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Best Buy is currently offering a free ticket to see Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland with the purchase of select Disney DVDs. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Prince Caspian are both on the list (single-disc widescreen editions). The DVDs are going for just $10. View details here. The offer expires April 4.  Alice in Wonderland hits theaters on Friday, March 5.

IMDb has posted a picture of Roy Billing in costume as the Chief Dufflepud. He is standing on the “magician’s garden” set we have already seen pictures of:

The production has asked us to remove the photo and we have complied.

The Dufflepuds are one of the most memorable parts of the book, but they will likely be challenging to visualize for the screen. We don’t know much about how they will be achieved. Will they be entirely computer-generated? Or half CG, half makeup (e.g. Tumnus)? All we know is that green screen tests were shot during pre-production. This picture seems to suggest that at least their upper body will be filmed on set, but it may also be that Billings just wore this to interact with the actors on set and will eventually be replaced with a fully computer-generated character.

Another issue is the character’s height. According to the book, the Dufflepuds are about dwarf-sized, but Billings is certainly not. Will they find ways to make him appear shorter, like the hobbits in The Lord of the Rings?

Thanks to Grant for the find!

Narnianos.com has discovered two public Facebook Fan Pages we thought might be of interest to everybody. The first page is for Zach Kibria who plays a Dawn Treader sailor and can be found here. The second page is for Tony Nixon who plays Rynelf and can be found here.
Both contain new pictures from filming on the set of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and are pretty fun to check out.
Thanks to icarus for the heads-up!

We’ve been approached by some scholastic researchers from Regent University who are conducting a study about fan reaction to the first two Narnia films. If you would like to take the survey, you will have a chance to win some great prizes including the Weta bookend set. The survey takes about 20 minutes to fill out. Click here for the survey.

The New Zealand Herald interviewed Shane Rangi this past week about his motion capture and stunt work on several movies he’s been involved with. There are a couple little snippets about The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and Prince Caspian. If you’re into the technical side of things, you can check out the interview here. Shane has played many characters for the Narnia movies, including three different minotaurs, the bear in PC that attacks Lucy, and the Wer-wolf.

Walden Media and Twentieth Century Fox hosted a Narnia event for Christian leaders this weekend in Los Angeles. My wife and I were privileged to be able to attend and to represent NarniaWeb. On Friday night, we attended a panel discussion moderated by Hugh Hewitt with the filmmakers and were able to see a few minutes of Dawn Treader. I’ll share with you some initial thoughts and information gleaned from the event, but I don’t want to spoil too much for our readers. I’ll tell you, though, to start off that I absolutely loved what I saw of the film and loved what Michael Apted had to say about his vision for the film.

Narnia Panel Discussion

The first group in the Narnia discussion panel was Professor Devin Brown of Asbury College (and author of Inside Narnia), Walden Media President Micheal Flaherty, and Douglas Gresham, the stepson of C.S. Lewis. They told the story of how Walden got the franchise in the first place and about how this film came to be. Gresham also shared some anecdotes about life with Jack (C.S. Lewis).

The next panel was made up of David Weil (CEO of Anschutz Film Group) and Elizabeth Gabler (President of Fox 2000 Pictures). David told the story of moving the production from Disney to Fox and Elizabeth shared that she had flown to New York to try to secure the rights to The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe at the same time that Walden was doing so. She was disappointed not to secure the rights to make the films so when the opportunity came up to work on Dawn Treader she jumped at it.

Concept Art

Next, Michael Apted and Mark Johnson were interviewed. He shared that this is a very character-driven film and that it is not going to be a film that has special effects without any real content. He said this movie is about temptation and learning how to overcome it, wrapped in an adventure story. Michael then took us through a 20-minute presentation with concept art and a few still frames to give us the basic outline of the movie. He described the five islands, where we’ll see them, and what will happen on each one. He also pointed out how each island will have a different and unique look to it.

I’m not going to go into a lot of depth here or share a lot of spoilers, but I will tell you that the concept art looks very good. Some of the still shots in particular show the tremendous work of cinematographer Dante Spinotti. There were shots of Goldwater and the sailing Dawn Treader which blew me away. Just the concept art that we were shown of Aslan at the end of the film made my heart catch in my throat.

Apted’s description of the movie’s storyline made a lot of sense. I can now see the storyline complete with changes that they’ve made and the rough outlook seems like it will work really well.

A Super Trailer

Finally, we were treated to about five minutes of the film. The format was that of a trailer, with small 5-20 second scenes one after another. There were some shots that weren’t complete yet and still needed the full CGI treatment. Toward the end of the presentation it began to feel a bit more like a trailer with quick shots and cuts back and forth. I’d say the whole piece together could be described as a super-trailer.

