second (when my constant moaning forced the purchase of a replacement copy). I then read the remainder in chronological order.

      Some 20 years later I've just discovered the order I've always thought was correct was wrong. On reflection I'm sure that reading The Magician's Nephew second taught me something valuable about literature. When I discovered that there was a "correct" order I just knew I had to read them in that order.

      A quick google lead to this link [demon.co.uk]. Which indicates that there are actually 3 orders, the chronological order, the published order, and the written order. There is also some evidence presented that Lewis expressed a mild preference for the chronological order

      So I suppose the "correct" order is the one you believe in. So I think I'm going to go back to thinking as The Magician's Nephew as the "second" book. And then I'll follow the written order.

    • Actually, Lewis himself preferred the "updated" version of the books. The revised order of the books was originally suggested by a younger relative of Lewis. In his Letters to Children book, he writes to the young boy and tells him that he thinks the new order of the books is more suitable.
  • I was looking back over Walden's site, after I submitted the story about the movies.

    Here [walden.com] is their official press release. For those too lazy (like me) to go, it summarizes the Chronicles and the movie plans. It also has the date of the official announcement: December 6, 2001.

    I guess they weren't doing a huge amount to publicize it. I hadn't heard anything about it until today. Ah well. It was probably overlooked due to the release of LotR.

    Hmmmm.... How about an actual release date of Christmas 2004 for Narnia? We'll be done with The Trilogy [lordoftherings.net] in 2003. We'll need some kind of good fantasy in 2004.
  • By John Christopher (Trilogy;) "The White Mountains" (1967), "The City of Gold and Lead" (1967), "The Pool of Fire" (1968). "The Lotus Caves" (1969).

    The House with a Clock in Its Walls (The first book in the Lewis Barnavelt series) (1972) by John Bellairs

    and Lloyd Alexander's Prydain Chronicles
    The Book of Three, The Black Cauldron (got the Disney Treatment :( , The Castle of Llyr , Taran Wanderer , The High King .

    Yeah, they're all 'adolescent' books, but all very good, and are worth finding. Besides, didn't everyone read 'The Hobbit' when they were 12?

    • I'd really like to see Prydain on the big screen, but it probably doesn't have the popularity required to sustain doing every book in the series. The alternative would be "inspired by" amalgamations like Disney's The Black Cauldron (which was okay as a kids film, and heck got me reading the books and indeed reading in general).
    • There's an English TV series of The Tripods, and according to this [demon.co.uk] the first season is available on DVD (althought the second never will be).

      You're right, though, that Christopher is great. Loved him when I was a kid.
  • And finally, there's an interesting piece about the process of turning a two-hour movie into a two-minute trailer.

    I thought they usually worked the other way around in Hollywood these days...

  • Don't watch The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe! (Score:3, Insightful)

    by nagora ( 177841 ) on Tuesday July 30, 2002 @04:46PM (#3981622)

    If, like I did, you remember the Narnia books as being one of the high points of your childhood, for pity's sake leave it like that. Returning to the material as an adult reveals them to be the most hopelessly inept and clumsy stream of the most sickly Christian propaganda ever written. ONLY children could read this stuff without feeling nauseous.

    Leave the memory intact is my advice.

    TWW

  • Adaptions of three of the books were already made into movies for PBS in the late 80's and early 90's if you're wondering what they might look like on the big screen.

    All are available on August 27th.

    The Silver Chair [amazon.com]
    Prince Caspian [amazon.com]
    The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe [amazon.com]

    Ben

  • There are already live-action versions of three of the Narnia books "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe", "The Silver Chair", and "Prince Caspian". See here [guidinglightvideo.com].

    They aren't master works of film by any means, but they aren't too bad and are probably available at your local public library (if you're in the states). I and my younger sister both enjoyed them.

  • Narnia movies (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Daimaou ( 97573 ) on Tuesday July 30, 2002 @05:21PM (#3981992)
    While I love movies and would go see this one, it is a little disappointing to see books like The Lord of the Rings and the Narnia series released as movies.

    As a kid I remember reading the Hobbit. It was the first book I ever read outside of school assignments.

    The words were hypnotic and the story almost intoxicating to me. It unleashed a power, which ignited my imagination in ways I had never known before. I couldn't put it down. Once I finished The Hobbit, I wanted, or rather needed, more. Dark corners of my mind had suddenly been flooded with wonder and excitement and I could not allow them to dim.

    After The Hobbit, I read The Lord of the Rings and then the Narnia series and many other books.

    The hobby of reading everything in sight is still with me today; and is not limited to fiction or fantasy. I firmly believe that I learned much more from reading books growing up than I ever did in school.

    Books offered me so much it is beyond my capacity to describe the benefits. Movies, while entertaining, are not able to offer the same and it is for this reason I am disappointed. I think many children will see the movie and miss out on the thaumaturgic properties of literature.

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