The two previous films produced by Walden Media, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and Price Caspian, were highly popular earning $745 million and $419 million respectively worldwide. In the video Flaherty says, he was very proud of the work that has been done so far on the film and is confident that it will recapture the magic that was so much a part of the first film.

Asbury English professor, Dr. Devin Brown, who has authored three books about C. S. Lewis and Narnia, designed the questions and interviewed Flaherty. Asbury media communication professor, Greg Bandy, was the producer and director. Austin Berry, a senior media communication major, was in charge of filming and editing. The footage was shown at the Asbury Reunion in June, and will be used at several of Dr. Brown’s upcoming scholarly talks, and at Asbury’s Narnia Night planned for December. Following that, it will be posted on Asbury’s website.

The project was funded by Asbury’s C.S. Lewis Study Center and a grant from the Lilly Foundation. Dr. Brown said, “The ongoing connections between Asbury University, Walden Media, and the work of C.S. Lewis is a wonderful illustration of vocation—using our God-given interests, inclinations, and talents to engage the culture.”

Dr. Brown’s third book on C.S. Lewis, “Inside the Voyage of the Dawn Treader,” will be released on Oct. 1, 2010. The third Narnia film will open on Dec. 10, 2010. Asbury’s Narnia Night III is planned for Dec. 3, 2010 in Hughes Auditorium.

-via Asbury

Read the rest at NarniaFans.com – Narnia Movie News

What is it like to fall in love in Narnia?

by Ernie Malik

A curious question you may think. We bring it up here, while cruising along on our third voyage through this wondrous world created by C.S. Lewis, because the wonder of love did happen…to six couples who worked on both the first and second film adaptations.

Read the rest at NarniaFans.com – Narnia Movie News

And that’s not the only account of the story…

Couple’s love revolves around ‘Chronicles of Narnia’

Courtney Addicott didn’t have a clue.

She thought she was merely tagging along with her boyfriend of four years, Paul Martin, when he visited the movie set of “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader” in September. They were given a tour of the titular boat, situated on the end of a pier on Australia’s Gold Coast, at Cleveland Point in Brisbane.

Addicott thought Martin’s hands were shaking because he was among famous actors and filmmakers, nervous about interviewing them for his Web site, Narniafans.com. She thought it strange that a photographer seemed to be stalking them, but she didn’t say anything.

Paul runs a “Chronicles of Narnia” fan website and proposed to Courtney on the set of the next movie in Australia.She soon knew why: In front of the beautifully constructed helm of the Dawn Treader, Martin got down on one knee, pulled out a diamond ring and proposed. Her answer? Yes. Of course.

Read the rest at mlive.com!

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 you’d find on “traditional” outlets. Instead, you’ll 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:

“Dedicated to the Ones He Loves” by Ernie Malik

“All Narnians, with grateful hearts may we give thanks to the crew of the mighty Dawn Treader for their strong minds and artisan hands”

So reads the dedication etched onto the base of the towering mast of production designer Barry Robison’s mighty and majestic set build of the film’s title character in “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader” which sat out on the peninsula at Cleveland Point about 20 miles east of Brisbane, Australia, and hosted cast/crew for 17 days of filming during the month of September.

What does it all mean?

It’s very possible that such merchant sailing ships of yore carried the names of its crew in honor of those whose hands helped build such a ship. Or, that of an unexpected death at sea.

In the film’s story, it was Barry’s idea to inscribe the ship’s soaring mast as Caspian’s  dedication to his loyal Narnian crew who built the vessel for their King. While audiences will never see a close-up of the names on the mast, they represent, in the story, those Telmarine sailors on the journey with Caspian and the Pevensies.

However, below Barry’s poetic inscription on The Dawn Treader (which, by the way, was  modeled somewhat after James Cook’s Endeavour, which sailed the South Seas in 1768, a replica of which currently sits in Sydney’s harbor) are the actual names of each individual on the film crew who had a hand in bringing this kingly frigate to life.

Regardless of their home, be it the U.S., Mexico, England, New Zealand, or Australia.
The list honors those carpenters, illustrators, plasterers, painters, laborers and art department personnel who all contributed to this monument to motion picture set designs. Robison estimates there are at least 200 people listed.

When he is questioned about the vessel (its inspiration, or dimensions, or whatever), the longtime movie artisan is quick to include the names of those who assisted in bringing his grand vision to life. While his name alone will grace the motion picture screen as the sole production designer for the film, he fondly recognizes that there are dozens of creative minds (and hundreds of talented hands) that crafted the regal set design.

