The best thing that could happen to this film is if Michael Apted did NOT direct it.

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.

It all depends on what you mean by a 'right British accent'. There are two main varieties of English how it is spoken. The first is rhotic such as North American English, Scottish, Irish and Geordie accents. The second group is non-rhotic such as Welsh English, West Country, Cockney and Australian and New Zealand English. It all depends on how strongly people pronounce the consonant 'r'. And LOTGK, possibly Jill, herself, tends to trill her 'r's' according to Silver Chair.

And accent is not the only determination of what Jill might be like. This is more usually the scriptwriter's job, since it is usage and turn of phrase which often shows where a person comes from. To give an example, in USA publishing, you could say the dove dove from the air, but in other parts of the world we would normally say the dove dived from the air.

In fact scriptwriting is not as easy as it looks, and dialogue is part of the problem. Yes, you have to come up with something recognisably like the book. But it all has to be ordered so it will look good in a movie, and sound correct as well. It has to overcome huge stretches of exposition which look good in PC but do not translate well into a film. Or that the book is more a series of small adventures rather than a single ongoing adventure as in VDT.

Before it was shut down because of avoiding the illegalities of fan fiction, we had a GMD thread for people to give scriptwriting a go, and of course I gave it a try as well. I found I could order my ideas to say what I thought might be a good idea to start the movie but thinking what each person might say, and remaining true to the story, is something else. It isn't a bad exercise for an English class to try for would-be future scriptwriters.

Of course the characters need to say the same things as they do in the books, especially in key scenes, but in Silver Chair we have whole masses of journeying to do where there is scarcely any dialogue worth saying. In how many ways can we say 'Many come down and few return to the sunlit lands'? Or how do we show the bickering between Jill and Eustace as they plod through moors and over fens, over crags and torrents, until they get to Harfang? What about their journey to the Queen's castle?

SC might be easier to portray because it is one single mission for Eustace and Jill. But there is also considerable necessary backstory (exposition). How do the scriptwriters ensure that this backstory is included without unnecessary flashbacks? What would they start the movie with? The predicaments of Caspian? Or would this be done at the owl parliament in a similar fashion to the way they did the Tale of the Three brothers in DH Part 1?

And who will play King Caspian? Ben Barnes with varying stages of makeup? Or since it is a relatively small part, would they employ someone else to play the elderly King? And just as people here emphasized how great the ending of VDT must be, surely it wouldn't be a good version of SC if it left out Caspian's arising from the stream after his death, or the defeat of the Experiment house bullies.

I've more than a suspicion that the script is already being hammered out, even as I post here. Just in case there is a film to make. After all, Walden did not buy the film rights just to leave these stories unfilmed.

Director: Anyone but Apted/Adamson. Or Tim Burton either. Or Uwe Boll or Michael Bay. Lets just avoid all the people who only know how to make shiny special effects laden movies. There must be a change in screenwriters. M & M have screwed up three Narnia films with their atrocious screenwriting. Let's move on now.

Actors: I don't really have any actors that I'm just dying to see in this film. Though David Tennant as Puddleglum would be all kinds of awesome. Maybe he could even use his natural accent? But please, no Johnny Depp. The only Narnia role I could remotely see Depp in is Rabadash. And no Megan Fox for the LotGK. Whomever first suggested that must have either been joking or has never watched a movie Megan Fox starred in.

Score: Michael Giacchino or Nicholas Hooper or James Newton Howard.

Gwayne I agree with your ideas of the mood/tone for Silver Chair...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...

Yes, it really should have a strong "pull-you-in-opening", and I agree with the scenes that you mentioned. They could have a darker, dreary opening with the school, with it being like a cloudy day, so the school scene will be a big contrast to Aslan's Country, where it can be lighted with warm colors. I don't see how else they would do it, unless they somehow made it the opposite...but I don't think it would work nearly as well. The peppermint would sweeten the place up a bit at the school, and not completely make things better, but help.

Hmm... I always imagined Puddleglum to be very odd, and I used to think Johny Depp would be great. But now that I think of it if Depp were to be in any Narnian movie, it would have to be Uncle Andrew in the Magician's Nephew. And I like the idea of having Natilie Portman as LOTGK. I haven't seen her newest movie yet, but I've seen the previews, and she looks great. And for Jill Pole, oh please! Pick someone that no one has ever heard of! I always thought of her being American, I don't know why though. If she is American, she could probably fake a British accent if they wanted her British. Most likely she will be British, but it could split either way.

Why would Jill be American? It doesn't say she is in the book. Though Walden does have a habit of changing nationalities. They did so in the abominable and execrable movie "The Seeker".

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.

It all depends on what you mean by a 'right British accent'. There are two main varieties of English how it is spoken. The first is rhotic such as North American English, Scottish, Irish and Geordie accents. The second group is non-rhotic such as Welsh English, West Country, Cockney and Australian and New Zealand English. It all depends on how strongly people pronounce the consonant 'r'. And LOTGK, possibly Jill, herself, tends to trill her 'r's' according to Silver Chair.

