NarniaWeb.com

I don’t know how many people noticed this, but when you’re checking out the official website for The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, if you change the size of your window, the background image will zoom in and out and allow you to see more or less of the image. As I run a dual-monitor setup, I had a lot of requests on the forum for screenshots of the pages (the character pages in particular) since I can get the screen so wide and details hiding behind the character descriptions become visible. Since there was so much interest in these screenshots, I thought I’d go ahead and upload them for everybody.

A couple notes on the images. Credit for the homepage screencap goes to starkat. I couldn’t quite get a good shot of that one.

Second, BenBarnesOnline managed to snag a copy of the background for the Drinian profile, so I uploaded that one as well, but credit for that find goes to them.

On the Edmund screencap, it’s clear that Fox didn’t quite finish photoshopping the words out of that picture, so that one is a bit odd.

And finally, on the Reepicheep screencap, you actually lose more of the picture by stretching it out, so I uploaded two copies of that one; one stretched out and one not.

UPDATE: Of course, after I upload these images, we’re linked copies of the background images of the character profiles. You can find them here, compliments of Telmar Pictures.

UPDATE June 30: Lemondedenarnia.com also has these shots, including the Dawn Treader from the front page. You can see them here.

A few months ago, we reported on some toy concept art for The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by ‘pnutink’ which can be seen here. Kelila and icarus wrote in again to say that ‘pnutink’ had added more concept toy art to his site, which he has graciously given us permission to post here.

Pnutink also told me that these concepts have not been confirmed and at this point it is unlikely they will actually make it to production. But they’re still fun to look at.

Narnia.com has updated to include a map that the user can sail around in their boat. Islands such as Galma, Terabinthia, the Seven Isles, the Lone Islands, Dragon Island, Burnt Island, Goldwater, the Magician’s Island, the Dark Island, and Ramandu’s Island all make an appearance on the map. Aslan’s Country is also visible. At the moment, it appears that all a user can do is sail between islands, but only time will tell what will get added next!

Looks like The Voyage of the Dawn Treader isn’t going to have a weekend release to itself anymore (in the USA that is). Paramont Pictures has decided to release The Fighter, starring Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale, and Amy Adams on December 10th as well. The full story is available here. Also, for those that are interested, I’ve compiled a current list of US releases in the months of November and December that can be seen on the forum here.

Fans of C. S. Lewis will be interested to learn that his 1945 novel The Great Divorce has been slated for film production, according to Variety’s Dave McNary. Mpower Pictures and Beloved Pictures will join forces to produce the film, with author N.D. Wilson hired to write the screenplay. The Great Divorce is the story of a fantasy journey from Hell to Heaven, with themes of Lewis’ Christianity woven throughout. You can read Variety’s story here.

Thanks Meg for the heads-up!

Is Weta Workshop involved in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader? We heard rumors of this back in November, and their latest newsletter seems to hint at it (though of course we don’t know anything for sure):

“Having done conceptual design, props, weapons, miniatures and all sorts of things for the first two Narnia movies, our involvement with the latest instalment of CS Lewis’s Narnia Chronicles wasn’t on the same scale, but we’re REALLY looking forward to the movie in December. Especially now that we’ve seen the trailer…”

Interesting! You can sign up for the newsletter here.

Other items of interest: some of Weta’s LWW statues are currently on sale, and if you buy any of the LWW and PC statues before June 29th you will automatically be entered in a prize drawing where you can win a replica of Lucy’s cape (created by Stansborough Fibres). Thanks Griffle for the heads-up!

After The Voyage of the Dawn Treader trailer release last week, both Tilda Swinton and Ben Barnes gave a brief mention of it in interviews. Tilda, who was interviewed about her upcoming movie I Am Love, had this to say when asked about her return as the White Witch.

You reprise your role as the White Witch in “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader,” the third film in the “Narnia” movie series. How long did it take you to film what you do in that movie?

Oh, you know I’m in it? Yes, it’s true.

I know you can’t give away any spoilers, but it’s not a secret that you’re in the movie since you’re shown in the movie’s trailer.

Well, I’m amazed that that they would put [my scene] in the trailer, because I spent less time filming it than I spent speaking to you [in this interview]. [NOTE: This interview was 23 minutes long.]

Meanwhile interviewer Andy Gibbons managed to bump into Ben Barnes on the street and Ben graciously agreed to a short interview about Dawn Treader right then and there.

With the trailer for The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader debuting this week the buzz has really started, it promises to be a big Christmas release….

Yeah, I hope it is. Personally I’m quite excited that it’s going to be 3D. It’s my favourite of the seven books, I think it’s one of the best stories and it’s got some good human characters as well – I think Eustace, who Will Poulter plays brilliantly, is a really funny character. It’s got a lot of the fun magical stuff of the first ones and I’ve got some fun action stuff which is cool. It’s going to be good I think.

You’ve got a new director in Michael Apted – what’s he brought to the movie?

Just a sort of an outside eye and a very human touch really. I think he was as anxious as any of us going in to it. When we first met and spoke he told me how anxious he was about the scale of it but I think he did a great job and I think it’s going to have an interesting flavour to it. Saying that I haven’t seen it yet.

Tilda’s interview can be read in full here. And Ben’s interview can be read in full here.

Thank you so much to everybody who sent these reports in!

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Simon Pegg, the new voice for Reepicheep

NarniaWeb has learned from a production source that Bill Nighy has been dropped from The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and has been replaced by British actor Simon Pegg. Best known for his role as Scotty in the 2009 Star Trek film, Pegg has also appeared in Band of Brothers, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, and How to Lose Friends and Alienate People.

This is not the first time that a major character in the Narnia film franchise has been recast. Fans will remember that Brian Cox was originally set to voice Aslan, but in July 2005 he was replaced by Liam Neeson.

IMDB: Simon Pegg

Simon Pegg’s Twitter Account

Here’s a brief clip of Simon Pegg speaking with TIME magazine:

According to Paul Martin at NarniaFans.com, if you go see Toy Story 3 in 3D, they’re showing The Voyage of the Dawn Treader trailer in 3D in front of the movie! Now, we have to include our usual disclaimer here. If you are going to see Toy Story 3 solely for the purpose of seeing the trailer, please call the theater first to make sure they have it! Even though Fox has attached the Dawn Treader trailer to the movie, it’s not a guarantee that every theater will be showing it. We’ve heard from several people that the trailer was not attached to their theater’s Toy Story 3.