Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, Photos

Photos, London Premier

Photos from www.wmoseley.com

Photos, Prague Premier

Photos from www.wmoseley.com

Prince Charming

Back for the second Narnia film,this actor has grown up

Wednesday June 18 2008

AT 21, William Moseley knows he has come along way from the young boy who was cast as Peter Pevensie in the first ‘Chronicles Of Narnia’ film.

Since ‘The Lion The Witch And The Wardrobe’ was released to rave reviews in 2005, William has been back to school to sit exams and then spent months with an acting coach in New York to prepare for a more mature reprisal of the role in the forthcoming ‘Prince Caspian’.

“In the first film, I really had no flipping idea what I was doing,!” he admits, candidly. “I was just turning up, saying my lines and stepping through the wardrobe as William would, and Peter would at the same time!”

Three years later, Peter has become a man, fighting to save the Narnians, and it’s clear that William too has grown up.” Throughout the experience, I’ve changed a lot in myself. I’ve travelled to so many different countries, met so many different people!” says William, in his refined tones.

‘Prince Caspian’, based on the third book in the series by C.S.

Lewis, sees the children magically transported back to Narnia from a London Tube station when the troubled Prince blows Susan’s magic horn to call for aid.

Whilst only a year has passed in England, more than 1,300 years have gone by in the magic realm.

Aslan hasn’t been seen for years and the Narnian creatures have been all but wiped out by a race of humans known as the Telmarines.

The film’s climax sees William in a fight-to-the-death with Miraz to win the freedom of Narnia.

“I did all of that myself!” says William, proudly. “If you can do it, why not? If you can chase a horse, kick the guy and jump on the back then why not? It looks so much better than visual effects!”

“I didn’t want anyone doing any of my stunts, because I saw them as MY stunts. And I wanted to make sure everyone had their full trust in me, so that ‘take ten’ was just as good as ‘take one’.”

Sadly though, William’s Narnia adventures have come to an end - Peter has grown up and doesn’t appear in anymore of Lewis’s books.

“It is really sad,” admits William.

“I’m thinking, ‘Well, that’s another chapter in my life’, but in some ways change is good. If you want to progress you have to move on and put yourself in a vulnerable position.”

“I’ll definitely use all the tools I learnt from ‘Narnia’ and hopefully get some more along the way.”

The young actor is cagey about his next role: “I don’t trust Hollywood – not until I’m on that plane and I’ve signed that contract.”

He can reveal he’ll be working on an independent film and “one of those stories where it’s seen through my character’s eyes”.

For now though, William is looking forward to the first class flights and the “beautiful clothes” on his publicity tour to Prague, London and Paris.

“It’s a lot more glamorous than shooting the film. But I do look at it as work. A chance for me to put myself and the film out there.”

http://www.independent.ie/entertainment/film-cinema/prince-charming-1413693.html

The Heart of the Kingdom

Sat, 14 Jun 2008

Film

Click photo to enlarge

Ben Barnes as Prince Caspian.

Ben Barnes might be Hollywood's new heart-throb, but he knows his destiny is to have his head chewed off and one leg thrown in the dustbin.

The 26-year-old British actor isn't talking in metaphors about being the subject of bad press reviews - though he does call those "hurtful".

Barnes is referring to the fate of the action figures that have been made in his image as Prince Caspian in the new Chronicles of Narnia film.

"It is cool, but then I remember what I did with my action figures, which is chew the heads off and smash them and make them fight each other," Barnes said.

"So my destiny is with one leg in the dustbin."

Since landing the role of the young prince who is the rightful heir to Narnia's throne, Barnes' face has been plastered over movie posters and billboards around the world.

With his long locks and good looks, it didn't take long for the comparisons to Lord of the Rings star Orlando Bloom to start.

"I've had a few [comparisons]," he says. "I've had Johnny Depp, which I like. I've had Keanu Reeves. Orlando Bloom - fantasy, long hair.

"People feel the need to do that for the first six months or a year that you're on the scene, because it allows people to attempt to pigeonhole.

"It kind of goes away as soon as you establish yourself.

"It will be three months before someone is the next Ben Barnes - I hope, anyway."

Prince Caspian is the second film based on the series of books by C.S. Lewis and directed by Andrew Adamson.

