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Angus Bickerton, Visual Effects Supervisor for the Dawn Treader.

There is a tiny bit of interesting news about The Voyage of the Dawn Treader Dufflepuds, thanks to Lee Ravitz’s resume. His resume states “Role: Dufflepud (Green Screen VFX Test Shots Only) / Production: Voyage of the Dawn Treader / Director: Angus Bickerton.”

This is intriguing because it implies a few things: First, based on the fact Lee Ravitz is doing green screen tests, it seems the Dufflepuds will be CGI created rather than hiring little people to act in the roles like Trumpkin and Nikabrik. Second, Lee Ravitz, according to his profile is 5′ 9″ so it looks like they could be making the Dufflepuds in a similar way to Gimli in Lord of the Rings. Whether they’ll film actors and shrink them down or have the Dufflepuds fully CGI remains to be seen.

And finally, just as a side note, Angus Bickerton is the Visual Effects Supervisor for the Dawn Treader.

You can check out Lee Ravitz’s resume here.

Huge thanks to icarus for the heads up!

MundoNarnia has posted some possible storyboards for The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, drawn by Thomas Nelson.

Storyboard: Caspian and Bern riding into Narrowhaven (?)

Storyboard: Landscape with mountain, possibly castle

You can see MundoNarnia’s article and the rest of the images here.

Thomas Nelson, whose online portfolio can be seen here, also did storyboard art for Prince Caspian.

(Please note that we originally were showcasing more pictures here but have been asked to remove some of them.)

If you live in Australia and would like a shot at being in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, StarNow has posted several roles the production is casting for. From StarNow.co.uk: We are currently casting for a number of various roles as listed below for the feature film – Chronicles Of Narnia starting filming from 15th July – 15th November 2009. Location: All states, Australia. Payment details: PAID – Award.

Young Nurse
Any gender, aged 18 to 23 from Australia
Late teens – Early 20s, female, attractive saying goodbye to her (Young Soldier) boyfriend. Visual – nice cameo

Young Soldier
Males, aged 18 to 23 from Australia
Late teens – early 20s, good looking, about to go off to war saying goodbye to his girlfriend (Young Nurse). Visual – nice cameo.

Older Soldier
Males, aged 25 to 32 from Australia
Role type: Supporting role Breakdown:Bit rough, not a pretty boy, has attitude. 1 line dialogue.

Intake Soldier – Actors ONLY
Males, aged 35 to 45 from Australia
Late 30s-45, seasoned soldier, saw action in the last war (WW1) and now responsible for the intake of new soldiers. Couple of lines.

Mediterranean man
Males, aged 30 to 45 from Australia
Mediterranean, fit, man of the sea. Dialogue – good role.

Applications are being accepted through July 15. If you are interested in auditioning, go here to send in your applications and good luck to all of you who give it a shot!

It is interesting that there will be soldiers in this movie as well as the other two. And apparently the time on Earth (as opposed to Narnia) will be expanded. But perhaps the Mediterranean man will be Drinian or Rhince or Rynelf? Can’t wait to see how this plays out!

Huge thanks to icarus for the find!

UPDATE: Casting is now complete and applications are no longer being accepted.

The Independent’s Alice Jones posted an interview with Ben Barnes this morning, in which the actor discusses his sudden rise to fame, some of the stress it’s brought along, and how he feels about hair extensions due to his role in Prince Caspian. He also talks about his work in Easy Virtue and The Picture of Dorian Gray, and the kind of roles he’s looking for in the future. You can read the interview here. Thanks Lucy P. for the link!

From the HeraldSun.com.au (new information is in bold):

The multi-million dollar Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader will be filmed on the Gold Coast and in Brisbane this year, Premier Anna Bligh told state Parliament today.
Ms Bligh says the Walden Media/Twentieth Century Fox feature film will employ about 2000 Queenslanders during production.
“This means more jobs for extras, wardrobe assistants, make-up artists, drivers, production staff, set designers, set builders who will gain work and valuable experience during the production,” Ms Bligh said.

