This is more encouraging for me then any another quote I’ve heard so far.

Back in November Will Poulter said this about his character in a interview. “ He is a complete brat, he’s obnoxious, rude, selfish and cowardly and has no respect for anyone other than himself. However he does become a much better adjusted person at the end of the book.”
I didn‘t really think much about him saying that Eustace changed at the end of the book, I thought it was a mistake, but now with Michael Apted saying that Dragon Eustace is going to be at the end of the movie with the Sea serpent, Will obviously was correct.

I think the main reason they are having Eustace character change later in the movie is so that we can see what a brat he was and then how much he changed.
Like in LWW, Edmund’s character didn’t change until a little more then half way through the movie. So I can see why they wanted to push Dragon Island farther down in the voyage for Eustace’s character development
If they keep all the events that happen on Dragon Island and just move the order of the islands around, that’s fine and doesn’t bother me so much. I understand they may need to switch events around to make it flow on screen.

They probably moved the Sea Serpent battle toward the end so that the Mer-people could help fight it like I think some have mentioned before. I think I would prefer this battle to take place before Ramandu’s Island but I think it wouldn’t be so bad to have it after either.

My Guess now on the Order of the Islands is:

Order of Islands (in book)

The Lone Islands
Dragon Island
Burnt Island
Deathwater Island
Island of Voices
The Dark Island
Ramandu’s Island

We know they will only have five Islands in the movie so:

Order of Islands(in movie)

Example 1. They Keep Dragon Island and combine the events of Deathwater with Dragon Island.

The Lone Islands
Island of Voices
Dark Island
Dragon Island
Ramandu’s Island

Example 2. They combine Ramandu’s Island and Dragon Island.

The Lone Islands
Deathwater Island
Island of Voices
Dark Island
Ramandu’s Island

Sorry for such a long post

I'm just hoping the battle isn't part of a larger plot involving the sea serpent.

Oh please. No. Not that! That would be too silly.

I'm just glad there wasn't any mention about the battle having anything to do with pirates or folks from the Lone Islands.

Definitely. So it sounds like the fight in the bell tower-thingy won't be anything too big, just a quickly resolved ambush/capture type scene. I continue to believe that the statues shown there are not of the seven missing Lords. I do not think that a fight small enough to go unmentioned here could result in the complete destruction of several huge stone statues.

They had better not put the dragon/sea serpent battle after Ramandu's Island. That would completely mess up the feel of the ending. VDT's ending is mysterious and awing, not action-packed and exciting!

Wait. So did the VDT ship cost $2.3 million to make or $23 million? There are some inconsistencies here. I'm not sure what Apted mean by 'a big battle involving the sea serpent and dragon' but I don't think he's the sort to make something clichéd.

Oops sorry, must have been a typo- the problems of fast typing at midnight! It is $2.3 million

No worries mate. Thanks for finding this information for us.

After all, it was Eustace that figured out how to defeat the serpent in the book.

Um, actually Reep figured it out. Eustace tried to use a sword against it.

Well, "a lot more psychological" is a very nice quote, and "it's not a big action movie" is also very good to hear. I also find "this is a character story" and "more of an emotional than a swashbuckling adventure" to be very pleasing on the ear.... However, as this is NarniaWeb, i do find myself strangely compelled to ignore those 4 positives and jump straight to the one big negative right in the middle there: "a huge battle at the end with a sea serpent and a dragon". Say what?

I definitely agree with the first part and though this time I didn't go straight to the negative I usually do. I'm still confused by that last part. Actually until I read other's feelings about this quote, I was feeling pretty good about it. I still feel better than I was feeling before the quote but more worried about "negative" part than I was.
I don't think that the battle will be at the very end. I explained my reasoning about that and other thoughts on the quote here

Um, actually Reep figured it out. Eustace tried to use a sword against it.

You're right, it was Reepicheep; my mistake. Somehow I still wouldn't mind if they had Eustace defeat the serpent, it would be a nice way to show how much he had changed.

I'll always be a,
NL101

I heard the news this morning (thanks for the text, Rilian), and I've been thinking about it all day.

My first reaction was "NOOO!" It seemed like our worst fears realized. Throwing in a climactic action scene. We're always worried about them adding action scenes.

One thing I do like is that this implies that Eustace' transformation occurs much later in the story than in the book. I have been suggesting this change for months. I think that would work better in terms of film. Have him be a jerk for most of the movie, and then have the transformation occur near the end. I just hope it doesn't take away from the Reep tear-jerker departure. What does Apted mean by "the end"? He might just mean the second half of the film.

DragonEustace saving the crew from a sea-serpent could be a good VISUAL way of showing his newfound love for the crew. And it could also bond the crew to him. That would be visual story-telling.

If those are their intentions behind this, I think I'll be all for it. But if they're just trying to throw in a epic action scene for the trailers.... NOOOOO!!!

What if the attacking dragon isn't Eustace?