This time around, the Pevensie siblings - Peter, Edmund, Susan and Lucy - are magically transported back from England to the world of Narnia one year after the events of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

But the young kings and queens discover that more than 1300 years have passed in Narnian time and during their absence Narnia has been conquered by the Telmarines and is now under the control of the evil King Miraz.

The four children meet Prince Caspian and they join forces to find Aslan, rescue Narnia from Miraz's tyrannical hold and restore magic and glory to the land.

Barnes said it was a little intimidating bringing this much-loved book to life.

"There's a certain level of pressure and responsibility because the stories are so well known," he said.

"If people are fans of the story, which I am, you want to try to be faithful to the character - not be some sort of action hero Prince Charming, which he just isn't."

Fortunately for Barnes, he had four young co-stars who had been there and done it all before in the first film: Georgie Henley, Skandar Keynes, Anna Popplewell and William Moseley.

Moseley, who plays Peter, said Prince Caspian was much harder than the first film, which was made three years earlier.

"It was actually more of a challenge this time," 21-year-old Moseley said.

"We had kind of like a magical experience on the first one.

"On this one I expected a lot of myself, I wanted to up my game, I wanted to make my character more complex and I wanted to do all the stunts myself."

As a movie, Prince Caspian is much darker than the first, which suited its maturing cast.

Moseley was particularly pleased to be able to make Peter "so much cooler" than he was in the first film, thanks to a better haircut, a bit of muscle and some attitude.

"In the first one he's so selfless and nice . . . but in this one, I really liked the fact that he wasn't perfect, and the fact that he's an anti-hero and he's angry and nasty and rude to people and doesn't care," Moseley said.

Shooting this movie was a bittersweet experience for Moseley, whose character doesn't appear in the next movie, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

He has spent several of his formative years working on the films, but Moseley says he's ready for whatever comes next.

"In some ways it's kind of like hitting the real world of acting, and I have been to Narnia and I have been blessed with this, because I have sort of been thrown through the wardrobe, to use the analogy," he said.

"So as Peter's ready for the next challenge, I'm ready for it too."

And he'll always have his own action figure to keep as a memento.

"It's really weird though," he laughed. "They always make me look like I'm Arnold Schwarzenegger, and I'm like, 'I don't look like this'."

AAP

http://www.odt.co.nz/entertainment/film/9553/the-heart-kingdom

The Gazette (feature, Canadian)

All in the Narnia family

Jamie Portman, Canwest News Service

Published: Friday, May 09

NEW YORK - William Moseley and Anna Popplewell recently had their first look at Prince Caspian.

And like most everyone else in the packed cinema high above New York's 42nd Street, they were left excited and often incredulous by how their performances as the two heroic Pevensie children - waging battle against the forces of evil - achieved such a powerful reality on the big screen.

But the experience was also bittersweet for two teenagers who have devoted a large chunk of their adolescence to the first two films in author C.S. Lewis's Narnia Chronicles - first The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe and now Prince Caspian, which opens May 16.

Prince Caspian brings to an end the Narnian adventures of Peter Pevensie (Moseley) and Susan Pevensie (Popplewell). Only bubbly Georgie Henley, who plays the youngest Pevensie child Lucy, and Skandar Keynes, who plays troubled third brother Edmund, will be on the set when the third film, The Voyage of The Dawn Treader, begins shooting later this year.

"Leaving was a very emotional moment,'' says 21-year-old Moseley.

"The last shot we did was a battle scene, and it was a really empowering moment. It was a beautiful sunset in the Czech Republic and we were all running down this hill - the whole cast - and it sort of immortalized our experience together. It embodies everything we'd done. So it was sad, but I felt that I was ready to move on at this point.''

In the new film, the four Pevensie youngsters are called back to a mythical land which, in Narnian time, has aged 1,300 years since their last visit and now suffers from the tyrannical rule of the evil Lord Miraz. They have been summoned to help Prince Caspian (Ben Barnes) reclaim the throne which is rightfully his and to restore freedom for Narnia's creatures and magical talking animals. Before the film ends, there have been two ferocious battle sequences in which Popplewell's Susan is once more called upon to demonstrate her expertise with the bow and arrow and Peter engages in direct combat with Miraz.

Moseley said he was terrified as the house lights dimmed for his first glimpse of the finished film.

"It was very stupid of me because I'd eaten a huge salty burrito and I was feeling slightly sick. But from the first music, I was just locked in to this fantastic world, and I feel so fortunate to be a part of something that I think is a beautiful film. I was watching and thinking - how lucky can I be to get this part? It was also nice to see how well all our hard work had paid off.''