Like supervising art director Ian Gracie, who served in the same capacity on “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.” Kiwi art director Mark Robins, who spent every day out at Cleveland Point overseeing its construction (after watching it first come to life on a sound stage at the studio). Mexican art director Marco Nero, whose early design work when filming was scheduled for Rosarito Beach (the site of the “Titanic” shoot in 1996) proved invaluable. Construction manager Sean Ahern. Head scenic (painter) Matt Connors, without whose  contributions the ship would be just a colorless model. Like the names on the mast, Barry’s list goes on and on.

The day the boat was finally erected in its entirety out on the peninsula that juts out into the South Pacific, Barry stood beside his creation, almost in tears at the sight of the finality of what began as a three-foot model some 28 months ago.

Now, his design, and that of his colleagues, would get to shine before the movie cameras.

So, these few words are dedicated to this gracious gentleman, artist and creative talent whose own contributions to not only the Dawn Treader, but the entire movie itself, stand as a testament to movie magic in a land and world whose magical landscape has endured with readers the world over for well over a half century. And, will continue well into the millennium.

See photos on NarniaFans.com
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While he was on campus, Devin Brown had the opportunity to ask him about Walden’s mission, where its name came from, and even what his favorite scene is. His response to these and other questions can be viewed in “An Interview with Micheal Flaherty” which has been posted at: Asbury.edu

There’s also a question and answer session about The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

Walden Media has produced several box office blockbusters. “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” “Journey to the Center of the Earth,” “Bridge to Terabithia,” and “The Water Horse,” are a few high-profile theatrical titles in the AFG/Walden Media library.

Earlier this year, Doug Jones, Walden’s EVP of Physical Production, Sean Santiago, VP Visual Effects and Jonas Thaler, VP Post Production designed a workflow for the third chapter in the Narnia series. The Director of Photography and On-Set Colorist create a look for each scene, which is expressed and documented as ten-digit ASC CDL value. In the Walden plan, the CDL grades follow the project from set to dailies to VFX and final DI color timing.

When the Walden team was ready to discuss hardware and software solutions with which to implement the new ”Dawn Treader” workflow, they met with Simon Cuff, President and COO of Digital Vision. Digital Vision responded to the challenge and is currently developing an on-set grading solution based on the research and development that the two companies have done together. For Dawn Treader’s Australia shoot, Digital Vision provided a modified Nucoda HD System that takes in and manages color choices from the set and keeps the salient metadata available to the colorist and visual effects through final DI color grading. Walden will use systems in Australia, UK and the US on upcoming features.

Doug Jones of Walden commented that, “We and our filmmakers strive to make successful films with powerful and memorable visual content. Directors and cinematographers do their best work if they are given instant access to high resolution images and precise color and density control from day one through final delivery. After meeting in Los Angeles and London and getting to know Digital Vision’s international development group and product line, we could see that the Nucoda HD system fit the bill. The efficiency of the ASC CDL color value system and the power and depth of Digital Vision’s tools are the essence of our workflow. Our partnership with Digital Vision has evolved to the point where we’d like to keep this going on future projects.”

Simon Cuff, President and COO of Digital Vision, commented, “Walden Media has a history of telling high quality stories with beautiful imagery created by top filmmakers. To work so closely with this team and this caliber of entertainment is exciting, and we are looking forward to Nucoda being part of that creative process, from the camera to the cinema screen. Walden’s push forward in production, VFX and post production workflow has allowed us to accelerate the development and refine the functionality of our on-set and dailies solutions – ensuring this will become an essential part of the movie-making process.”

Founded in 2001 by billionaire financier Phil Anschutz and Cary Granat, the company has faced a number of significant hiccups in the past 12 months, culminating with Disney extracting itself from the “Narnia” relationship last month.

In November, Granat left the company, leaving Michael Bostick in charge of what had become a moribund development slate. That news came on the heels of the much-hyped Fox Walden marketing venture being shuttered as a standalone company. It was reabsorbed as an inhouse unit of 20th Century Fox’s marketing division.

On top of all that, some in town mistakenly believe Walden has stopped greenlighting films.

It’s hard to conceive Anschutz giving Walden a red light, given that he’s ideally positioned to be a major player in the movie biz thanks to his ownership of an extensive chain of movie theaters, like the movie moguls of old.

So, has Walden become Hollywood’s version of Narnia – a place where it’s always winter but never Christmas?

Not so, insist Walden insiders and many of those who work closely with the company.

