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Last Updated: Friday November 18 2005 16:51 GMT

Narnia gossip from the cast and crew


The stars of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe have appeared before the world's press to talk about the magical world of Narnia.

Newsround's Rebecca Lumb went along to get an insight into how the film was made and what it was like to star in it.


It took nearly three years to cast the four children who go on to become rulers of Narnia - a magical world they discover through an enchanted wardrobe in the home of an old professor.

Tilda Swinton as The White Witch
Tilda Swinton as The White Witch
Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy Pevensie are four siblings who have been evacuated to the country to escape the bombs in London during World War Two.

A chance discovery during a game of hide and seek plunges the children into a dangerous and cursed world which they must free from the grasp of an evil witch and her 100-year winter.

Fortunately, the lucky young actors and actresses did not have to overcome quite as many challenges as the Pevensie children, in order to play them in the film.

Anna Popplewell who plays Susan told the press: "We fitted together so well and it wasn't much of a challenge to create a family dynamic."

While William Mosely who plays Peter added that the experience of making the film was similar to going through Narnia together for the first time. "It was inevitable we would grow to become a family," he said.

Aslan
Aslan
When it came to playing the role of the White Witch - one of the scariest figures in children's literature - Tilda Swinton realised that what scares children the most is her coldness.

As a result her witch is so evil her own children don't want to see her in the film, she revealed.

Special effects

Mr Tumnus the faun and Aslan the lion provided the biggest challenge to the special effects team.

A full-size sculpture was created for Aslan but the first one was so large that it looked as though it could just step on the children, according to the producer Mark Johnson.

A smaller version of the lion was made and the team kept from showing this to the children until they started filming, in order to get the strongest emotion out of them.

This also applied to the make-up effects for Mr Tumnus, so that when Lucy meets him for the first time at the lamp post in Narnia - it really is the first time they meet.

True to the book

The producer went on to say that even though the film's special effects are state of the art, there is also an old-fashioned feel to the film, in order to stay true to the book.

More importantly, Mark said that they had Harry Potter to thank for the film being made, as it was the success of the Harry Potter films that showed him that making a film so true to a book can be done.

He went on to add that because of Harry Potter they could also rely on the fact that the world is interested in films about British kids!

What's next for Narnia?

There are seven books in the Narnia series and how many more they do depends on the success.

If they do make another the one, the next will be Prince Caspian which is set one year after The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe and uses all four children, allowing the actors to remain in their roles.

So, all being well this is not the last time the world's press will get to interview the children for a Narnia film...

Pictures: (c) Walt Disney Pictures / Walden Media



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