Three of the books have so far been filmed: The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005) (2005), The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (2008) (2008), and this one, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.
They are filming the books in the correct order—they are using the order in which the books were published, not the chronological order in which the books were later rearranged. For an in-depth discussion of the merits of both book orders, see here or here. Douglas Gresham, stepson of C.S. Lewis, and co-producer on the movies, commented that they were filming the books in "the most logically consistent order for filming." (Source: NarniaWeb.com.)
Between the events of The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe and Prince Caspian one year passed on Earth, whilst 1300 years passed in Narnia. Between the events of Prince Caspian and Voyage of the Dawn Treader, again one year passed on Earth, but this time only 3 years have passed in Narnia. There is no mathematical relationship to explain the relative time flow between Earth and Narnia - 1 Earth year does not always equal 1300 Narnian years.
At the end of Prince Caspian, Aslan told Peter (William Moseley) and Susan (Anna Popplewell) that they have both learned all they can from Narnia and won't be returning. At the start of Voyage of the Dawn Treader, they're shown to be in America. However, both Peter and Susan appear in a dream sequence after Lucy uses the Beauty spell from Coriakin's book. Susan is also briefly shown in America when Lucy reads a postcard from Susan.
Although neither Trumpkin nor Cornelius feature in the book version of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (though Trumpkin is mentioned as having stayed behind in Narnia to be Lord Regent in Caspian's absence) there were numerous occasions during preproduction when it was mentioned, by various members of the cast and crew, including the actors themeselves, that Trumpkin and Cornelius would now feature in the movie version of VDT. Leaked pages of an early script draft confirmed that Trumpkin and Cornelius were intended to be amongst the ship's crew, along with several other new creature characters. After several changes in the script writing team, however, Trumpkin and Cornelius did not make it into the movie version. (Source: NarniaWeb.com.) If Trumpkin had been included as a member of the ship's crew, it would have had a very significant effect on the next installment in the series, The Silver Chair. If Eustace has already met Trumpkin before the events of The Silver Chair, then it adds an unnecessary amount of confusion to Aslan's first sign—that Eustace will meet an old friend (i.e. Caspian, not Trumpkin). Not only is it of great importance to the plot and themes of the story that Aslan's signs are clear and unambiguous, but it is also of great importance that the audience realise that the children (Eustace and Jill as it is in The Silver Chair) have muffed the first sign when they fail to meet Caspian and find Trumpkin instead (for what should be their first meeting).
A slightly complicated answer as far as the book goes. Essentially there are two possible interpretations as to the exact year:
Book Answer 1: The first book, The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, opens with the children being evacuated from London as a result of The Blitz, which began in September 1940. The events of the next book, Prince Caspian, are stated to occur 1 year after the events of LWW and at the start of a new school year, thus PC is set in September 1941. The events of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader are stated to have occured roughly 1 year after the events of PC, but at the end of the school year. Eustace's first Diary entry while aboard the Dawn Treader records the date of August 7th, so we can assume the start of VDT to be early in August 1942. However, towards the start of the book, CS Lewis states in his narration that the events of LWW occured "long ago in the war years". To reconcile this discrepancy with the books own internal chronology, many assume Lewis is making this statement from his own perspective, writing in 1952, that the war years were "long ago" (all the books are portrayed as a narrated story, as if the tale is being told to the reader by someone, presumably CS Lewis, retelling a story he's heard before). Nevertheless, the date of 1942 matches up with the year stated on the official CS Lewis Narnia Timeline, although some doubt whether or not the timeline was actually written by Lewis himself, as it was not published till after his death.
Book Answer 2: The second viewpoint makes the assumption that the statement in VDT about LWW being "long ago in the war years" should be taken as in-universe canon, and that we should thus work backwards from there to calculate the dates of the other books. However, with such an assumption, it is difficult to make the "long ago in the war years" statement fit with the stated time lapses between stories, and with the time frame of real world events, in particular The Blitz, which lasted from September 1940 to May 1941. In order to reconcile this problem, one can take into consideration the idea that the evacuation in LWW was during the Summer, as Lucy told Tumnus this upon their first meeting. There was only one time when the bombs fell in London in the Summer months and that was in 1944. If they were part of the final evacuations, that would push the timeline up four years, and would allow VDT to be set in the post-war years, giving an approximate date of August 1946 (1 year after the end of World War II).
Movie Answer: In the books, the World War II setting is only ever really mentioned once at the start of LWW. Generally thereafter it is largely ignored (save for the aforementioned statement from VDT). The movies however have placed a much greater deal of emphasis on the period setting of the Earth based scenes. For The Voyage of the Dawn Treader they are continuing the World War II period theme with the movie opening on a World War II street scene in Cambridge, UK. At the start of the movie, Eustace writes in his diary that his cousins have been staying with him for over 200 days. Adding on the time they would of spent at boarding school prior to going to stay with Eustace (the start of Prince Caspian shows them heading off to boarding school at the start of a new school year) we can assume the time gap since the events of Prince Caspian is closer to 2 years (rather than the 1 year it is in the book), making it some time in 1943. The detailing on one of the prop Car Tax Discs seen in behind-the-scenes photos of the opening street scene reveal that the year is indeed 1943.
