The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the much-loved fantasy
novel by C.S. Lewis, will be made into a film in New Zealand, a
newspaper reported recently.
Walden Media will produce it and New Zealander Andrew Adamson,
best known for his work on the Oscar-winning animated feature
Shrek will direct.
“We are extremely happy and excited to be starting work on the
film in New Zealand,” Wellington’s Dominion Post quoted
Adamson as saying.
The movie is expected to be the first of five films based on
Lewis’ seven Chronicles of Narnia books, to which Walden holds the
film rights.
Director Peter Jackson made J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the
Rings into a three-film feature in New Zealand over the past four
years using its unspoiled landscapes.
The 170 million New Zealand dollars (US$110 million) budget film
will start production preparations early in 2004, although work on
the Chronicles has already started at New Zealand director Peter
Jackson’s Weta Workshop in the capital, Wellington.
A spokeswoman for Weta confirmed it was currently working on the
project, but declined to give details.
Shooting, much of it in South Island forests, high country and
coastal areas, will begin mid-2004, the reports said.
Taxpayers will help foot the bill for the film, which will be
made using a screen production grant scheme set up by the
government this year.
Under the scheme, production companies can receive up to 12.5
per cent of their total costs back at the end of production.
Economic Development Minister Jim Anderton said the decision to
make the movie in New Zealand was “a vote of confidence in our
country as a location for film and screen production.”
The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, published in 1950, is
the second and best-known novel in the seven-part Narnia series. It
also includes The Magician’s Nephew, The Horse and His Boy,
Prince Caspian, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, The Silver
Chair and The Last Battle.
The Chronicles of Narnia series has sold over 60 million copies
worldwide and is currently published by HarperCollins.