Twelve-year-old Georgie Henley, whose Lucy renews contact with the majestic lion, Aslan, who has been absent from Narnia for more than a thousand years, tried to approach the screening without high expectations because she feared being disappointed.

"And then we went in and I was gripped,'' she says chirpily. "You can't really tell what it's going to look like when it's filming. But after I saw it, I dreamt about it. I went to sleep and replayed the film all through my head.''

This time, Lucy was a lot more fun to portray. "I felt that I had grown and so she was a lot easier for me,'' she says.

Popplewell found herself in the thick of battle this time in the role of Susan.

"I wasn't involved in any of that last time around, and to be the only one on the battlefield in a skirt was interesting,'' she says.

Popplewell admits her emotions are mixed about the fact that she and Moseley won't be around for the next one, but she's also trying to be realistic.

"I had my first audition for this when I was 13 and now I'm 19, so it's been a big old chunk of my life, and anyway, I wouldn't want to play the same character seven times.''

But she will remember the last scene she did - a 15-foot jump off a cliff.

She will also remember the friendship that developed among the four young stars.

"The four of us were very close. And when you do extraordinary things - like fighting battles - you do bond very quickly.''

Or as Georgie puts it: I think the reason we have this chemistry and bond is that we've all grown up together. We spent years together. Crazy, isn't it?''

© CanWest News Service 2008

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Greens for Narnia:Prince Caspian

Robbie Penny, greensman for 'The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian'

'Courtesy Robbie Penny

BIG CHALLENGE: Penny says keeping the outdoors sets looking fresh on “Prince Caspian” was no easy task.

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His job is to cultivate the lush outdoor settings.

By Cristy Lytal, Special to The Times
May 18, 2008

SOME people have a window office. Greensman Robbie Penny has the great outdoors.

"I've always been involved in horticulture," says the Auckland, New Zealand, native. "My mother and father were both very keen gardeners, and my father worked for a company called Turners & Growers. I've never really been that interested in much else."

Penny studied horticultural science with an emphasis on landscape design and nursery management at Massey University. He spent about a decade doing contract landscapes and managed retail businesses before being approached by his school friend, greensman Russell Hoffman, to lend his talent to the television shows "Hercules: The Legendary Journeys" and "Xena: Warrior Princess" in 1998.

Since then, the 46-year-old Penny has used his green thumb for projects including "Bridge to Terabithia," “10,000 BC” and "The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian," which opened in wide release Friday.

Stomp the yard: Feet are Penny's biggest enemy. "You've generally got between 60 and 100 crew with all their equipment and lights and cameras, and they've got to access through and over your set," he says. "And quite often, like in 'Prince Caspian,' you've got horses running through the sets. So you can imagine the devastation you've got to deal with between takes. . . . You're constantly trying to make the set look like it was the first day they walked in. That is the biggest challenge, I find -- maintaining continuity."

The grass is always greener: Penny sets up a massive on-set nursery to provide replacement stock for the many plants and grasses that are inevitably crushed. "For 'Prince Caspian,' the first scene when they arrive at the ruins, that grass is all overgrown with flower there," he says. "We got a certain nursery to contract-grow all of that flower, the buttercups and the daisy and the dandelion. I think that total area was about 1,000 square meters, and we had five or 6,000 square meters of the same grass that we'd grown and got ready. Over a 2 1/2 -day shoot, we used nearly all of that standby grass. We basically redressed that set about five times."

Do sit under the apple tree: Not all the plants in the ruins scene were living. "We found a very old orchard here in New Zealand where the apple trees were being cut down to make way for a different type of farming," he says. "So we went and cut the old apple trees. One apple tree might have been cut up into eight different segments, and you mark them all and take all those segments back to the warehouse. And then you assemble the tree back together by bolting it. You scaffold around the tree, and you're all set to work."

Frond regards: For "Prince Caspian," Penny obtained about 20,000 ferns, mostly from Belgium, to build a fern forest near Prague, Czech Republic. "We wanted them waist height," he says. "All the bigger ones we dressed close in to where the action was going to happen. We used lettuce ferns, and they used like a wild fern that we actually cut from the sides of the roads in the forest there as well. And we just used them to stick into the ground, because they were growing wild, and that gave us extra height for the ferns."

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/movies/la-ca-workinghollywood18-2008may18,0,6869933.story