Narniaweb began its life, service and fun, on 21 November 2003.
It was an exciting time, with Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King due to open on 1 December 2003!
Those of us who live in New Zealand were now looking forward to Narnia being filmed here too. 
John of Into The Wardrobe asked a NZ forum member in late 2003 to collect articles and news about upcoming LWW filming in NZ. She had gathered a number of items for using on ITW, when John emailed to let her know that he wasn't going to run LWW Movie news after all, because one of the other members was starting a website especially for it.
(From Entering the Wardrobe, The Spare Oom forum )
In our forum archives, we have news items from late July 2002. Few of us had any idea this was happening at the time.
Here are some from 2002 and 2003; most of the original videos and articles are unavailable,
https://www.narniaweb.com/2002/07/interview-with-narnia-director-andrew-adamson/
https://www.narniaweb.com/2003/11/weta-already-working-on-narnia-film/
https://www.narniaweb.com/2003/11/film-to-be-produced-between-july-and-december/
source: https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA0312/S00475.htm
https://www.narniaweb.com/2003/12/nz-scores-another-epic-film/
https://www.narniaweb.com/2003/12/narnia-blockbuster-confirmed-for-nz/
The next post will begin with a brief item about children's auditions, from January 2004.
There, shining in the sunrise, larger than they had seen him before, shaking his mane (for it had apparently grown again) stood Aslan himself.
"...when a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor's stead, the Table would crack and Death itself would start working backwards."
Topic starter
Posted : March 3, 2024 1:04 am
We arrived in 2004 with some degree of excitement, as we watched for news.
On 19 January 2004, Tirian posted this:
NarniaWeb has learned that about one thousand children have been auditioned and that the production will soon be casting from the short list. It has also been confirmed that pre-production is forging ahead and that the studio has an accepted screenplay and budget.
USA Today had a story:
https://www.narniaweb.com/2004/01/more-rings-magic-on-the-way/
In January 2004, there were also news items that Grant Major and artist John Howe had left the Narnia project.
Then in February came the Disney rumour.
https://www.narniaweb.com/2004/02/disney-distribution-rumored/
It was confirmed in March:
https://www.narniaweb.com/2004/03/disney-to-distribute-co-finance-lww/
[Note the agreement to 'co-finance and distribute' - they never planned to make the movie themselves.]
Casting stories and parental comments turned up in various places.
https://www.narniaweb.com/2004/02/the-two-that-almost-made-it-through/ - this was about two boys from north east England (not far from where Georgie lived)
https://www.narniaweb.com/2004/03/a-letter-from-pippa-hall/
Advertising began....
https://www.narniaweb.com/2004/03/narnia-ad-runs-in-major-newspapers/
There, shining in the sunrise, larger than they had seen him before, shaking his mane (for it had apparently grown again) stood Aslan himself.
"...when a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor's stead, the Table would crack and Death itself would start working backwards."
Topic starter
Posted : March 23, 2024 1:40 pm
Hilma liked
Hold onto your wigs because hair, I mean here, comes the rumour about that blonde Australian actress playing The White Witch!
8 March 2004
https://www.narniaweb.com/2004/03/nicole-kidman-as-the-white-witch/
9 March 2004
https://www.narniaweb.com/2004/03/kidman-still-a-rumor/
Tirian reported that 'IMDB printed a retraction on their website stating that Nicole Kidman has not yet signed on as the White Witch'
“A previous version of this story stated that Kidman had signed for the role of the White Witch; production sources have said that this was not the case, and that she was only one of the actresses under consideration.”
Sooo..... did she get cast? Was she going to play the WW? *suspense music* (see below)
And, where would the filming be taking place? Those who guessed it might use Peter Jackson's studios in Wellington were wrong. In fact, Auckland had a good collection of studios, especially in the western suburb of Henderson.
9 March 2004
https://www.narniaweb.com/2004/03/waitakere-opens-doors-to-disney/
[I note that the Disney name was already getting the attention, and Walden hadn't even begun filming the movie!]
https://www.narniaweb.com/2004/03/some-filming-to-take-place-in-the-czech-republic/
on 11 March 2004 Tirian quoted a report that some of the filming would take place in the Czech Republic.
'It is expected that the Czech Republic will be used for filming scenes of the White Witch's castle.'
In the report Walden Media denied the rumor that Kidman is part of the cast. "It's a project that we're all very excited about, but unfortunately this is just not true,"said company spokeswoman Alison Lehrer. "Hopefully we'll have some exciting news soon."
Let's hope so!' added Tirian.
There, shining in the sunrise, larger than they had seen him before, shaking his mane (for it had apparently grown again) stood Aslan himself.
"...when a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor's stead, the Table would crack and Death itself would start working backwards."
Topic starter
Posted : March 26, 2024 3:58 pm
Hilma liked
After a long search in my own documents from 2003 and 2004, I have found a long document where I had compiled all the news at the time, from local NZ news media (including transcriptions I did myself) and online sources.
I hope to include at least some of these here (to check with other mods first).
There, shining in the sunrise, larger than they had seen him before, shaking his mane (for it had apparently grown again) stood Aslan himself.
"...when a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor's stead, the Table would crack and Death itself would start working backwards."
Topic starter
Posted : March 26, 2024 4:51 pm