Without giving away too much, I will mention a few things about the footage we saw. There were shots of the transition into Narnia and some shots onboard the Dawn Treader with Eustace (quite funny). We saw some interaction between Lucy and Gael and quite a lot of shots of Lucy in the magician’s house. There were a few finished shots of Reepicheep, several “beauty shots” of the Dawn Treader sailing, and some incredible shots of the entrance to Aslan’s Country from the end of the film. Liam Neeson’s lines have been recorded so we heard Aslan several times throughout the footage.

Can’t Wait For This Film

As you can imagine, it was intensely exciting getting to see these first images from the film. My first impressions are that Michael Apted’s Narnia “feels” like the same Narnia that we’ve seen on film so far. The new director has brought a new energy and vision to the project, but the continuity between the previous films is vastly encouraging. The visuals are completely stunning. As good as we thought the Dawn Treader looked during filming, it looks much better on screen and sailing on the water–just absolutely phenomenal! All the footage that I have seen tells me that this is going to be a very well-built, well-paced film with a lot of attention to detail and character.

I’d like to thank to Walden Media, Twentieth Century Fox, and Grace Hill Media (event hosts) for the invitation this weekend. I came away more excited than ever for this film. I was really encouraged by what I saw on all fronts: directing, cinematography, and storyline. Fans: you are going to love what you see when you see it!

My colleague Paul Martin of NarniaFans was at the event as well. I’d encourage you to check out his report posted here.

In a stunning turn of events, the voice of Reepicheep has been recast in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. The actor who will be voicing him? None other than the English actor, Bill Nighy.

This news was revealed by Nighy himself in an interview with David Frost posted on YouTube which can be seen here. (Comment made at 5:26.)

Eddie Izzard voiced Reepicheep in The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. There is no word on why he was replaced for Dawn Treader.

Bill Nighy, the 60-year-old actor from England, is probably most famous for his role in Pirates of the Caribbean as the octopus-faced Davy Jones. His full list of films can be viewed on his IMDb profile here.

Full credit for the find goes to ladisneyprincesse on IMDB. Thanks to icarus for the heads-up!

So what do you think? Go back to the homepage, scroll down, and vote!

NarniaFans.com has posted the next official movie blog and it’s a pretty special one. It tells the story of Paul’s recent trip to the set of the Dawn Treader where he not only got to meet cast and crew, but also proposed to his sweetheart onboard the Dawn Treader. You’ve got to read this amazing story!

In the early months of production on “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” Martin met Courtney at a youth services meeting in Grand Rapids, Michigan. They first became friends before Martin asked her out on their very first date in late 2005 — a visit to their local theater to see the first “Narnia” movie.

Now four years into their courtship, friends and family began asking the obvious question — was marriage in their future.

And, thatʼs where the third filmʼs title character played another role — as a backdrop for Martinʼs proposal of marriage to Courtney. That special moment took place just after Noon on Monday, September 21, a day after the couple had flown on three separate flights from Grand Rapids to Brisbane, Australia. Arriving a little more than 24 hours before he popped the crucial question.

The whole article is pretty amazing. Read the rest of it here.

On behalf of NarniaWeb, we’d like to offer our hearty congratulations to both Paul and Courtney! Way to go Paul!

Brandon Grey from Box Office Mojo has posted his thoughts on how The Voyage of the Dawn Treader will fair at the box office. He seems to come to the conclusion that making the third Narnia film a box office hit will be an uphill battle, although he realizes that “the book on which it’s based is reportedly dearer to Narnia’s disciples than Prince Caspian was.”

While Prince Caspian received a lot of flack, Narnia was never destined to be the next Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter, despite its auspicious beginning. The first movie was based on the only widely-known book in the Narnia series and it was a complete journey, whereas all of the Potters and Rings were famous and had the benefit of story continuity. The wait was longer between the Narnia movies than for Potter and Rings, and Prince Caspian came off as just another fantasy adventure, nearly indistinguishable from the plethora of similar fantasies made in the wake of Potter and Rings.

Read the full report here.

In the final paragraph, he writes, “One should expect the ship to sink further than Prince Caspian.” Let’s prove him wrong, NarniaWebbers! As Douglas Gresham would say, bring your friends, and have them bring their friends (and enemies too).

Thanks to narnian1 and Kotarki for the heads-up!

There are two minor updates to the IMDb page for The Voyage of the Dawn Treader to report. First, a page has been created for Arabella Morton (who plays Gael) that includes more pictures of the young actress. Second, Dufflepud 2 has been added to the cast list and will be played by Neil Young.

You can view the full known cast for Dawn Treader on our site here (which is more extensive than the list on IMDb). And if you haven’t seen the thread on our forum that includes more supporting cast, stand-ins, and extras than you can imagine, you can do so here.