I was thinking about what Ben Barnes said earlier about borrowing from other books-- what if they borrow the part from SC where Eustace talks to a dragon and it goes away without harming them? That's something they could take from SC without really affecting SC too much.

What if the dragon is a bad dragon, and by this time Eustace is a boy again, so in the battle he helps out because he can relate to the dragon?

I'm not convinced this is what they're doing, I just don't think we can be certain it's Eustace-- although that makes sense too.

It's been awhile since I've read SC, so maybe I'm just forgetting something, but I don't remember any dragons in SC. There were some giant lizard things in the Underland though.

So anyone care to take the bet that Eustace's undragoning totally replaces the final conversation Aslan has with the children so they can avoid the obvious references to Christianity?

For anyone who is interested, I have scanned the article and it can be viewed here:

http://i811.photobucket.com/albums/zz35 ... Empire.jpg

I'm pleased about the psychological aspect Apted's taking on, but... The Silver Sea with Aslan at the end and Eustace's transformation back on the island are the best moments IN THE SERIES. You need a lot of guts to change those.

And honestly, everyone, you fought for the VTD SAIL COLOR! Wouldn't it be more relevant to fight for something that could actually CHANGE the entire structure of the story and the BEST moments of the entire SERIES?

The whole point of the Sea Serpent battle is it wasn't won with brute strength. C.S. Lewis deliberately wrote it that way. It took Reep to realize they could just push it off the boat instead of fighting it and give the monster time to cause even more damage. Lewis points out that it was Reep's unusual decision NOT to fight that set them free. And Eustace's transformation is all about him stalling the trip, so that he realizes it's his rotten attitude that's keeping him and the others from moving forward. By making the dragon attack the serpent, you'll be making the dragon (which is supposed to represent the bad nature of his character and sin) to actually stand for something that can be very beneficial and useful to solve problems, which is a complete distortion of what Lewis wrote.

Dragon vs. Serpent is the cheap way of adding excitement to the story. There's a very clear reason why Lewis AVOIDED it. And I'm sure he must have thought about that possibility when he was writing it. He CHOSE not to do it because it would turn the themes of the story on its heels.

The Silver Sea with Aslan at the end of the story is easily the best scene in the book. By adding up Eustace's transformation to it, you'll be reducing two great moments vital to the story to a brief afterthought. There's a reason why Lewis wrote such a long ending to this book. He wanted to give that moment weight.

Don't you guys SEE it? They're taking the soul out of the book in front of our very eyes and the worst part of it is... nobody seems to care anymore. You decided to settle for the purple sail. Shame on you. *kidding... kind of*

I was thinking about what Ben Barnes said earlier about borrowing from other books-- what if they borrow the part from SC where Eustace talks to a dragon and it goes away without harming them? That's something they could take from SC without really affecting SC too much.

That was actual a scene from the BBC's version of SC and not from the book.

What if the dragon is a bad dragon, and by this time Eustace is a boy again, so in the battle he helps out because he can relate to the dragon?
I'm not convinced this is what they're doing, I just don't think we can be certain it's Eustace-- although that makes sense too.

I agree that this is a possibility and we don't know for certain that this particular dragon is Eustace.
Farsight1 - I understand where you are coming from. And I would much rather have the see serpent be disposed of as in the book. However, we have had a couple quotes about a key emotional sequence at the end and its being bittersweet (Lucy and Edmund realizing they wouldn't be coming back). I'm hoping that means that they will have the conversation with Aslan as it is in the book. I don't know if this means anything or not but Micheal Flaherty mentions that the undragoning of Eustace is one of his favorite scenes from the book. (And yes, I feel the story is much more important than the purple sail and I really didn't care what color it was).

I'm hoping by "at the end" it means towards the end. One could say that the battle against the Witch was at the end of LWW but many things still happened afterward. Likewise, the final battle in PC could be considered at the end of the movie although it was followed by several scenes.

I could think of this news as a bad thing and as a good thing. The good think is that Mr. Apted said it was a character driven story. Which infact,Dawn Treader is. So, that sounds like they could be following the book in more ways than PC followed the PC book. In that case, it was a really good decision to go with Mr. Apted who knows how to make a character driven story. Hopefully, this means the characters are played out correctly. We already know they are adding MLG but maybe she won't be in it a whole bunch. So, maybe we will get whole fleshed out scenes between Eustace and Edmund. Especially, the talk after Eustace is undragoned. But the bad news is that Eustace could stay a dragon for a long time, become a dragon at the wrong time, little time would be left for the Aslan scene between Eustace,Edmund, and Lucy when they see the Lamb turn into Aslan, and the sea dragon in the wrong place and not defeated by pushing on it.

The heart of the story is Eustace being undragoned by Aslan not the conversation at the end with the kids. That is of interest, but not the heart of the story. If Eustace is a dragon for awhile in the film and is with the boat as a dragon, I think this could be a big change. That seems like a strange thing to do though the Dawn Treader in the film is a lot bigger then in the book.

PS. I also never cared what color the sail was.