@jasmine_tarkheena Yeah they should definitely include that scene. If I were to give advice to Netflix and whoever eventually writes/directs The Silver Chair, I'd say that everything that occurs with Rilian, Lilliandil, Caspian and Drinian up until the prince's disappearance should be adapted into a prologue for the film. It would just make more sense in a visual medium than trying to do flashbacks in the Parliament of Owls sequence like they did in the BBC version, and also is another example of show don't tell. I think it would also get the audience more invested in Rilian as we would have spent some time with him before our heroes are told to help find him.

As for the Parliament of Owls, it would make more sense to only be able to tell bits and pieces of the story, without too much convoluted exposition, as I imagine the disappearance of Rilian would be more of a mysterious tale than something that Glimfeather and other Narnians seemingly know the ins-and-outs of, and that would overall create more of a mystery and more of a challenge for our main characters.

@rilianix I think that the idea of the scene that occurs with Ramandu's daughter (I don't know if they'll name her "Liliandil" again... I've named her in another thread "Serena"), Caspian, Drinian, and Rilian up until his disappearance placed during the prologue of the film might be interesting. It can be done without giving too much away.

The first Hobbit movie did something similar, showing Smaug terrorizing Dale and Ererabor in the prologue, and it was all done without showing Smaug too much.

I wonder if the same could work for the final battle of Charn in MN... when Jadis tells of the final conflict with her sister, leading up until she speaks the "Deplorable Word".  When Jadis tells Digory and Polly of the final battle of Charn, she could tell bit of pieces of it.

@jasmine_tarkheena Yeah, I think it would also be a bit more of a punchier opening compared to just having us go straight to Experiment House, and considering the general audience should be incredibly well-versed in Narnia by this point in the series, dropping into Narnia and getting some context feels appropriate. The most important part of this detail though would be making sure we're seeing this information, rather than just hearing it from Glimfeather, and spending more time with Rilian.

And it always feels strange sometimes just calling her Ramandu's daughter, so I just always go with the name Gresham gave her.

As for the destruction of Charn, I'm not sure. It would obviously be an incredibly impressive sequence visually, but I'm a bit hesitant cause I'm not sure if it's necessary and might even work better as somewhat of a mystery that's told to us and the characters by Jadis.

Sometimes hearing about something horrible someone has done can be more effective and unsettling than seeing it happen, but it really depends on the writing and the actress playing Jadis. The reason I think this and the context surrounding Rilian's disappearance are different is because the scenes with Rilian are important to the plot and the adventure our characters are going to take, while also giving us more time with Rilian, a character who we don't get to see until they reach the Underland.

The destruction of Charn is more of a backstory for Jadis and adds more to her characterisation.  Plus, I wouldn't want to be the writer who decides what the Deplorable Word actually is 😀

But never say never and again it'd be a really cool visual element.

@rilianix I wouldn't have to hear the Deplorable Word. Maybe all we would need to see is Jadis and her sister in a final conflict.

Another idea would be is that as Jadis tells of the final battle of Charn is not see it, but hear sounds of it in the background. In the book she says, "It is silent now, but I've stood here when the city was filled with the noises of Charn."

@jasmine_tarkheena Yeah I think the use of sound design could be interesting.

Posted by: @rilianix

Plus, I wouldn't want to be the writer who decides what the Deplorable Word actually is

Yes, especially if it might then lead to someone in our world repeating it...  

(I'm just having visions of the Monty Python sketch that ends with the Tomb of the Unknown Joke, but never mind )

Seriously, the way I imagine that scene being done — as part of a flashback as Jadis is narrating the story — would have her telling her sister "Yes, victory... but not yours" (as she does in the book), and then the background music rises to a crescendo as Jadis lifts her arms and mouths something, which we don't actually hear over the music, and smoke rises up all around and in front of her and blacks the scene out...

After a moment of complete darkness and sudden silence, it clears, and we see Jadis looking out over the dead city of Charn with just a pile of ashes at her feet where her sister was, and other piles of ashes further out where other people and animals died. (Lewis doesn't tell us exactly what the Deplorable Word does to living things, but Digory and Polly certainly don't see any bones or other recognisable human remains lying around — which would be too horrifying for a children's book or movie in any case — so I'm guessing they all got reduced to dust on the spot.)

@courtenay It's a really interesting idea about Charn. I actually kind of a pictured of the final battle of Charn shown during the prologue of MN. Then a close up shot of Jadis and her sister facing one another. Her sister says, "Victory!" And Jadis says, "Yes, but not yours!" Then the music builds as Jadis raises her arms and it blacks out. Then it cuts to Victorian London. Well, given that our world and Narnia don't have the same time span, I don't see why Charn would have its own time span as well.

