Speculate away.....

You mean like how someone could have hacked onto their FB page and made a fake announcement as a cruel and belated April Fool's Day Joke? Ok, so I honestly don't think that happened

Actually, on the day of the announcement I noticed they hadn't updated their FB page... nor have I ever seen it put up anywhere's official (besides the FB post(s?) of course)... So I can't even say if they were "taken down" or not... Did they ever put them up? I haven't exactly been looking either...

Yeah, Adrian Vitoria isn't exactly an "A-list" director... but I am still curious as to why the announcement was taken down.

Anyways, here is a radio interview with Executive Producer Wernher Pramschufer, where he reveals some new behind the scenes things, including an idea of some A-list actors they are trying to get to play Lewis, and some more things some people might want to hear about...

http://www.premier.org.uk/entertainment

I haven't read all through this thread, but my first thought when hearing about The Lion Awakes was "COOL!". It helps that Darren Jacobs is involved (having had a bit of contact with him through the Silver Leaves journal). But, honestly, I'm becoming more skeptical as time goes on. If it's done right, it should be excellent, but I have nothing yet to hang my hat on that gives me full confidence. Yet, I am hoping for the best, particularly since Shadowlands covered the later part of Lewis' life—and a very limited bit at that—yet largely left out the important faith aspect. So, I am cautiously optimistic, but am hoping for good things, since The Lion Awakes is about two men whose works I (and most of us) have admired, and whose lives I have been fascinated by pretty much my entire life. Anyway, we'll see ...

Never heard of Adrian Vitoria.

Astro sent me this link earlier:
http://www.imdb.com/news/ni26088667/

I thought it was interesting... though I've never heard of these people either... thus proving my earlier point about the director.

Just want to say real quick that I'm pretty sure that information there wolf comes from the interview Louloudi linked to a couple posts ago. I can't get it to work myself, but it references Jude Law in the teaser text, so yeah... I thought I'd point that out in case you wanted to hear the whole interview. Unless, like me, you can't get it to work either.

And as far as those actors go, didn't one of the screenwriters mention on FB a while back about contacting them for the role? I definitely remember hearing Tom Hardy's name come up.

(wolf, you've never heard of Jude Law?!?!? How is that possible? )

Just want to say real quick that I'm pretty sure that information there wolf comes from the interview Louloudi linked to a couple posts ago. I can't get it to work myself, but it references Jude Law in the teaser text, so yeah... I thought I'd point that out in case you wanted to hear the whole interview. Unless, like me, you can't get it to work either.

And here I thought it was breaking news. Need to check more often.

though I've never heard of these people either... thus proving my earlier point about the director.

Once again, same goes for me, save that I know Henry Cavill will be playing Superman in the new movie scheduled for 2013. Don't have any idea which of these actors (or any of them for that matter) would be best for the role. It'll really be interesting to see what the final decision is...

I learnt about this movie via Facebook and after seeing what it was about, seeing an interview on Narniaweb with someone from the film and what he had to say about The Lion Awakes/The Narnia films, and going to the site, I can frankly say that I'm looking forward to it. Since there's not very much news, I can't say I'm frantically counting down quite yet, but I am still looking forward to it and am mildly to very excited, especially after the teaser trailer (which I really liked) came out. It's understandable that it's probably not going to have perfect visuals or whatnot, but I think if it's a good story, I'll like it. I don't know very much about it, but after looking around on the movie's official site, here, etc, it's definitely on my "Movies I'm Waiting to See" list. It sounds like an idea with very rich potential.

So they haven't yet revealed who will play Lewis? I'm not familiar with the names on the list I saw, but I hope it's someone good who gives the role justice. Henry Cavill ... I'm not at all familiar with the Superman movies and don't know if I can envision him as C.S. Lewis after seeing a picture, but I'm not sure; I guess we'll see in some time.

According to the official Facebook page, Dan Stevens might play Lewis. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1405398/

That seems like a far more likely choice to me than the big A-list actors. (No offense, but I cannot believe this production could afford Jude Law.)
Also, I kind of found it interesting that this possibility is a good deal younger than the previous mentioned actors.

I have never heard of Dan Stevens, but like fk, and with all respect, I could not fathom them nailing the big-name Jude Law for this role. Also, from what I gather, the film is going to span a number of decades, so I am curious to see how they will appropriately age Stevens, if he is to be CSL, as the actor has quite a youthful look indeed. But I do hope whoever lands this role has the rich, full, booming voice Jack had. And I long for Tolkien's actor to exude that mumbly, twinkly sort of voice. Maybe these are not big issues for many, but somehow they are for me. But even more important, of course, is portraying their personalities and friendship correctly.

Are they dialoguing with Doug Gresham at all in regards to the film, we do know?

Actually we can scrap that idea already apparently

"Ah well, we can"t have Dan Stevens as he is tied up. So who to play CS Lewis as a man in his twenties/thirties?"-The Lion Awakes FB:

I'm wondering if they just started casting...

This movie sounds interesting, but what I've heard about it so far doesn't sound very promising.

We haven't heard very much, but the whole thing sounds pretty low budget. The trailer looked fan made rather than the trailer of an actual movie.

And does anyone know what it will actually be like? Is it going to be an actual drama? Or a documentary or docudrama?

Edit: I found this posted on their Facebook:

Another piece of joyous news...we are meeting with Working Title Films (yes, the biggest and most successful production company in Europe) and Icon, as well as Momentum Pictures and Universal. Please SHARE this page with as many NEW folks as possible, as we are trying to show the big boys the huge interest in this film!

That sounds promising. But if they already have the biggest and most successful production company in Europe, what do they mean by "big boys"? It doesn't sound like they would need to try to impress anyone anymore.

~Riella

The big boyz would involve Disney, Paramount and Warner Brothers, although Universal is right up there.

Honestly however I have not been impressed by the marketing campaign these people are running. Its very amateurish. Which of course reveals that they are amateurs. Most of their fan-company communication goes through Facebook which is okay, but they stuff the release is all wrong.

(Possibly Actors, potential production companies, stuff like that you don't reveal until you've got them nailed.)

Izzy, the fan made trailer would look fan made because that's just what it is, this entire film is fan made.

At this point, I really would be surprised if an A-list actor they promised would actually choose to do the project. If someone on the same level as Dan Stevens were hired, I would think that would be as good as it gets.

Films on a budget this low don't typically get big actors.

The only reason I can think of that an A-list actor would take a role in this film is if he got to play J.R.R. Tolkien. This is the first time Tolkien has appeared as a main character in a film so the actor would get to establish the role of a famous person. I doubt it will happen though.

I do wonder if they plan to have a theatrical release. I think it would do better in film festivals.

The trailer looked fan made rather than the trailer of an actual movie.

I don't think it was meant to be an actual trailer. It was more of a concept trailer, intending to get people excited about the idea of the movie rather than the movie itself.