Still if they didn't have 12-year old bullying, there's still 18-year old type bullying that they could depict.

I'm not sure what you mean by "bullying." I didn't feel that Jill and Eustace were bullying each other. They bicker a lot, and the type of bickering is childish in nature. Among older children, that sort of back and forth only works if there's some sort of tension. Like with Shasta and Aravis, whom I've always pictured as teenagers, they have classist tension. Jill and Eustace don't have that. Are you proposing sexual tension as a dynamic for them? Not sure how I feel about that.

No, you seriously misread me. No way do I want romantic tension of any kind at all between Eustace and Jill in the Silver Chair. (Excepting a romantic flashback with Caspian and Lilliandil of course.) The dynamic needs to be bickering about the pain and suffering of a long hard/character building journey to find the Prince!

I meant bullying done to Jill to make her cry inflicted upon her by Adela Pennyfather and company at Experiment House. They could still do a reasonable job of depicting a hierarchy of the "popular" controlling kids over the "subordinate", "unpopular" ones.

They have aged all the other characters in this series, as far as the films are concerned. I see no reason for them to not be able to do the same for Eustace. That being said, Eustace shouldn't enter Narnia with stubble on his face. But even if Will Poulter is of the age where he starts to go facial hair, with a really good shave, he can make it look like there's nothing there. I think that Ben Barne's "hefty tan" makeup might have covered up any traces of facial hair for him, but I think Will Moseley also did an excellent job of staying "younger looking."

On a much different topic, I always pictured the Pevensie Trilogy/Caspian Trilogy, (the first four books), as the four seasons of the year.

-LWW is so clearly Winter, and transitions to Spring

-PC is in this way Spring, and transitioning to Summer (release date might have hindered my feelings for this one )

-VDT feels like Summer all the way for me

-SC has always felt like Fall and the beginning of Winter to me. I love the mountinous landscapes, and I love the one Pauline Baynes illustration of Puddleglum helping Jill and Eustace up the steps at Harfang with SNOW falling. Although it can snow in the fall, (especially depending on where you live), snow is more often than not associated with winter. SC has always felt like a camping story. Hiking across fields, climbing mountains, crossing bridges. When reading the book, I always felt that the journey was a lot farther than those in LWW and PC. (VDT is not relevant to this, as they don't travel by foot except for on the islands, but by boat). I hope they are able to convey the "on the road" feel in this film more so than they did in the previous movies.

I'm very in experienced when it comes to movie productions, as I've only closely followed the Narnia movies, so I have a question for NarniaWebbers smarter than I. It's been well over a month since The Voyage of the Dawn Treader released so... is it still too early to tell or is seeing The Silver Chair get greenlit a far cry at this point?

I don't know that I'm smarter than you, but I'll attempt to answer your question.

Basically, no one knows. The fact that there has been no announcement yet by no means indicates that there will not be an announcement. In fact, I would have been quite surprised if we had heard something by now either way. Most likely we will have to wait until the DVD is released before we know anything.

That would be Easter, which is too long of a wait still. To actually know for certain now would be better.

I think Will Moseley also did an excellent job of staying "younger looking."

Peter and Eustace are two very different characters. In PC, they aged the Peter from early/mid teens to mid/late teens. That's not such a big leap. Moseley was able to pass for mid/late teens, so it worked.

Eustace, on the other hand, is a little boy. Will P is 18 years old. Unlike Moseley, ever since his growth spurt he does not look young for his age. The best they can do is pass him off as a 15-year-old. That means they would have to age the character of Eustace from little kid to teenager. That's a HUGE jump. A lot of Eustace's behaviors and dialogue would seem weird and immature on a teenager.

My concern is that, if and when they come out with SC, we're going to be reading pages and pages of complaints on one of the following two topics:

1. They recast Eustace: "Why did they get rid of Will P?! He was perfect!"

2. They don't recast Eustace: "Why did they change Eustace so much? What happened to Eustace from the book?"

Anhun, out of curiosity, which camp would you be in of complainers? I can see myself in both. I couldn't help watching some videos on You Tube recently of Will's latest appearance filming his new movie and thinking of your comments in this post.

Definitely gone is that little boy cuteness.

I don't think it would be a problem to have Eustace be a teenager. The Pevensies got older pretty fast from LWW to PC. I don't mind that.

Anhun, out of curiosity, which camp would you be in of complainers?

Lol, I'm going to be in the group of people complaining about all the people who are complaining. To be honest, I thought Will Poulter was pitch-perfect in VDT, so I'd miss him if he was recast. At the same time, I loved Eustace and the dynamics between him and Jill and Puddleglum in the book, so I'd miss that if they had to change the characters significantly in the process of aging them up by 6 or 7 years. Either way, I'd be a bit disappointed, at the same time, I'd understand the fact that the film makers are making the best of a tricky situation.