“We are as enthusiastic and as committed as we’ve ever been,” says Anschutz Film Group CEO David Weil. “(This month), six scripts will be completed, with one or more likely being greenlit shortly.”

Weil says the development slowdown is temporary and just a natural result of a regime change.

“Michael (Bostick) has taken a hard look at the slate, and a number of the projects were not as commercially sound as we would like,” says Weil, who describes many of the scripts as one-quadrant and two-quadrant films.

One producer who has worked frequently with Walden says things have changed at the company in the past year but attributes that to the shifting economic landscape.

“It is a different company than the company Cary was running; now they are a lot more selective,” the producer says. “But everyone is being much more judicious or circumspect in what they develop.”

Like Walden, Disney is also re-evaluating what kinds of movies it wants to invest in. After crunching the “Prince Caspian” numbers ? the film grossed slightly more than half of the $700 million “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” took in ? the Mouse House decided to bail.

But sources close to the franchise say Disney and Walden’s relationship actually soured over release date issues. Walden blamed Disney for slotting “Prince Caspian” in the shark-infested waters of May rather than a holiday-season berth and was looking to avoid the same scenario for follow-up pic “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.”

“Disney didn’t like having a pushy partner like Walden and the C.S. Lewis estate,” says one “Narnia” insider. “Disney doesn’t really work with partners, and they don’t like ones who dictate release dates and marketing campaigns.”

But “Narnia” producer Mark Johnson says “Prince Caspian” is simply the least commercially viable story in the seven-title series.

“We may have made a mistake in doing ‘Prince Caspian’ as the second one,” he says. “Unfortunately, ‘Prince Caspian’ is one of the lesser-liked books. We also made a slightly more adult, darker story, and we shouldn’t have.”

The good news for Walden: The series’ third book, “Dawn Treader,” is perhaps the most beloved of the “Narnia” books.

Furthermore, the most important fan is still enamored of the franchise. Walden insiders insist that the reclusive Anschutz, who almost never gives interviews, is still very much committed to “Narnia,” as well as the rest of Walden’s slate.

-via Variety

Granat will become a consultant and be the company’s creative liason on “Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader,” the third installment of the C.S. Lewis series being adapted to film.

The company said Granat also will be a consultant for a project with AEG Live, the Anschutz-owned concert and promotion company.

Granat, whose prior exec tenures include stints at Universal and Dimension Films, is expected to land a fulltime job shortly.

“Cary and we both felt this was the right way to formalize the change in the company’s creative direction ,” Anschutz Film Group CEO David Weil said in a statement. “We all owe Cary a great debt of gratitude for co-founding the company and guiding the Walden brand to its preeminent place in family entertainment today.”

We, at WaldenFans.com, wish Cary the best, and look forward to working with him on VDT!

As part of the multiyear pact, the venture will acquire and publish books for young readers. Naturally, it also plans to turn several of its tomes into film adaptations or pair up properties with other filmmakers.

First published title will be “The Will of Will Wolfkin,” by screenwriter Steven Knight, who penned the pics “Dirty Pretty Things,” “Eastern Promises” and “Amazing Grace.”

Knight is also scripting the third installment of the “Narnia” series, “Voyage of the Dawn Treader,” which Michael Apted is helming.

“Wolfkin” is described as a fantasy set under a glacier in Iceland. It hits bookshelves in fall 2009.

Imprint will be led by Brenda Bowen, VP and publisher of the Bowen Press at HarperCollins, and Deborah Kovacs, senior VP of publishing at Walden Media.

New entity will have offices at HarperCollins’ headquarters in New York and Walden Media in Boston, and will be staffed with its own editorial and marketing team.

Walden and HarperCollins have already been working closely together, adapting “The Chronicles of Narnia” franchise, “Charlotte’s Web” and “Bridge to Terabithia” into films.

“This joint venture solidifies our already successful relationship,” said Susan Katz, prexy and publisher of HarperCollins Children’s Books. “Having a single imprint will enable Walden Media to focus their book publishing program and Harper to market and sell the books most effectively.”

Altogether, Walden has released 15 pics based on children’s books, including “Holes,” “Nim’s Island,” “The Water Horse” and “Because of Winn-Dixie.”

It’s also co-published a number of books across several imprints at Penguin such as Ingrid Law’s “Savvy,” Mike Lupica’s “Comeback Kids” series, Lauren St. John’s “The White Giraffe” and Michael Reisman’s “Simon Bloom, the Gravity Keeper.” Walden is developing “Savvy” and “White Giraffe” as features. Universal picked up “Simon Bloom” last year.

Variety.com