if it's so intensely character-focused, it could end up feeling more like an audio drama where we have to imagine the world of Narnia rather than being able to soak it in alongside Jill as we go on the journey with her. Does that make sense?

I think, to do Narnia, Spike would probably have to do the kind of movie he has never done before. That's what gets me excited: The idea of taking a talented filmmaker and giving him a brand new challenge. I don't know what would happen. But it opens the door for something new and fresh.

On a slightly related note... I like the idea of seeing Narnia strictly from Jill's point of view. Basically, limit the giant epic sweeping LotR-ish helicopter shots of Narnia. Keep everything at ground level. Don't show the audience any perspectives the characters don't have. Just pick up a camera and follow Jill around. I think Spike might take that approach.

Here's a clip I came across of Spike Jonze working with kids.

I think, to do Narnia, Spike would probably have to do the kind of movie he has never done before. That's what gets me excited: The idea of taking a talented filmmaker and giving him a brand new challenge. I don't know what would happen. But it opens the door for something new and fresh.

Ah, I see! I think I would feel a little more concerned at the prospect if we didn't already have a (most likely) strong treatment of the script from David Magee. A well-crafted and faithful script would do a lot to guide the film in the right direction. I also think that if Jonze almost approached the world of Narnia as though it were itself a character that interacts with the main characters, the results could be very good. Not in a heavy-handed way, though.

That video is so cute! One major point in his favor is that he seems to know how to get a great performance out of a kid.

On a slightly related note... I like the idea of seeing Narnia strictly from Jill's point of view. Basically, limit the giant epic sweeping LotR-ish helicopter shots of Narnia. Keep everything at ground level. Don't show the audience any perspectives the characters don't have. Just pick up a camera and follow Jill around. I think Spike might take that approach.

Yes. Scenes in CoN that could conceivably be the epic, sweeping variety are almost always constantly referring back to the effect that the environment is having on the characters and their thoughts about it. A great example is Jill's flight to Narnia at the beginning of SC... sure, it is visually spectacular and Lewis tells us about what she sees, but he also tells us all about what's going on in her head as well. It's all through Jill's eyes.

I hope the filmmakers don't get so caught up in capturing the beauty of Narnia that they forget that one of the things that makes that world so special is the effect that it has on the children that visit it. Where is the soul of the snowy wood with the lamp-post if you don't have Georgie Henley's wonder?

On a slightly related note... I like the idea of seeing Narnia strictly from Jill's point of view. Basically, limit the giant epic sweeping LotR-ish helicopter shots of Narnia. Keep everything at ground level. Don't show the audience any perspectives the characters don't have. Just pick up a camera and follow Jill around. I think Spike might take that approach.

Sounds good to me. But it is very important that we also see the differing perspectives of Puddleglum and Eustace, since it explains how they think, why they are on the same journey and the differences in how they feel about the service they get in Harfang. Their journey isn't just any journey going north to a tourist destination where they are glad to find there is accommodation available on the way. We have to think about this journey, how we see this journey, about the sort of accommodation we've checked ourselves into and how it is organised. Or not organised in the case of Harfang.

Which is where being served Talking Stag comes into it. Jill is everygirl who has heard of venison but, because even when it is produced on a deer farm, it is still an expensive sort of meat often not available for "ordinary people". And so she is now trying it for the first time. Eustace is someone who has had some acquaintance with Narnia, but is aware that hunting goes on there as well as in the real world, often simply to eat. While he finds it distasteful the stag met with such a fate, he doesn't feel the same horror that our own webfooted Puddleglum would feel, given that Talking stags are very rare creatures indeed, to be treated with the same respect as public figures, corporations and NarniaWebbers.

Hey guys?

Please remember rule #1 of the forum rules.

1.) Speak respectfully of other NarniaWebbers, public figures, and corporations.

The comments I'm seeing in reference to Depp do violate that rule.

Starkat, I'm sorry if my remarks have been taken in that light. The reason for my commenting at all is that any organisation or corporation, especially the larger ones, has a structural side to it to smooth operations, which means that the producer, in the case of any film company, just might have some say in who gets appointed to what position lower down on the organisational chart. I'd agree that the director and whoever assists him/her would have more to do with the nuts and bolts of hiring staff and informing them of what they would need to have organised when reporting for duty on set. This would include explaining to new appointees what their travel arrangements would entail, and what to expect at customs, including the relevant addresses on Internet where one can get the forms, and any necessary explanations of them. In the case of pets, the advisories ask would-be travellers to get their animals tested to show that their pets are rabies-free through their local veterinarians who would then countersign their forms.

Creative people can understandably have a bit of a cowboy attitude to forms etc., and so the higher up the film chain an actor becomes the more likely that actor would have agents to handle such matters, including who accompanies him/her, not only the humans. And when one is the star of a whole series like Pirates of the Caribbean I suppose it is possible to get carried away with its historic background of nearly two centuries ago, when many, especially pirates, would have seen the authorities they were up against as being irrelevant to their lives.

But that was then and this is now. Modern day realities do not reflect that anti-law and order PotC worldview, though Harfang in SC might. Laws are there for a good reason, to prevent smuggling of threatened species like Talking Stags, and to stop diseases like Rabies from spreading from other parts of the world.

The relevance of customs and border patrol to Harfang in SC is that nowhere in any reputable hotel chain would anyone find venison, let alone Talking Stag, or anything like it, plonked down on one's plate without being shown a menu first, so that consumers can choose more suitable alternatives. The trouble is, that when pets turn up undeclared in handbags, without the correct papers and certifications, sometimes their high-profile owners seem to think they are being humiliated, by being told that their pets need to be put in quarantine to have those rabies tests done and failure to comply might result in the dog's destruction. Rabies is a horrible and fatal disease for little dogs to die of, and unsurprisingly, when that owner arrived at his country of origin, they, too, refused the owner re-entry until those tests were done.

Yes, I can identify with Jill, but at the lawless Harfang, I'm more like Puddleglum, a native to the culture, and yes I share his outrage.