Which dark scenes were you thinking of?

And I'll agree that the marketing for Prince Caspian was a horrible mistake. They betrayed the audience of the first movie for an audience that will never collectivley care about Narnia.

That said, I don't think the movie had to be as dark as it was, even if it wasn't as dark as the advertising made it look. The book certainly wasn't as dark as the movie.

I don't think PC was unnecessarily dark. I think it was unnecessarily and overly sarcastic. There was very little friendliness among the Pevensies and Trumpkin. And Trumpkin himself was WAY too pessimistic.

What the movie really lacked was the much needed Return to Narnia. They really needed Aslan's Holiday and, as I've suggested. they needn't have included Bacchus in it if he was too strange. But Aslan's Holiday was the magical return that should have marked the end of all the gloominess. Instead they opted for a last-chance romance and ruined the lives of millions of Narnia fans .

I totally agree. I think one of the reasons Prince Caspian came across as being too dark is because it shows the old days being gone, but they never quite return. To an extent they do, but it isn't like the joyous revelry like in the book.

I think they should make Jill's and Eustace's entrance into Narnia really magical and bright, and the part where Jill is blown to Narnia would have to have amazing graphics. The Narnia that they see can be really colorful and maybe have a bit of nostalgic flare for Eustace, but not too much, because he never actually visited the mainland of Narnia. Then, about the dark/light themes for the movie, we could start really bright in the beginning (aside from Jill and Eustace's school), and then slowly decline into darker circumstances and theme. Of course, when they break out of the snow at the end, when they escape the Underland, it will all go bright again. There can be some nice rustic things going on with the dwarves and the smell of bacon.

Yes, I really think that the transition of Narnia needs to be gorgeously bright and beautiful. This is nature at its very best. Not that the Scottish moors in BBC SC were all that bad.

I think there's an interesting flashback possibility in the beginning of the film. Anyhow, it would be great to start SC with a scene of Ramandu's daughter ('Lilliandil') and Prince Rilian's death/capture. It would plunge us right into the middle of the plot and make for a less meandering opening than VDT.

It would also remove the need for long flashbacks of explanation at the Owl's Parliament such as in the BBC version of SC. I'd take a look at this production to see how it could be bettered. W4J has already mentioned how pathetic the snake looked. If the story is known from the opening scenes, the parliament of owls can then restrict themselves to explaining that 1. Prince Rilian had been missing for some time, 2. That the champions sent after him had also gone missing and 3. That Trumpkin in the absence of the King wasn't going to help send others to their deaths, as well as what the owls plan to do about Prince Rilian.

Well, it isn't Narnia they actually enter, it's Aslan's Country. I think that we need a really exotic yet woodland filming locations for those opening scenes. Green screen landscapes would look tacky. Also when Jill and Eustace get blown into Narnia, I think locations from VDT should be shown briefly. We could see them flying over the Final Wave and the Silver Sea, Ramandu's Island, and Dragon/Goldwater Island. That would be really awesome!

People who say Tim Burthon's works are dark and scary have likely never seen a Burton movie. Yes, they're visually dark and there's a certain air of menace throughout but they're often very weird and whismical but definitely not scary. He doesn't do scary.

I think they should make Jill's and Eustace's entrance into Narnia really magical and bright, and the part where Jill is blown to Narnia would have to have amazing graphics. The Narnia that they see can be really colorful and maybe have a bit of nostalgic flare for Eustace, but not too much, because he never actually visited the mainland of Narnia. Then, about the dark/light themes for the movie, we could start really bright in the beginning (aside from Jill and Eustace's school), and then slowly decline into darker circumstances and theme. Of course, when they break out of the snow at the end, when they escape the Underland, it will all go bright again. There can be some nice rustic things going on with the dwarves and the smell of bacon.