@Liberty Hoffman: I see your point, but actually we're not talking about the difference between Eustace's age in VDT and his age in SC. They can always alter the dialogue between Eustace and Jill in the beginning, so that more than a couple months have past. That on it's own isn't a big deal.

We're talking about the dramatic difference between Eustace's age in the book SC, and his age in the movie, if he's played by Will P, and what that would mean for his character development. In the movie PC, none of the characters were meant to be more than 3 years older than they were in the book PC. Since most of the Pevensie actors are young-looking for their ages, everyone except Skandar was able to pull that off (to this day, the "I don't think I want to understand" line makes me cringe ).

I don't think it will be so difficult to 'young down' Eustace to about age 15. Even if he shaves he has naturally fair hair so it won't show as much as in Ben Barnes' case. It would be more difficult to 'age up' Caspian. It is not only a long beard, wrinkles and looking ill. It is how the actor walks as an older person. As if the years and long disappointments have bowed him down. If they do a flashback maybe they can do it all by degrees.

Still if they didn't have 12-year old bullying, there's still 18-year old type bullying that they could depict.

I'm not sure what you mean by "bullying." I didn't feel that Jill and Eustace were bullying each other. They bicker a lot, and the type of bickering is childish in nature. Among older children, that sort of back and forth only works if there's some sort of tension. Like with Shasta and Aravis, whom I've always pictured as teenagers, they have classist tension. Jill and Eustace don't have that. Are you proposing sexual tension as a dynamic for them? Not sure how I feel about that.

What is suggested in the books is that there is some tension between Eustace and Jill, not because of classism (Aravis and Shasta), or because of any sexual tension. But rather it is because of an underlying intellectual snobbery. At the beginning of VDT Eustace was the sort of boy who went around comparing his good marks with everyone else's lousy marks, and according to SC, he had been toadying up to the bullies, who had been giving weaker students like Jill a rough time. But that all changed for Eustace in his VDT Narnia adventure, and in SC he needs to convince Jill of this also.

By contrast, Jill Pole when we meet her in SC has issues with remembering things. This might well be related to the bullying, since whether bullying is done at aged 12 or whether at aged 18, bullies typically bully those who are perceived to be weaker or different from themselves. The dynamics of any tension is that previously Eustace had gone along with the bullying, feeling himself immune from the sort of taunting levelled at weaker students because of his obvious scholastic ability. Maybe he was higher on the school hierarchy than Jill at that stage. And now he is trying to be helpful instead, and the bullies are about to turn on him.

Jill comes across as someone who resents Eustace acting superior and assuming he can tell her what to do, something even grown men may do annoyingly often.
😀 Whilst the bickering might be considered childish, the tensions behind the bickering are not childish at all, and can be true of any age. It is still us and them at work. Jill needs to show Eustace, and probably herself, as well, that she is not someone to look down on. As in VDT, their journey together will be one of personal growth and development.

Eustace might well have gotten over any disdain he might feel for a weaker student but in SC did he get over other disdainful attitudes he might have to others? Girls for example? I'm not surprised that he quarrels with Jill at first. After all, Jill's showing off puts Eustace in real physical danger, just after they enter Narnia. Just my tuppence worth.

I'm concerned about two things right now
1) The Green Mist rearing its ugly head again in some form. It seems inevitable.
2) Jill being friends with Eustace? (implied at the end of VDT). Here's why this could be a big problem:

"The Silver Chair," at its center, is about Jill having to learn trust.

At the beginning of the story, Jill has no one to turn to. She is in a hopeless situation where she can trust no one. Even the authorities at her school cannot be trusted. Also, I think it might possibly be worth noting that Jill is the only human main character in the Chronicles whose parents are never mentioned. Can Jill not trust her parents either? It might explain why they let her remain in such a horrible school (an experience Lewis himself also endured). Just an observation, could be nothing. Regardless, at the beginning of the story, Jill is in a situation where people with authority and power (teachers and bullies) are a problem for her. So it's not surprising she has a really hard time trusting Aslan.

In the book, Jill's journey towards learning trust begins when she realizes that Eustace has changed. There is something different about him. He wasn't trustworthy at all this term...but now he's different. I think if Jill and Eustace are already friends, this won't come through.

I might not feel hopeless about SC if they ditched Apted and Fox. But as it stands now... I don't want to see an SC movie.

The Green Mist rearing its ugly head again in some form. It seems inevitable.

I assume the Mist will return in the scene where the Lady of the Green Kirtle tries to convince them all that Aslan and Narnia do not exist. And since the Mist in VDT was obviously (too obviously) tied to temptation, I have a feeling the production will use it again here as a sort of tempter. Even in the BBC version, green mist shoots out of her fingers into the faces of the other characters as a sort of spell. My hope is that they keep the scene as it was in the book, where she plays her soothing mandolin-like instrument.

