It's possible he's never read the books. That happens. He could still be a good Caspian having never read the books.

We know, at least, that he claims to have read some of the books, as he says VDT is his favorite. I have no reason to doubt him on that front, but that doesn't mean he's read them all.

Interesting interview. I don't like the little comment about "re-imagining it as you see fit" and I'm not pleased that they've added a good deal of humor to the film. Not that I mind humor, but the LWW and PC humor was very juvenile, imo. Hopefully Apted will do a better job, as far as that goes. Overall I guess the interview was encouraging, although I wish they'd given us a bit more on the Peter and Susan appearance.

I'll always be a,
NL101

I hope you're right. I don't usually trust word tenses, and since the article is a write-up, I don't trust the people who transcribed the interview to get things right. (I think I'm a bit cynical when it comes to people's grasp of English grammar.)

Very true. But even you ignore his particular use of the past tense in that sentence, then it still leaves you with the fact that it would be incredibly bizarre for a film-maker of Michael Apted's vast experience to quantify a character's appearance in a movie in terms of "days", rather than in terms of screen time or number of scenes.

Sure most movies do contain events which span a number of days, but i can't think of any movie where "days" would be a handy unit of measure to refer to a characters length of appearance. It would just be beyond odd.

Anyone notice that Ben Barnes didn't know if he was in the Silver Chair?

I found that particularly funny as he DID know he was in it a couple years ago when I sat in on an interview where he talked about his role in SC.

http://www.narniaweb.com/2008/05/nyc-interview-series-ben-barnes/

Have they discussed you playing yourself elderly in movie four?

Ben: The only conversation I’ve had about that was with Howard Berger from KNB. I said, “Dude, can you make me look 70?” Really just trying to be funny, and he’s like “Yeah…” And I’m like, “Sweet.” [laughter] That’s the only conversation I’ve had about it so far. Whether anyone wants to see me with a walking stick…

It's possible he's never read the books. That happens. He could still be a good Caspian having never read the books.

I KNOW he read Prince Caspian and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader before he was cast in the movies... it's mentioned in several interviews... but I think he was pretty little when he read them. (Remember he had found his old copy of PC after being cast in the movie and he had written Benny (?) Barnes in the front cover? ) And unlike the rest of us crazed fans, he probably hasn't poured over them and committed them to memory. So remembering which books his character appears in may have slipped his mind.

It's possible he's never read the books. That happens. He could still be a good Caspian having never read the books.

Ben Barnes has read all the books I am very happy that he has too, he probabley does not know because sometimes the actors have to reaudition to get the same parts. I really enjoied this interview Ben has such a good humor, but I did not like when Michael said that Susan ans Peter come back for a few days He said it would not change everything but still .Other than that I am still excited

this is awesome!

wow! so Peter and Susan come back for a few days! I was shocked for a few seconds, but I kind of like the idea and I can't wait to se what that's going to look like! the question is, where will they come back too? also, at first I was thinking that it would mess it up, but then Aslan said they couldn't go back to Narnia. the story doesn't take place in Narnia itself, only in the Islands between Narnia and Aslan's Country! so I don't see how that would mess anything up.....

I think that they meant a few days of filming not a few days on the ship. That just doesn't make any sense.

It's moments like this in film when adapting from a beloved book series when a director should have kept the "Excellent Surprise" scene a secret from the trailers and placed it in a later TV Spot or something when we got closer to getting the film release date.

I have found in my limited experience with PC and VDT, that choice is not up to the director, but rather the marketing studio. Both appearances of the White Witch in the movies (and I'm pretty sure Susan and Peter's cameos in VDT) were SUPPOSED to be a secret and kept a surprise for the movies' release. But the marketing studio (last time Disney, this time Fox) insisted on putting them in the trailer and not without some debate from opposing parties. I guess if you help pay for the movie, the decision is up to you.

And yes, when Apted says "They came back for a couple of days" he's talking about Will and Anna coming on set for a couple days, not they'll be in the movie for a couple days. You can read the other reports of their cameos for confirmation on that.

I KNOW he read Prince Caspian and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader before he was cast in the movies... it's mentioned in several interviews... but I think he was pretty little when he read them. (Remember he had found his old copy of PC after being cast in the movie and he had written Benny (?) Barnes in the front cover? ) And unlike the rest of us crazed fans, he probably hasn't poured over them and committed them to memory. So remembering which books his character appears in may have slipped his mind.

I've read a ton of interviews with Ben Barnes (no I'm not a crazed fan girl) so I can't remember where I've seen it but I know he read the books (all of them I'm pretty sure) as a child and I know when he was in college he was studying literature (I think children's literature). While he was doing that he went back and read all the Narnia books again. Also, as a child he watched the BBC version of Narnia.

In this interview http://www.thecinemasource.com/blog/interviews/ben-barnes-interview-for-the-chronicles-of-narnia-prince-caspian/ it really shows that he is a pretty big Narnia fan (though not crazy like us.) He didn't want Suspian either btw.

I remember reading that his contract covered three films. I wonder if the contract was with Disney though and that's why he wasn't sure about SC. I don't know about movie contracts and such, so I can't really say.