On the subject of Jadis, while not a scene, I'm generally intrigued to see what route they take with her appearance, specifically as the White Witch. As we know, in the book, she has more traditional "villainous" look with her long black hair and red lips, which the BBC adaptation pretty much stuck with, whereas the Walden version went for a different approach and decided to go for something softer and more trustworthy, which I think was incredibly wise...

So again the question is what will they do for this adaptation?

Will they go for something more accurate to the books description or try something completely different? Would it be wise to do what Walden did? One of the reasons I would hesitate going with something similar to Tilda's look, is not only would it be repetitive and possible uninspired, but given how popular Frozen is, would they want to avoid any similarity to that as well? It's not going to be easy that's for sure.

@rilianix That's a good question! I would think they'll want to give Jadis a different look than BBC and Walden! Walden got creative, where her hair was frozen and was slowly melted! So I think they'll want to give her a different look!

On that note, I can kind of see how tricky it would be to do a total reveal. Kind of like what we've talked about how The Silver Chair would do Prince Rilian as a total reveal! Here's a couple of others I could think of-

1. In The Magician's Nephew, Digory discovers that Jadis had eaten one of the apples from the Garden of Youth, and her face turns white as salt! So I kind of wonder if they're going to do it as a total reveal!

2. In The Last Battle, Poggin tells Tirian of all that happened. At the start of the story, Shift has been using Puzzle like a puppet. Then later, Poggin tells that he overhears a secret conversation between Rishda and Ginger about their secret plan, in using Shift like a puppet! So I wonder if they're going to do it as a total reveal that Shift is going to be the puppet or even show Poggin listening in to Rishda and Ginger talking about their secret plan (I can almost picture Rishda and Ginger as silhouette figures for dramatic effect!)

Well, when it comes to scenes in the Narnia books that we just can't wait to see in a movie, there are some that we hope it would be 100% right and even some that would have to require some changes or tweaks.

As much as I would like for a Narnia movie to follow the books closely, it's understandable that some things would have to require some changes to make it work for screen.

Here's a couple a things I could think of that a Narnia movie better ruin-

1. Puddleglum's speech in The Silver Chair. It's pretty iconic moment where he takes a stand. "Suppose we have made these things up." That moment where the Lady of the Green Kirtle tries to convince Puddleglum, Rilian, Eustace, and Jill that Narnia doesn't exist and that it's all a children's story, Puddleglum makes a powerful speech, taking a stand for what he knows is true. A movie would probably have to make some tweaks to it. There are probably some who would like it to be 100% from the book. I don't know if it would happened that way, but at least they better not ruin it.

2. Emeth's meeting with Aslan in The Last Battle. It's one of my favorite scenes in the series, and it's a beautiful moment. It's like we're seeing Aslan from Emeth's perspective... yeah that's right, seeing Aslan from a Calormene's perspective. The audience should at least feel that fear and awe that Emeth is feeling. I would like it to be 100% from the book yet it may not happened that way.  Well, they better not ruin it.

Maybe i'm too far away from seeing SC adapted, but of all my books the scene i most want to see is where Eustace and Jill watch Father Time sleep

Do I pick a scene from a book that hasn't been adapted yet? Or one of the scenes from the books that have already gotten an adaptation where it never made it in (either for time/technological constraints)?

Give me Rumblebuffin smashing through the wall of the Witch's castle and I'll be a happy camper  

@glenwit 

I've noticed that both the BBC TV series and the Walden film cut out Rumblebuffin smashing through the wall of the White Witch's castle (the BBC TV series had him kick the doorway and the Walden film cut the freeing of the statues short to get to the battle scene.) Even the animated LWW cut out Rumblebuffin all together.

So it would be something if a new adaption of LWW could include Rumblebuffin smashing through the walls of the White Witch's castle.

Posted by: @jasmine_tarkheena

@glenwit 

I've noticed that both the BBC TV series and the Walden film cut out Rumblebuffin smashing through the wall of the White Witch's castle (the BBC TV series had him kick the doorway and the Walden film cut the freeing of the statues short to get to the battle scene.) Even the animated LWW cut out Rumblebuffin all together.

So it would be something if a new adaption of LWW could include Rumblebuffin smashing through the walls of the White Witch's castle.

Along the same lines, the BBC SC adaptation cuts out the snowball dance. I'd really like to see what choreographers make of it, especially because Lewis doesn't really explain how it actually works.

@starlit 

The snowball dance would have been difficult to film with the low budget that the BBC had.  And Jill, Eustace, and Puddleglum had to return to the sunlit lands in another season in order to be practical for the BBC production. I kind of wish they had kept the snowball dance since it was one of the parts of the book that I remembered as a child. It was too bad that the creators of the program didn’t have more money.  🙁