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October 21, 2004 - November 02, 2004

News for Nov. 02, 2004

Narnia Battle Sequence to be Filmed

11/02/04, 12:56 pm EST - Xoanon

Walt Disney Pictures says that The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe production team is moving to New Zealand's South Island this month to film the much anticipated battle sequence. The battle scenes will take six weeks to film before production wraps in New Zealand and heads to Prague. [More]

News for Oct. 26, 2004

Movie makers give CS Lewis Lord Of The Rings treatment

10/26/04, 9:28 pm EST - Xoanon

It was a friendship that thrived on a complex fantasy world, created in an English pub, that produced some of the most memorable literary characters ever written. Now a new film by a Scottish-based director will celebrate the real-life fellowship of two literary giants, JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis. [More]

News for Oct. 25, 2004

Live from the Narnia Set: Parts 1 & 2

10/25/04, 4:17 pm EST - Xoanon

From cinecon.com: Below is Part 1 from our on-going coverage of Walt Disney Pictures' "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe" due out December 2005. We recently sent Jenny Halper to New Zealand for an insider's report. Be sure to keep checking back to Cinema Confidential for more from Jenny, as well as other features and exclusive looks. [Part 1] [Part 2]

News for Oct. 22, 2004

Narnia Wolves in Action

10/22/04, 6:22 pm EST - Tehanu

Yesterday there was a media fest out at Mark Vette's Animal Rescue park, where Narnia's pack of wolves is being kept for the duration of filming. The Holmes Show on TV1 has a video clip of the wolves and their trainers HERE - look under the heading "Narnia Wolves Say Goodbye."


Lamp Post Productions also sent out a press release about the wolves and their trainers:

"The film company imported ten wolves from Sled Reynolds' Los Angeles-based habitat, Gentle Jungle, one of Hollywood's foremost providers of domestic and exotic animals to the motion picture/television industry. Mr. Reynolds has been working with animals in Hollywood for over thirty years, and counts among his credits "Dances with Wolves," "Hannibal," "Gladiator," "The Ghost and the Darkness," and "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade," among dozens of others. He is assisted on-set by a team of trainers that includes Eadie MacMullen, who trained in Los Angeles in the renowned Exotic Animal Training program and has been affiliated with Gentle Jungle for ten years.

"The wolf pack brought into New Zealand for the film includes seven males and three females (six of whom are siblings). The two wolves who play the key characters of Maugrim and Vardan are two-year-old siblings Ricky and Bob (the voices of both have yet to be cast). The brothers are joined onscreen by siblings Mike, Ronnie, Sarah and Bella. Their father, Rio, who is now 10 years old, joins them on-camera, along with five-year-old male, Maverick, three-year-old Rugby and 4 1/2-year-old Luna, the third female of the pack.

"New Zealander Mark Vette is also a veteran of local filmmaking, with credits ranging from "The Piano" to "Once Were Warriors" to TV's "Hercules." Mr. Vette also runs a local rescue zoo called Animals on Q, a small Zoo set up to house forgotten circus animals. When the previous owner could no longer cope with caring for the animals, Mr. Vette and his wife, Rosie, took possession of the 200 animals in July 2003. The couple has worked around the clock upgrading rundown enclosures and ensuring the Zoo’s inhabitants are healthy and happy."

Movie spies right out of a Hollywood script

10/22/04, 4:19 pm EST - Xoanon

It has the makings of a rollicking script for a Revenge of the Nerds sequel: geeks give themselves cool codenames, create a website for movie spy reports, develop the power to make or break big-budget projects, and then launch careers as scriptwriters. [More]

Imports pack down for fantasy film

10/22/04, 4:14 pm EST - Xoanon

Rugby turns up his nose and won't howl on command for a tiny dog biscuit. He would rather wolf down a bit of chicken, says animal trainer Eadie McMullan. The two-year-old wolf is one of 10 timber wolves imported to New Zealand from the US to star in the fantasy film The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. [More]

Official Narnia Images

10/22/04, 11:11 am EST - Xoanon

Official Narnia Images

The folks from Walt Disney Studios sent along the official logo for 'The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe' as well as samples of those amazing pre-production images seen online for the past few months. [More]

News for Oct. 21, 2004

Ten Minute Teaser of Narnia Film

10/21/04, 10:22 pm EST - Tehanu

An anonymous correspondent, who knows people working on the Narnia sets, wrote in with some exciting news.

"...you may not be aware of this, but at the beginning of last week the entire main unit crew was treated to a 10 minute teaser of the movie, with all the completed footage cut together to music. My two [contacts'] reactions were interesting – both thought it looked very slick and polished, the creatures were great ... The teaser was done as a way to thank the crew and keep the morale and energy up and it definitely worked – people were, on the whole, very impressed."

The crew may well have needed a pick-me-up of this kind. Reportedly, they've been working very long hours. My informant wrote, "... they are keeping on track with those very long hours so I guess it’s all working out in the end."


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