Narnia Filming Moves To Manchester, New Look at Digory in Costume
Filming on Greta Gerwig’s adaptation of ‘The Magician’s Nephew’ has moved on up to Manchester in Northern England today, with additional scenes being shot in the Castlefield area of the city.
The new set photos, courtesy of Mark Campbell via What’s On Netflix, show Digory walking through a canal-side industrial area, which appears to have been decked out as a 1950’s fish market.
Given that Digory appears to be wearing the same school uniform and carrying the same satchel & gym bag as was seen in some of the London-based filming, these shots will likely form a continuation of the same scene.
Media outlet Just Jared has also published some photos from the Manchester filming, focusing specifically on Greta Gerwig herself.
As we first reported, filming is also due to take place in Manchester’s Victoria Baths over the next couple of days.
Y’all are on a role today!
Loving to see more and more things comming up as the movie is being shot… Also, we can see the lamp post in the 3º pic! <3 giving me LWW vibes! Loved the Digory casting!
Honestly, I quite like the Digory and Polly casting. I think this kiddo will do a fantastic job. Can’t wait to see them both in a real scene.
Can’t wait to see a real put together video of all this! It will somewhat stink if LWW ends up more modern, but at least MN is in a historical time period.
I do have a thought, however, that I’ve been mulling over for quite some time…what if Netflix doesn’t intend to redo LWW, PC, and VDT? Like, what if they do the MN, and then maybe the HHB, and then SC and LB? What if they never touch the ones that were done so well? Maybe (and I know, this is a long shot) they are going to flip the timeline of Narnia in a way that makes LWW have happened before this, and let these kids have their own adventure, seeing Narnia created. Obviously this would be a big change, but our world’s time has no meaning to Narnia–as in, LWW happened only a year before PC, but 1300 years had passed in Narnia, so why couldn’t something in our world happen before, or after, in Narnia time? Just something I was wondering, because I really can’t picture anyone besides Will Mosely as Peter or anyone besides Georgie Henley as Lucy. Or, for that matter, see such an exotic dessert like Turkish delight fall in the way of modern hamburgers or cookies!
Either way, the 1950s is one of my favorite time periods, so not exactly sad to see MN placed here. Just hope they get the rest of the story right! Also, totally agree, Digory and Polly casting look great, and I’m shocked they’ve been able to keep the casting semi-secret until now!
Clearly, the 1950s is here to stay.
I wonder if that is the lamppost Jadis breaks? I guess the men in the white coats are psychologists trying to take Jadis to the mental hospital! I wonder what all the boxes are under the bridge. Digory’s uniform is nice. Very cool photos.
If it’s the fifties then they’re going to modernise the tltwtw as Diggory would be an old man already. I think that is gutting the story to please Netflix’s progressivism.
I can only guess that right now Douglas Gresham is in palliative care. And “Dawn Treader” will parallel with Tony Blair/Spice Girls Britain.
Hmm. In the second picture, is Digory threatening to through something off of the bridge into the canal? This might be an interesting movie, but I’m not sure how much it will resemble MN.
@,EJH the location is for a fish market, and all the boxes are full of (fake) fish. The men in white coats are Fish Mongers.
@CEM There’s another shot of him on this bridge which makes it look like he might be falling backwards (away from the edge). But considering the other people in the photos aren’t even in costume, it could also just be him goofing off between scenes.
Point is, I wouldn’t recommend reading *too* much into any of these shots or you’ll be in for a headache 😉
@CEM Yes, I think this is more a Narnia-inspired movie than an adaptation of the book.
@EJH According to the photographer, the scene that was being filmed here was Digory simply walking through the fish dock. If you zoom in closely, you can actually see fish in all of those crates! I’m guessing the men with coats are just fishermen extras in the background of the scene.
@Mittens, I disagree.
Firstly I agree the changes are horrendous, but I disagree that its trying to “please” Netflix’s progressivism.
There’s no need to lash out on progressivism (as if that were a bad thing), and Netflix is hardly progressive IMO. Its a corporate business, like every film studio (especially Disney) it’s interested only in making money.
I really do wish that there will come a time when the Chronicles get the same adaptational respect, admiration and love as the Lord of the Rings trilogy did back in the 2000s.
I have a very mad feeling about all of this. Something’s not right.
@Nectary, yeah, I don’t see what changing the time period to the 50s has to do with politics or social issues either. Some people just blame everything on that.
I look at all these pictures and I have no idea what any of them have to do with MN.
The Magician’s Nephew taking place in the 1950s, instead of the 1900s, like it was originally described in the books, it’s a very interesting move.
This is a huge difference, because this also means that The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe would probably take place in the 1990s, considering Digory’s age.
Prince Caspian would likely take place in the 2000s, and so on… The Last Battle could end up taking place in the late 2000s, or even in the 2010s.
This is not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, it could end up being a nice change, since we would probably see some scenes and conflicts taking place in our modern world, which could be considered “cool” in theory. But only time will tell if this change was good or bad…
So this version is abandoning the Blitz story and WW2 themes about returning to normal life forever changed that are so central to LWW? Why? What are they going to replace it with, some thin, purposeless contrivance of the Pevensies being neglected by their Boomer parents or something? That’s an entirely different story. That’s not The Chronicles of Narnia; it’s a modern AU fanfic.
What is the narrative or thematic rationale behind this change? If there’s not a decent answer to that, then the change shouldn’t be made. I was looking forward to seeing the 1890 and this story adapted for the first time, not some forcibly modernized slop. Oh well. I guess it’s good to be pre-disappointed.
Very concerned that they’ve based it in the 1950s. Digory would have been an old man by then. Hope they don’t really [MODERATOR REMOVED]. Looks like they already have.
I am pretty disappointed that LWW might take place in near modern times. No thanks
So – weird coincidence. I actually live opposite Victoria baths and since yesterday there’s ~20 equipment Lorries parked outside so I recon filming will start soon here!
Why in the world is Digory in a school uniform? The Magician’s Nephew takes place over the summer holidays.
Thank you, Impending Doom and Icarus, I looked at the photos again on my computer instead of my phone and now I can see the details. They are putting a lot of work into the set instead of just using CGI. I really like that.
I still think these two children look very like my idea of Eustace and Jill–except, of course, that Jill is supposed to be tiny. I cannot see any reason for the change to the 1950s, except for one that I think I can’t articulate well: In LIttle Women, Gerwig’s movie was as much an adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s life as of the novel. This little boy looks quite a bit like young Jacks Lewis and is also from Ulster, just as Jacks was. And, of course, Lewis’s own wife was dying of cancer in the 1950s. So I’m expecting this to be as much biography as literary adaptation. Just a thought!