I guess you could make the argument that the Mist could fit better in SC since this scene in the book also mentions that the Lady takes a handful of green powder and puts it into the fire to try to spell them as well.

Actually I agree with you skilletdude. There is the green powder The Lady of the Green Kirtle puts on the fire, which is in not only the book but also in the BBC version.

The mandolin was in both as well. Sinister mandolin music has been also used in other similar movies to the Narnia stories, such as Return to Oz.

Whatever was wrong with Rilian also implies psychological problems such as forgetfulness. I keep thinking of a very un-PG clue to Rilian's problems. It is called drug abuse, in particular, absinthe, an overly potent alcoholic drink, containing wormwood, commonly called 'green fairy', which was a real problem in the pre-WW2 days, before that particular drug was banned, and before the Vietnam war, when worse ones came along to confuse the ethics and to befuddle the mind.

I'm concerned about two things right now
1) The Green Mist rearing its ugly head again in some form. It seems inevitable.
2) Jill being friends with Eustace? (implied at the end of VDT). Here's why this could be a big problem:

"The Silver Chair," at its center, is about Jill having to learn trust.

I have to agree that the Green Mist might be an inevitable part of SC, but maybe not as inappropriate or anywhere near as extensive as you might fear. Otherwise, your analysis of Jill's situation is brilliant and explains much. And yes she does have to learn trust.

I have no problems with the name drop at the end. Even if you do see the name drop as problematic, I don't see it as automatically a big problem. We know from the beginning of SC the book that Jill and Eustace are already acquainted. It does infer that Jill Pole and Eustace are at least acquainted. It does not imply they are friends.

There are umpteen reasons Eustace's mother might be announcing to Eustace that Jill Pole had come to visit him, without their being anything more than being acquainted. As a teenager, I used to go to the same school as neighbourhood boys, and if it wasn't for homework requirements or collecting for some cause or other, I wouldn't have met them much at all outside of class, unless I was absolutely obliged to, let alone be 'friends' with them. Neighbours gossip you know, and family members sometimes tend to be too 'nosy'. In fact Jill's visit could very well be an act of bravery, knowing the sort of person Eustace was at the beginning of VDT.

I like what you say that Jill does not seem to be able to get much support from her own parents, let alone teachers and fellow pupils, especially. In the old days before most people on this board were born, the dictum about bullying was the old mantra, 'sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me'. As C.S. Lewis well knew. Jill's parents in wartime could also be part of the problem as war destroys people psychologically as well as physically. Or, as you say, they could be part of the same set as Eustace's parents.

In the book, Jill's journey towards learning trust begins when she realizes that Eustace has changed. There is something different about him. He wasn't trustworthy at all this term...but now he's different. I think if Jill and Eustace are already friends, this won't come through.

I might not feel hopeless about SC if they ditched Apted and Fox. But as it stands now... I don't want to see an SC movie.

I don't see why they would be friends, teenagers or not. And you are right that a deep friendship between them would be a bad start to SC. But Jill, let alone others - won't notice any difference in Eustace if Jill hadn't been acquainted with Eustace beforehand, when he was toadying up to bullies. And there is one bit that puzzles me about SC the book. It is this:

When Eustace finds Jill 'blubbing' behind the gym, he and she are obviously on talking terms. How does that come about if they weren't at least acquainted? How does Eustace get to have a whole conversation with Jill when he had been previously so horrible to everyone, probably including her? Eustace's own cousins made no bones that he wasn't welcome - why wouldn't Jill do the same to him? I know I would avoid such a horrible boy. Even as an old woman I still dislike listening to overbearing, bossy men yelling at me. Lucy's dictum about 'boys being bullying, swaggering idiots', has some truth in it you know.

I agree with Lucy.

I also agree with Jill and Eustace being acquainted (on talking terms) but not friends at the beginning of the book and movie, if they make it.

Later in Chapter 1 of the book Jill complains that Eustace was sounding like he was "going to begin a lecture"....so before his character change I think he did talk to her...in superficial acquaintance mode with the intellectual snobbery attitude you brought up in an earlier post.

Jill's observed him sucking up to the bullies and being a snob. Her observance of what he's done to show he's changed since the term started is enough of a lead-in for them to have the conversation at the back of the gym (i.e. become better acquainted), especially if she's been caught crying, off-her-guard, and he appears to be trying to help instead of behaving like his previously mean self....which is why I just love their introduction scene so much. The movie must get this right!

Yup, Jill Pole could have come to pick up something or deliver something.

She could have even come to deliver news to Eustace about a classmate or teacher.

So the name drop implies very very little. Other than perhaps the hopeful hope that SC will be made.