And accent is not the only determination of what Jill might be like. This is more usually the scriptwriter's job, since it is usage and turn of phrase which often shows where a person comes from. To give an example, in USA publishing, you could say the dove dove from the air, but in other parts of the world we would normally say the dove dived from the air.

Heh, I didn't word that very well, did I? I guess by "right accent" I mean that the accent has to be British, and convincingly so, regardless of where the actress comes from...does that make any sense?

That's two for Michael Giacchino doing the score.

Heh, I didn't word that very well, did I? I guess by "right accent" I mean that the accent has to be British, and convincingly so, regardless of where the actress comes from...does that make any sense?

It makes perfect sense to me. I was merely highlighting the wide variety of British accents you can have. There is a standard sort of BBC English spoken by news commentators, the well-educated and Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II. And there are the regional accents complained about by Professor Higgins in My Fair Lady.

I agree that Jill having a regional British accent could be a reason for the Experiment House bullying she suffered. As the song goes, by WW2 'those verbal class distinctions should by now be antique', but they weren't. I doubt though that such snobbery would have applied to Americans, who by 1939 already had the Hollywood advantage. Such snobbery definitely applied to the English skills of Polish troops who served alongside British forces after escaping from occupied Poland. A most regrettable attitude from some high-ups in the UK forces, or so I've heard.

And the very name Jill Pole does suggest both northernness and links to the old Plantagenet Wars of the Roses, between the Yorkists and the Lancastrians. De la Pole was the name of one Plantagenet family the members of which were executed by the Tudor king Henry VII, when he seized the thone.

Whatever Jill's accent, LOTGK definitely has a 'rhotic' sort of accent, either Scottish, Irish or American. On pages 72 to 73, LOTGK says:

"Good day, t-r-r-avellers"......in a voice as sweet as the sweetest bird's song, trilling her R's delightfully. ....

(And she also says).."The r-r-ruined city".

There's no such thing as a British accent. I think you all mean English accents.

There's no such thing as a British accent. I think you all mean English accents.

Ooooh! Yes there is! A British accent is one of a range of accents used in speaking English in all parts of the British Isles, including those spoken in England, itself, but also those likely to be spoken in parts not actually part of England, itself. Speakers who say they have a British accent, rather than an English accent are often descendants of speakers of one of several Celtic tongues in days gone by. Interestingly, just as Celtic tongues are divided into Gaelic (Scots and Irish, also Q Celtic) and Brythonic (Welsh, Cornish and Breton, also P Celtic), the English language, itself, is split along similar Rhotic and Non-Rhotic lines.

Such parts of UK not only have their own dialects of English but also their own poets and literature. Check out Robbie Burns for example. And by all means avoid the Haggis munching, caber-tossing, sporran-wearing and abomination of the dastardly Sassenach as you do so.

I'm not terribly qualified to engage in some sort of debate over accent terminology, but the UK is comprised of four different countries with a wide variety of accents that differ heavily from one another. One might as well speak of a European accent or imply that everyone from the American continent from Mexico all the way to Canada has the same accent. Believe me, I've seen Shantih and Jints talk about this often enough to know that it is something people from the UK can be prickly about. Shantih actually discussed it a few pages back in the Ask a Brit! thread in the Spare Oom.

I wouldn't get too upset over someone calling something a "British Accent". I'm sure everybody realizes that what they mean is the "Standard British Dialect" just as when people say "American Accent" they mean "Standard American Dialect". Everyone realizes that there are many dialects among the British Isles just as there are many dialects among the American States, however, in each accent, one dialect has come to the forefront as the one generally used for stage, film & broadcasting. A director may intentionally choose a regional dialect for one reason or another, but the standard remains the "Standard British" and "Standard American" dialects. Because we humans are a lazy bunch, we tend to just say "British Accent" and "American Accent", when we really mean something much more specific.

Ok. So this is what everybody is saying:
Jill needs to have the british/english accent.
But, maybe then can do casting in the US and UK for a british/english girl, or even american, that can do the british/english accent perfectly. And they need to stick to the descriptions in the book.
EX: ( just ex ) Jill Pole has blond med. hair and hazel eyes in the book, and then they cast someone with red hair and blue eyes. It would be hard to picture the girl as Jill, well, at least for me it would be hard. And they should do SC before MN, because if they do MN before SC, Will P would grow up, then they will lose the focase of the movies. EX: MN comes out in 2012, then it would take more 2/3 years for the SC, which it would make Will P. like 20/21 years old, and we want Will P back for Eustace. So, the conclusion is simple: Stick to the ideas of unknown for Jill/Rilian, maybe even LGK and Puddleg.

I would never have thought of Everet as Puddleglum but it is completely inspired! I think that Clemence Posey might make a good lady of the green kirtle, Certainly she would do the gentle deceptive scenes perfectly. I know she's foreign but her voice is beautiful and quite calming, it would be quite strange but might just work, she's certainly beautiful.

I think that Rillian should maybe be somebody not very well known, I hate thinking He did this or he played that because it ruins the movie and the believe in the character.

Jill has to be really good she's going to be compared with Will Poulter who is an incredible actor but preferably somebody who's never been on screen before I would hate for her to be a known actress.