Locations include Doug Jennings Park on The Spit at the Gold Coast and Cleveland Point in Brisbane’s bayside.
Ms Bligh said more Gold Coast locations were being negotiated.
“We faced some very stiff competition for this production from NSW and New Zealand,” she said.
“Our location, our infrastructure, our personnel were critical in securing the production.”

Read the full report here.

This is slightly old news (hey, better late than never right?) but Ben Barnes has been cast in the movie Valediction. According to an MTV interview with co-star Eliza Dushku, the film centers around a car accident, which leaves Josh’s (Ben) daughter Brooke in a coma. But there’s more to the crash than meets the eye, according to Eliza, who adds that the film is being characterized as a “contemporary psychological thriller.” Thanks to everyone who sent this report in!

NarniaWebber Odette attended the ‘Engaging the Culture’ weekend this April at Asbury College and had the opportunity to meet Micheal Flaherty. Here’s her report for NarniaWeb.

I was able to attend the “Engaging Culture Weekend” at Asbury College on behalf of NarniaWeb!

Me with the Asbury sign—in my "Highbridge Film Festival" shirt!

First of all, I want to say to the skeptics of the movie version of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, of which I was one before this weekend, there’s nothing to worry about! You’ll have to take my word that the important moments of the The Voyage of the Dawn Treader book are staying accurate, and that it will be a great movie!

Asbury College Admissions allowed me to stay with a student, gave me meal tickets, and arranged for me to attend all the events for free! So, thank you to Asbury College Admissions!

On the first evening of the “Engaging Culture Weekend” the music department showcased their talents with a performance of “Sounds of Stage and Screen.” It was a musical revue of movie soundtracks and Broadway musicals. The hand bell choir did an awesome rendition of the Pirates of the Caribbean theme, so I thought they could have done a Chronicles of Narnia theme, but they didn’t!

The next morning, I missed the first workshop of the weekend, “Engaging Culture with Film,” to take a tour of the campus. I’m glad I took the tour, because otherwise I might have missed the C. S. Lewis corner of the college library! I checked it out thoroughly later.

After the tour was chapel, where the speaker was Micheal Flaherty, president of Walden Media, the producers of the Chronicles of Narnia movies. I caught a glimpse of Mr. Flaherty before chapel, and got a chance to speak with his host, Greg Bandy, to confirm being able to interview Mr. Flaherty.

Mr. Flaherty in chapel...my camera sometimes takes blurry pictures...sorry!

In chapel, Mr. Flaherty talked about Walden Media’s mission of expanding children’s imaginations and making good films for kids. He said the vision for the company came from Lewis’ statement in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader that Eustace Scrubb was unimaginative because he read all the wrong books. Walden Media strives to encourage children to read and imagine. Mr. Flaherty also mentioned in passing that Walden Media is hoping to start filming the movie version of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader this summer. (A fact that most NarniaWebbers and Narnia fans knew already.) The entire chapel message can be heard on the Asbury College chapel website at http://www.asbury.edu/chapel/podcasts (look for the 4.24.09 message).

I was able to meet with Mr. Flaherty after chapel. I had hoped to do an official, taped interview, but he asked to be off-the-record. All I can say is that from what he told me, we NarniaWebbers should be very excited about The Voyage of the Dawn Treader!!!

Mr. Flaherty and I!!

Because of the interview, I missed the beginning of the second workshop, “Subversive Storytelling,” so I went to lunch and then checked out the C. S. Lewis section of the library. It has all of Lewis’ writings, several commentaries, and many videos including the old BBC versions and the new The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, but NOT the new Prince Caspian. There’s also some concept art from Prince Caspian and a wardrobe–complete with fake firs inside and a fan art of Mr. Tumnus and the lamppost. I took a picture of me going into the wardrobe.

Me entering the Wardrobe!

What the C.S. Lewis section looks like...

The concept art of Prince Caspian.

I attended the rest of the workshops—”Theatre in the Trenches,” “The Art and Business of Producing Creative Media that Matters,” and “Auditioning for Film.” They were all pretty interesting. All were filmed in order to be posted online, but I haven’t found them on Asbury College’s website yet.