Book Answer 1: The first book, The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, opens with the children being evacuated from London as a result of The Blitz, which began in September 1940. The events of the next book, Prince Caspian, are stated to occur 1 year after the events of LWW and at the start of a new school year, thus PC is set in September 1941. The events of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader are stated to have occured roughly 1 year after the events of PC, but at the end of the school year. Eustace's first Diary entry while aboard the Dawn Treader records the date of August 7th, so we can assume the start of VDT to be early in August 1942. However, towards the start of the book, CS Lewis states in his narration that the events of LWW occured "long ago in the war years". To reconcile this discrepancy with the books own internal chronology, many assume Lewis is making this statement from his own perspective, writing in 1952, that the war years were "long ago" (all the books are portrayed as a narrated story, as if the tale is being told to the reader by someone, presumably CS Lewis, retelling a story he's heard before). Nevertheless, the date of 1942 matches up with the year stated on the official CS Lewis Narnia Timeline, although some doubt whether or not the timeline was actually written by Lewis himself, as it was not published till after his death.
Book Answer 2: The second viewpoint makes the assumption that the statement in VDT about LWW being "long ago in the war years" should be taken as in-universe canon, and that we should thus work backwards from there to calculate the dates of the other books. However, with such an assumption, it is difficult to make the "long ago in the war years" statement fit with the stated time lapses between stories, and with the time frame of real world events, in particular The Blitz, which lasted from September 1940 to May 1941. In order to reconcile this problem, one can take into consideration the idea that the evacuation in LWW was during the Summer, as Lucy told Tumnus this upon their first meeting. There was only one time when the bombs fell in London in the Summer months and that was in 1944. If they were part of the final evacuations, that would push the timeline up four years, and would allow VDT to be set in the post-war years, giving an approximate date of August 1946 (1 year after the end of World War II).
Movie Answer: In the books, the World War II setting is only ever really mentioned once at the start of LWW. Generally thereafter it is largely ignored (save for the aforementioned statement from VDT). The movies however have placed a much greater deal of emphasis on the period setting of the Earth based scenes. For The Voyage of the Dawn Treader they are continuing the World War II period theme with the movie opening on a World War II street scene in Cambridge, UK. At the start of the movie, Eustace writes in his diary that his cousins have been staying with him for over 200 days. Adding on the time they would of spent at boarding school prior to going to stay with Eustace (the start of Prince Caspian shows them heading off to boarding school at the start of a new school year) we can assume the time gap since the events of Prince Caspian is closer to 2 years (rather than the 1 year it is in the book), making it some time in 1943. The detailing on one of the prop Car Tax Discs seen in behind-the-scenes photos of the opening street scene reveal that the year is indeed 1943.
The first official trailer for The Voyage of the Dawn Treader was released to the Internet on June 17th, 2010, and premiered in cinemas attached to Disney/Pixar's Toy Story 3 on June 18th, 2010. It can be seen on the official Narnia website, on the official Narnia YouTube channel, or at a variety of other fan sites and media outlets across the net.
"There's A Place for Us" by Carrie Underwood.
Filming was originally scheduled to begin in January 2008, with a release date set for May 1st, 2009. However, in consideration of the challenging schedules for the young actors, Walt Disney Pictures and Walden Media chose to delay the start of production until summer 2008, and a new release date for the movie was set for May 7th, 2010. Subsequently, Douglas Gresham said that shooting had been delayed once again because of the writers strike. Mark Johnson later announced (at New York Comic-Con '08) that filming would begin in October 2008. Further delays in production meant that filming was pushed back to January 2009, though the release date of May 7th 2010 still stood at this point. Filming was then delayed yet again, with the latest reports at the time indicating filming would start in April 2009. A breakdown in the relationship between Walt Disney Pictures and Walden Media led to production on The Voyage of the Dawn Treader being temporarily suspended: Walt Disney Pictures moved Prince of Persia to replace Dawn Treader as Disney's main release for May 2010, and Paramount moved Iron Man 2 to occupy Dawn Treader's vacant May 7th 2010 release spot. Disney then dropped out of the production with 20th Century Fox stepping into to replace them as distributor.The new partnership of Fox and Walden announced that filming was "scheduled to begin in late July and wrap early November", with a release date now set for December 10th 2010. Filming officially got underway on July 27th, 2009 (although rumored sources indicate some filming may have started as early as July 22nd). Filming officially wrapped on November 27th, 2009. (Source.)
Walt Disney Pictures announced on Christmas Eve 2008, that for budgetary and logistical reasons it will not exercise its option to co-produce and co-finance the next "Narnia" movie with producer Walden Media See the following: (1) "Disney jumps ship on next Narnia", (2) "The secret history of why Disney dumped 'Narnia'", (3) 20th Century Fox has since stepped in to co-produce and distribute the next movie.
Andrew Adamson did not direct this film for the very simple reason that he hadn't wanted to do it. In an interview, Douglas Gresham said, Andrew's not going to direct the next one; I think he's realized that it's time he took a break. I think probably he has devoted so much time to us, we would be very remiss to ask him to do it again. I don't think his wife would be very pleased if he had to take off for another two years to make a movie in the far parts of the world and so on. But in any case I think it'll probably be good for Andrew and very good for us to change a little bit of style here and there. (Source.)
There is an official movie blog that has been written by publicist Ernie Malik as well as other various members of the crew. It was being posted simultaneously on what became the official Facebook fan page of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. See here. We are delighted to offer the first of a planned series of reports direct from the set of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. These will not be the kinds of canned pieces youd find on traditional outlets. Instead, youll be getting unfiltered reports from and about the filmmakers, as they work tirelessly to bring all the magic of C.S. Lewis beloved story and characters to the big screen.
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