Gwayne I agree with your ideas of the mood/tone for Silver Chair. A nice balance to even everything out would be good. With VDT, they had a really strong "pull-you-in opening" with the painting scene and they should have that sort somehow with Experiment House and Eustace disappearing over the edge of the precipice...I don't think they should rush the intro too much....Eustace and Jill meet while she's blubbing (have to have the scene where he offers her a peppermint....gotta have that in there because it's such a sweet scene in the book when they meet) ....he and her go through the door on the school grounds and end up in Narnia, and Eustace falling and Jill meeting Aslan who tells her the signs before she meets up with Scrubb again should be the main points to hit in the intro.

BTW on the idea of Tim Burton. I think he's too eclectic a director and for me SC isn't his eclectic style of movie. I still rather prefer Andrew coming back and them getting new screenwriters who get the book.

On the Lady of the Green Kirtle

The book says that she was one of the same crew as Jadis. But in the MN, it is revealed that she was the ruler and only surviving occupant of Charn. What do you think?

In my opinion, The lady should have been an apprentice to Jadis while she lived in exile, and remained in the North while Jadis took Narnia, as a precaution. After the fall of Jadis, she fled underground, and set up a regime similar to Jadis' in the underworld. Perhaps (unless everyone is sick of Jadis cameos) the silver chair could be a magical device designed to resurrect Jadis (eg P.C.).

By "the same crew" I always thought Lewis meant she was also a witch. They hadn't "witch" up until that point. I'm OK with the LotGK being another manifestation of the kind of evil that the WW is, or even of the WW herself in another form. I just don't think it's necessary for exposition to tie her to the WW.

I really don't want the LOTGK to tie in with the WW anymore than the fact they both do wtichcraft. If they have any more relation the filmmakers will just use it as an opportunity to give the WW a cameo, and that would ruin the movie for me. None of the main characters have any personal experience with the WW any way, so a lot of the fear of having her there would be lost.

As for my opinions on who should be cast:

LOTGK- Emilie de Ravin...someone in the thread suggested Ashley Greene. I'm going to take a minute to say very clearly- NO! She has too much relation to Twilight. *shudders*

Jill- I think she should be virutally unknown like the Pevensies, or completely unknown like Georgie Henley was. And she has to be British and have the right accent.

Rilian- Relatively Unknown...Orlando Bloom wasn't a bad suggestion now that I think about it, but he's very well known and I don't know...

Puddleglum- Rupert Everett/Doug Jones...NO JOHNNY DEPP! NO! While he's a brilliant actor, I dread to think what his salary would be and I don't think he's the right actor to play him in regard to both his looks and acting style. Nobody would be able to forget it was him either, and the actor should be able to let Puddleglum come alive.

Director- Andrew Adamson/Peter Jackson, definately NOT Michael Apted. He has no faith in the source material or Lewis himself, and the director HAS to have this! Andrew Adamson had a brilliant vision, and while I wasn't happy AT ALL with the way Peter was portrayed in PC, or with the Suspian, it was still a very good standalone movie. Andrew also respected the source material and kept it quite close to the original story line (IMO anyways.)

Scriptwriters- Oh my goodness the next film needs new ones. Desperately. The script for VDT was terrible, and helped to butcher half the characters. Maybe they need one of us Narniawebbers to go in there and help them with it.

Rating- inbetween LWW and PC kind of rating- While LWW had some dark scenes, one of the main themes of the book was Discovery, and it always seemed lighter than PC. I don't think SC should be as dark as PC was, I think they should get a healthy balance between the two.

Composer- Harry Gregson-Williams / Nicholas Hooper / John Williams...for me the soundtrack of Dawn Treader was forgettable, and I'd love to have the original composer back with the films! He added another layer to the film, and the music *helped* the film tell the story, instead of just supporting it.

Mostly though, the film just HAS to stay faithful to the source material this time around, or I shall scream.

Does anyone think James Horner would be good to score the Silver Chair?

I just went and looked up some of his music, and I think he would probably do quite a good job

I especially love the main Braveheart theme, Hymn to the Sea, and his main them for "Aliens".

Maybe Alexandre Desplat. His HP7 score was amazing, and he's scored a Walden/Fox film before, Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium.