Ivana Primorac Joins Greta Gerwig’s ‘Narnia’ as Hair & Make-Up Designer
Five-time BAFTA nominee Ivana Primorac is stepping into the world of Narnia.
According to her agency profile, the award-winning Hair and Make-Up Designer will reunite with director Greta Gerwig on her upcoming Netflix adaptation, listed simply as ‘Narnia’. This marks their third collaboration following Little Women and Barbie.
Primorac’s body of work spans more than three decades and includes both period dramas and fantasy films/series. Her credits include The Crown, Pan, Atonement, The Imitation Game, and Wonka.
Interestingly, her agency refers to the project only as Narnia, with no specific book mentioned. That phrasing has been consistent across various production sources (both internally and externally) for several months. While NarniaWeb understands that the first film in Netflix’s series will be an adaptation of The Magician’s Nephew, it’s entirely possible that Narnia may end up being the official title of the film.
Primorac is the second long-time Gerwig collaborator quietly linked to the production this week. Just a few days ago, NarniaWeb reported on a tip we received that costume designer Jacqueline Durran hinted she was involved at a recent Q&A event.
For the full list of confirmed Heads of Departments working on Netflix’s Narnia, visit our What We Know page.
What do you think of Ivana Primorac joining the team? And how would you feel if the film’s title was simply Narnia? Share your thoughts in the comments.
Excited!! She did Jermy brett’s Sherlock holmes. I LOVE that show, not to mention lord of the rings.
I keep on seeing it referred to as “Narnia”. Makes me think that Netflix is trying to avoid issues with Walden’s “Chronicles of Narnia”.
I wouldn’t be surprised if they ultimately titled it simply as “Narnia”, with the first film being shown as a chapter 1 or episode 1, even though it’s a film.
Awesome! Now quick, somebody ask her how long Aslan’s mane is going to be!
What if they are spilting up Magician’s Nephew into two movies?
@eustace, you may have hit on something
remember wicked is being split in 2 movies
so was dune
Are we just forgetting the fact they’re trying to turn Aslan into a chick? I mean I’m thrilled to be getting a new adaptation too but at what cost? At what COST? Enough with the hair and the make up …. I want to hear that it was all a misunderstanding and Meryl Streep is actually just playing Aunt Letty not the Jesus lion. Until then not a happy fangirl.
Also if it’s just called Narnia whatever that’s the least of our problems.
I’m going to assume there will be no dreads for Jadis this time around 😉
@Eustace I hadn’t considered that before… interesting. I think splitting MN into two movies be a poor creative decision and result in pointless additions made to fill out the screen time. Also, it wouldn’t make sense to “waste” Gerwig when she’s only signed on to direct 2 movies. I’m sure they’re both excited to get into LWW right after!
I agree with @telmarine that we’ll see some sort of title card during the move with the sub-title, but it’ll only be referred to as ‘Narnia’ in the marketing/trailer.
@Eustace I don’t know if they would be idea to split MN into two movies. It would be like what Peter Jackson attempted to do with the Hobbit (I think his original plan was to make it into two movies, but ended up making three for reasons I don’t quite understand.) So I just can’t see MN being made into two movies.
My gut tells me that if the movie were simply titled “Narnia”, it would feel very refreshing, after an eleven-word title of the first Walden film. And I didn’t like how people would refer to one of those Walden movies merely as “The Chronicles of Narnia”, as if that would be a catch-all for any book in the series. Which, technically, it’s the name of the series. But it’s not a name of one of the books. And I do feel the phrase “TCoN” is heavily connected to the Walden series.
Telmarine makes a good point. It would differentiate the new movies from the 2000s franchise.
And the title “Narnia” will definitely be more successul than “The Magician’s Nephew” with no reference to the word Narnia. TMN is not a household name like LWW is. What are the other options, I wonder? “Narnia Part 1: The Magician’s Nephew.” “The Magician’s Nephew: A Narnia Chronicle.” ? It gets a bit weird after a while.
I agree with Lucy!
Lucy and Lamp Lighter, I am hoping that the official announcements of these other cast and crew members means that Netflix turning Aslan into a lioness is only a rumor or they are having multiple voices playing Aslan and still portraying him as the son of the Emperor beyond the sea.
Still, I think Netflix should address the rumor.
@Lucy I don’t think there’s much to worry about, Meryl is shooting The Devil wears Prada this summer from July, so it’s unlikely it’ll be her on Narnia. However, since it’s voice work, it can always be done on a more flexible schedule. But it would be important to share that Greta has always stated the importance of preproduction, in this case over 6 months (which is rare) and the importance of rehearsals, which take 2/3 weeks or so but maybe extended due to the age of the actors which r mandatory for each actor, and the movie viewing Sundays , so I’m not sure even Meryl ( no matter the rapport or clout or role size) would be be able to abscond. Have a lil grace for Greta , or The CS LEWIS estate or Amy Pascal who has successfully shepherded beloved characters and franchises for decades.
I don’t know why but I’m seeing that a lot of the people signed up on the production crew worked on the film Atonement. I’ve never watched the movie and don’t have any idea what it’s about, but there seems to be a pattern, doesn’t there?
@Noelle Torgerson I think you can search up like a summary of the idea of what the movie Atonement is about like the “setting/ time period” which is somewhat parallels that of Narnia in a sense. I think why there is so many people from the Atonement movie being hired cause most of them already worked each other before as most of everything is shot in the UK so given having already previous interactions they already have certain expectations what each one of them have to give to each other like how Seamus was discussing about banter with each other to create a cohesive vision for the film as it makes it easier in addition to less conflicts in disagreements on certain ideas being thrown in on the visual aspects of things, and design of the film and since they worked producing Atonement if you look at the film visually for what it is has a very whimsical (magical) yet real grounded feelings when it is needed. Given that each members have done other projects beside this film, you can assume for certain films where there a lot light visually thinking like sunset or scenery area that bright it will be ethereal and vibrant enough that it makes you feel magically connected while in areas in the film for Narnia with darker scenary like not a lot of light would have more impactful darker tone to it. Given Gerwig and references she might want to use Joe Wright’s movie to mimic a certain feel to the film. I recommend just read the summary for Atonement if you feel uncomfortable watching the film cause there are some scenes that are very visually disturbing (EX: sexual inappropriate behaviors between different age group) and from their just search scenary from the films to get the feel of the visual palette to be expected or emphasized.
It would be fascinating to find out what role Douglas Gresham and Vincent Sieber have in this adaptation,
Tbf their presence or absence is not an indicator of quality though it would be illuminating, not sure if @Glumpuddle is aware of anything since the last time, Douglas Gresham had been stated to not be in a state where he could be an active creative collaborator
@Alex Anaros- For whatever it is worth, and it might not be much, along with Amy Pascal and Mark Gordon, IMDbPro lists both Douglas Gresham and Vincent Sieber as two of the Producers of Greta Gerwig’s Narnia.
Hey, we know Olivia Coleman was supposed to be Barbie and Helen Mirren was a narrator , and Nicola Coughlan was a Barbie, would be surprised if none of them were part of the cast, even Saoirse, but she is expecting
Seamus McGarvey, Ivana Primorac, and Jacqueline Durran all worked on Joe Wright’s Atonement… does anyone know if Gerwig has said anything publicly about this movie? It’s clear she has some affinity for it.
Atonement also has Saoirse Ronan, it’s a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful period classic adaptation that is very subversive and has an unconventional story structure
I would consider it to have the most gorgeous dress on film this century