The last workshop of the day was a presentation by Dr. Devin Brown, author of the Inside Narnia and Inside Prince Caspian books, called “The Spiritual and Character Lessons from the Narnia Films.” The title basically sums up the content of the workshop! At the end, Dr. Brown and Mr. Flaherty answered questions about the Narnia books and films. I did want to highlight a few things that Mr. Flaherty said about The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. First, Dr. Brown asked Mr. Flaherty to answer “yes” or “no” to a series of questions about The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

Dr. Brown: “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is being made?”

Mr. Flaherty: “Yes. Some things need to work out, but it is on a very good path to being in production this summer.”

Dr. Brown: “It’s going to be a great movie?”

Mr. Flaherty: “Yes.”

Dr. Brown: “It’ll be filled with great adventure like the ones we’ve already looked at?”

Mr. Flaherty: “Yes. It’ll be a great adventure—it’ll feel closer in tone and spirit to The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. It has all the themes that people enjoy about the book. Eustace is one of the best realized characters we’ve had in any film—the writers and Michael Apted have nailed Eustace the same way that Andrew [Adamson] really understood Lucy. It’s incredibly bittersweet at the end when Lucy and Edmund realize that they’re not coming back to Narnia as well. Definitely very excited about that one.”

Later, he mentioned that his favorite character is Reepicheep, which bodes well for our fearless warrior. Also, he said that one of his favorite scenes from the Chronicles of Narnia is the un-dragoning of Eustace and how it emphasizes the fact that grace cannot be earned and that forgiveness is a gift. Hopefully, this means that this scene has stayed accurate!

At the Narnia workshop, I randomly met a NarniaWeb fan (she’s not a member YET) named Sarah. We ended up spending the rest of the weekend together! She’s a great gal and I really enjoyed her company! On Saturday, we went to the theatre performance, 12 Angry Jurors (an AMAZING stage adaptation of the 1957 movie 12 Angry Men), and the “Highbridge Film Festival” (the culmination of the “Engaging Culture Weekend,” a competition of student-made 8-minute films). Mr. Flaherty was a judge for the “Highbridge Film Festival,” but all we saw of him was when the judges were introduced. The “Highbridge Film Festival” was the last event of the weekend, so I returned home the next day.

Me in front of the "Highbridge Film Festival" signs in my "Highbridge Film Festival" shirt!!

**I do need to make sure I include some thank-yous and credit all the people who helped me! I want to thank everyone at Asbury College for their kindness and help! Thanks to: Abby, the admissions worker who gave me a place to stay, food, and admission to all the weekend’s festivities; Kate, my host, who provided a bed, friends, and tons of fun!; Abigail, the best tour guide at Asbury EVER!; all of Kate’s friends who accepted me and let me join in their merrymaking; Dr. Devin Brown, for being so welcoming and for being a true scholar of Lewis. I especially want to thank Professor Greg Bandy for setting up this weekend and for allowing time for me to be able to meet Mr. Flaherty. Thank you very much to Mr. Flaherty for allowing me to talk with you as well as being so kind to me!!**

Finally, a GIANT thank you to NarniaWeb, especially Tirian and Rilian, for allowing me to report on the weekend and for permitting me to represent NarniaWeb to Asbury and everyone there!

Thanks Odette for your great report!

NarniaWeb Spy PeaceandLove wrote in to point out an interesting item on the resume of Stephen Morahan, a draughtsman who worked with Michael Apted on The World is Not Enough. The resume includes this job: “NARNIA – THE VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER, Details of Experience: CAD drawing of Dawn Treader ship hull steelwork for the Art Department including 3D model to check the hull profile, 2007.” What this implies is that the ship, the Dawn Treader, has been fully designed and engineered since 2007, probably because the production hadn’t anticipated being pushed back so far. Of course the exciting part is that if the production hasn’t started already, they should start building the Dawn Treader in the next few weeks in anticipation for filming at the end of July and beginning of August!

On Friday, June 19 at 8:00pm EST, Disney Channel will be showing “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” with no commercial interuptions. Thanks to ’Nania Lover,’ ’Glenstorm the Great,’ and ’De’ for the alert!