Well, I can't think of anything worse than an Aussie or American Puddleglum! Ick. An Irish Puddleglum would work though.

Because that is the way Puddleglum is portrayed in the book, the two audio productions, and even Tom Baker's rendition in the BBC television series. If you listen to the FotF audio drama for SC, Douglas Gresham's commentary mentions a gardener called Fred Paxford, who inspired, I suspect, not only C.S.Lewis' Puddleglum, but also the likes of Sam Gamgee in LOTR. The sort of homespun gardener who has a heart of gold but lacks a fancy Universal English accent, and whose speech might be considered 'homespun'.

I really wish there was a poll attached to this thread, in particular, so that people could vote on what previous version of SC they like best, and comment on what aspects of each audio visual production they liked best and which did not work so well. Perhaps that might help show what would be the best ideas in filming SC.

Finally, I still think, for myself, that Bruce Spence would be perfect for Puddleglum, even though he played Lord Rhoop in VDT. Bruce Spence is the perfect tall, thin and googly-eyed sort of person I've imagined Puddleglum to be.

I don't have any bias against Aussie or American actors since they both tend to sound 'homespun' and regional compared to the Oxford/Cambridge variety of English. Although I think it would be a good actor that could better Tom Baker's performance in that role.

I vote for a Welsh Puddleglum.

Just about every character has been put through the washer with various actors and directors almost added as a final rinse so to speak.

The VDT was released before Christmas 2010, and here we are almost at the halfway point for 2011. To add to the frustration any word from Walden to confirm or deny rumours of another movie in the making is seldom and rare or made through speculation.
What did I say earlier, June is almost upon us and what have we seen or heard thus far, a royal wedding, natural disasters, Osama bin Laden's demise, definitely movie prospects? Who knows.There seems to be a lot of distractions away from the Narnia franchise.

Because that is the way Puddleglum is portrayed in the book, the two audio productions, and even Tom Baker's rendition in the BBC television series.

Where in the book does it say that Puddleglum has a Brittish accent? And why are the film and audio renditions taken as some sort of gold standard for adaptation? They're just interpretations, no better than yours or mine, that we visualize when reading the book. If we're going to be technical, Tom Baker's depiction was unfaithful because Puddleglum is supposed to have dark skin and reed-like hair, whereas Tom Baker had light skin and curly hair.

Why do marshwiggles even need to have British accents?

I guess one could argue some form of logic that Diggory and Polly's involvement in the creation of Narnia, and Helen and Frank's role as the first King and Queen of Narnia, (which evidently established English as the official language for Narnia and its talking creatures) would have resulted in a variation of a "British" accent being the standard across Narnia.

However i think its more to the point that Fantasy worlds which are quasi-medieval in nature cannot have "modern" accents such as American and Australian, thus leaving any of the varied "British" accents as the preferred neutral choice for an english-language movie.

But modern American accents aren't any more modern than modern British. The British accent has changed over the years. In fact, it's been hypothesized that William Shakespeare sounded more like Jed Clampett than, say, Jeremy Irons.

Also, for the same reason than accents tend to change over time, it makes perfect sense to me that, over thousands of years since the creation of Narnia, marshwiggles would develop their own distinct accent, possibly American-sounding.

Yeah, thats true actually However, it might make sense to us because we have thought about this but to everyone else it might have the effect that the half Scottish, half American cast in 'How to train your dragon' had. That irritated me. and to some viewers it might just seem like they cast who ever without thinking about making it 'authentic', thats one of the reasons that I think that other accents might be rueled out, but i personally don't have that much of a problem.
After all, Morgim (Sorry i'm really bad with names) had an american accent in LWW, and so did 'Phillip' edmunds horse.

As did Trumpkin I believe, and Reepicheep in PC (In fact it was the accent change that bugged me more than the voice change itself). Puddleglum's a Marshwiggle- would the animals and creatures of Narnia really have the same accent as the humans? What if every species had a different accent? (Honestly that makes more sense to me...) And when it comes right down to it... really the only ones who have to have a British accent are the Archenlanders and all Pre-Telmarine Narnian Humans (in other words everyone before Caspian I) Everyone else could be anything...

That being said what if the accents were based on the origin of the species here on earth? Like say American Beavers, African Elephants, European Jackdaws... Of course that still gives a lot of room for accents in SC... seeing how its mostly mythical creatures, not animals... and half the animals reside in more than one continent...

All this to say, I really don't care what accent they use, as long as its "hearable," though I'd prefer they at least stay consistent when they pick an accent for their characters... (*coughCaspianandReepicheepcough*)

I initially thought Trumpkin was played by a British actor before I found out he was really American actor Peter Dinklage, who actually sounded like he was British in my opinion. The only reason I'd figure Puddleglum should have a homespun country "British" accent is for consistency with British English being the default native tongue of Narnians as Icarus posted above. I don't think the audio dramas should be the basis for the accent, but since the book is British-centric then I would hope Puddleglum would sound sort of British "country" whatever the equivalent of that is in the U.K. I was even thinking he could speak in the Yorkshire dialect....since he's based on C.S. Lewis' gardener (where was he from?)....and that brought to mind The Secret Garden...but don't know if that would be hard for general audiences to understand.

I don't think I would like it if Puddleglum sounded like Jed Clampett.

I know it's not a panorama or anything, but this sort of puts me in mind of the glowing forest in Underland.

At the end of VDT, Eustace mentioned that Pevensies stayed with him until the end of the war. Is anyone else thinking what I'm thinking? That they're setting up for a way to shoehorn Lucy and Edmund into the beginning of SC?

Not sure how they'd go about it. I was under the impression that Experiment House was a boarding school, not the neighbourhood school house, but maybe they're going to have Edmund and Lucy go there, too.

Along with the name drop I definitely think that Lucy and Edmund staying with Eustace for a while was to keep the series open-ended. I interpret this ending as opening a way to do Magician's Nephew and possibly Horse and His Boy next as well as Silver Chair.

Eustace mentions in his journal that he, Edmund and Lucy often spoke of Narnia. And when the book has Peter staying with the Professor in VDT, there is a way to do MN next. I don't think that Eustace needs to go to the same school as Lucy and Edmund. When Edmund is trying to sign up for the army in VDT he must be near leaving age anyway.

I rather expect if they do MN next there will be a Lucy and Eustace cameo in it at the beginning and at the end as the Professor finishes his story. If they do SC next they might be able to work in a Eustace & Jill meeting the Professor cameo at the end, due to the change of principal, to lead into MN. But I doubt that a cameo for Lucy and Edmund could be worked into it.

At the end of VDT, Eustace mentioned that Pevensies stayed with him until the end of the war. Is anyone else thinking what I'm thinking? That they're setting up for a way to shoehorn Lucy and Edmund into the beginning of SC?

Not sure how they'd go about it. I was under the impression that Experiment House was a boarding school, not the neighbourhood school house, but maybe they're going to have Edmund and Lucy go there, too.

Seriously hope not. Since they weren't in close quarters in the past, except during this time when they have to stay with Eustace because of the war, I would think it would be unusual if they had them attending EH with Eustace at the same time. I have to listen to the end again...did Eustace literally say that? I thought he said they talked about Narnia until the end of the war and everyone (as would he) would miss them until the end of time (Last Battle).

As long as there is no green mist and Puddleglum is not a 2-dimensional character, I think I'll be happy. Simply put, the story should stay intact and not be traded for some two-bit, Hollywood script.